Commissions Manager

About the role

Join our high-performing Finance team as a pivotal Commissions Manager, offering full ownership of the commissions function for a 400-person, multi-division organization with direct visibility to the CFO. This is a rare opportunity to rebuild the commissions process—transforming it from an Excel and manual reconciliation environment into a modern, strategic function. You'll bring analytical rigor and AI-powered insight to a process currently reliant on spreadsheets and institutional knowledge, with your work visible at the executive level from day one.

Responsibilities

• Own monthly and quarterly commission calculations for 250+ commission-eligible employees across sales, customer success, and other variable-comp roles, working with bespoke plan structures.
• Lead the technology transformation of commissions, migrating from Excel to a purpose-built software platform or hybrid solution, including roadmap development and execution.
• Partner with leadership and People Operations to rationalize and simplify commission plan complexity for the next fiscal year.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for commission disputes, implementing a documented, defensible resolution process.
• Apply AI tools to accelerate actuals vs. projections analysis and improve clarity in commission outcome explanations.
• Produce executive reports on variances, attainment, and commission expense drivers for Finance leadership.
• Ensure timely, accurate, and transparent commission payouts every cycle.

Skills

• Commission Calculation & Administration: Advanced proficiency in Excel, Salesforce, NetSuite, and commission software platforms (e.g., CaptivateIQ, Spiff, Xactly). Experience with accelerators, tiered payouts, SPIFs, and clawback provisions. Fluency in AI tools (e.g., SQL, Python, Claude Code) for variance analysis and reporting.
• Plan Design & Rationalization: Proven ability to analyze and simplify complex commission plans, partnering with business units and HR to design scalable structures. Experience documenting plan logic and assumptions for transparency and auditability.
• Technology Transformation: Track record of leading systems migrations from manual/spreadsheet-based processes to software platforms, including vendor evaluation, data migration, and change management.
• Stakeholder & Dispute Management: Ability to communicate complex commission calculations clearly to reps and executives, resolve disputes, and coordinate across Sales Operations, HR, Legal, and Accounting.

Key Milestones

• Within 90 Days:
  • Develop a deep understanding of all current commission plans, calculation methodologies, and Excel-based processes.
  • Ensure seamless, error-free transition of commission calculation ownership with no missed or late payouts.
  • Establish a documented dispute-resolution process and become the trusted point of contact for commission inquiries.
• Within 180 Days:
  • Deliver a CFO-approved roadmap for commissions platform migration, including vendor evaluation and selection.
  • Provide an initial plan rationalization analysis, identifying redundancies and proposing a simplified structure for the next fiscal year.
  • Implement a recurring, AI-assisted variance analysis and reporting process for Finance leadership.
• Within 365 Days:
  • Complete migration of commissions administration to a modern platform (e.g., CaptivateIQ, Spiff, Xactly).
  • Launch the rationalized commission plan structure for the new fiscal year in partnership with Sales leadership and HR.
  • Ensure zero material commission calculation errors and consistent, on-time payout cycles across all divisions.