Associate Director, Sales Operations (Incentive Compensation Strategy and Operations)

Job Overview:

The Associate Director, Incentive Compensation Strategy & Operations leads complex, cross-functional initiatives that shape and advance strategic priorities across the Sales Compensation function. Leveraging deep sales compensation expertise, this role partners with leaders within the Compensation COE and Business Units, Sales, Finance, HR, Technology, and other functions to evaluate business challenges, develop strategic solutions, and drive enterprise initiatives to successful outcomes. The Associate Director provides thought leadership on initiatives that impact compensation strategy, organizational effectiveness, and business transformation while ensuring alignment with enterprise objectives. This role complements Compensation leadership by leading strategic workstreams and special initiatives but does not own compensation planning, plan design, or ongoing business operations.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as a strategic extension of Incentive Compensation leadership, orchestrating planning, prioritization, communications, governance, and cross-functional coordination to drive execution of the COE's highest-priority initiatives.

• Lead and execute strategic, cross-functional initiatives that advance Incentive Compensation priorities, drive organizational effectiveness, and support enterprise business objectives across RevOps, Sales, Finance, HR, Technology, Legal, and Operations.

• Serve as a trusted advisor and subject matter expert on sales compensation strategy, evaluating business challenges, identifying risks and opportunities, and developing recommendations that align compensation philosophy with organizational goals and growth strategies.

• Partner with senior leaders and stakeholders to build alignment and drive execution of complex initiatives, facilitating decision-making, resolving competing priorities, and influencing outcomes across organizational boundaries.

• Lead compensation-related business transformation efforts, including organizational changes, acquisitions, new business models, operating model evolution, and other strategic initiatives impacting compensation programs and governance.

• Assess and translate business strategies into compensation solutions, ensuring effective alignment between enterprise objectives, compensation design principles, implementation requirements, and long-term organizational priorities.

• Provide thought leadership on compensation trends, governance, and best practices, helping shape the future direction of Incentive Compensation programs and supporting adoption of strategic initiatives through stakeholder engagement and change leadership.

• Serve as a trusted advisor and subject matter expert on sales compensation strategy, evaluating business challenges, identifying risks and opportunities, and developing recommendations that align compensation philosophy with organizational goals and growth strategies.

Ideal Candidate Profile:

• Bachelor’s degree and 10+ years of experience within a Sales Incentive Strategy / Operations capacity.

• Proven ability to scale impact: Experience navigating the complexities of a $5B+ organization, including global footprints, legacy systems, and diverse talent pools.

• Systems Thinking: The ability to see the "entire map" and understand how a change in one department ripples across the whole enterprise; experience supporting large scale business initiatives like Go-To-Market transformations (e.g. ICM/SPM implementations)

• Analytical Rigor: A master of first principles thinking; you don't accept "that's how we've always done it" without data to back it up.

• Financial Literacy: Strong understanding of financial levers, capital allocation, and ROI modeling.

• Influence Without Authority: You can persuade teams to change their workflow through empathy and logic, not just mandate.

• Resilience: The ability to stay steady and optimistic during the "trough of disillusionment" inherent in any major change.

• Subject Matter Expertise: Strong understanding of incentive compensation principles, incentive compensation design, governance, system applications and dashboard creation.

To maintain a fair and genuine hiring process, we kindly ask that all candidates participate in interviews without the assistance of AI tools or external prompts. Our interview process is designed to assess your individual skills, experiences, and communication style. We value authenticity and want to ensure we’re getting to know you—not a digital assistant. To help maintain this integrity, we ask to remove virtual backgrounds and include in-person interviews in our hiring process. Please note that use of AI-generated responses or third-party support during interviews will be grounds for disqualification from the recruitment process.

Applicants may be required to appear onsite at a Wolters Kluwer office as part of the recruitment process.

Compensation:

Compensation range listed is based on primary location of the position.  Actual base salary offer is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skills, experience and actual hiring location. Your recruiter can share more information about the specific offer for the job location during the hiring process. 

Wolters Kluwer offers a wide variety of competitive benefits and programs to help meet your needs and balance your work and personal life, including but not limited to: Medical, Dental, & Vision Plans, 401(k), FSA/HSA, Commuter Benefits, Tuition Assistance Plan, Vacation and Sick Time, and Paid Parental Leave. Full details of our benefits are available upon request.