Lead Sales Compensation Analyst

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Lead Sales Compensation Analyst based in the United States. This is a high-impact sales compensation role responsible for designing, administering, and continuously improving incentive programs that support revenue growth and business objectives. You’ll combine compensation analytics, financial modeling, systems administration, and process optimization to ensure accurate and timely payouts. The role partners closely with Sales, Finance, HR, Payroll, Legal, and Operations, giving you broad visibility across the business. You’ll help translate complex compensation structures into practical, scalable programs and clear communications. The position also offers opportunities to influence quota and territory changes, M&A activities, automation, and incentive strategy. It’s an ideal environment for an analytical, detail-oriented professional who enjoys solving complex problems and improving how compensation programs operate at scale. Design, document, administer, and continuously improve sales compensation plans, including commission rules, quotas, accelerators, and special incentive programs aligned with business objectives. Build compensation models, simulations, and forecasts to evaluate plan outcomes, costs, attainment, and potential business impact. Configure, test, and administer compensation plans within commission systems and CRM/ERP integrations, overseeing recurring payout calculations and recoupments. Reconcile commissions against bookings, revenue, payroll, and other financial data, investigating discrepancies and leading root-cause analysis for payout variances and disputes. Produce leadership reporting and dashboards covering payout projections, plan costs, attainment, incentive performance, and ROI. Serve as a key point of contact for sales compensation questions, preparing compensation statements and explaining plan rules and outcomes to participants and leaders. Collaborate with Sales Operations, Finance, HR, Legal, Payroll, and other stakeholders to maintain data integrity, compliance, appropriate tax treatment, and efficient payout processes. Lead or contribute to compensation-plan communications, sales enablement, and training for sales representatives and leadership. Maintain comprehensive plan documentation, business rules, and Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) to support governance, consistency, and auditability. Identify opportunities to automate and streamline compensation processes, improving accuracy, scalability, and cycle times. Support M&A activities, territory and quota redesigns, incentive-program proposals, and other strategic or ad hoc compensation analyses. Apply strong critical thinking to identify root causes, assess risks and trade-offs, and develop practical solutions that balance business priorities and stakeholder needs. Requirements Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Business, Economics, or a related discipline. 5+ years of experience in sales compensation, incentive design, sales operations, Sales Finance, or an equivalent analytical function. Advanced Excel capabilities, including pivot tables, complex formulas, financial modeling, and quantitative analysis. Experience working with CRM platforms such as Salesforce and at least one compensation, commission, or payroll system. Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities, with the judgment to work through complex information and recurring operational challenges. Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex compensation rules clearly to non-technical audiences. Strong stakeholder-management and collaboration skills across Finance, Sales, HR, Payroll, Legal, and Operations. Exceptional attention to detail and the ability to consistently meet strict deadlines within recurring monthly or quarterly payout cycles. Experience with incentive platforms such as Xactly, A