We believe in the power and joy of learning
At Cengage Group, our employees have a direct impact in helping students around the world discover the power and joy of learning. We are bonded by our shared purpose – driving innovation that helps millions of learners improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.
Cengage Group's Higher Education business, Cengage, supports learning and student success by providing materials and digital solutions to faculty and students enrolled in two-year, four-year and vocational programs. We currently serve more than 10 million of the 18 million students in US higher ed. Setting a new standard of service for our customers, we deliver quality, easy-to-use course materials from textbooks and eBooks to courseware such as MindTap and WebAssign. In the US, we offer Cengage Unlimited and Cengage Unlimited for Institutions. We help instructors be better teachers, we help institutions solve problems and we empower students to leverage the power and joy of learning to transform lives.
Our business is driven by our strong culture, and we know that creating an inclusive workplace is absolutely essential to the success of our company and our learners, as well as our individual well-being. We recognize the value of diverse perspectives in everything we do, and strive to ensure employees of all levels and backgrounds feel empowered to voice their ideas and bring their authentic selves to work. We achieve these priorities through programs, benefits, and initiatives that are integrated into the fabric of how we work every day. To learn more, please see https://www.cengagegroup.com/about/inclusion-and-belonging/.
Cengage is seeking a Sales GTM Commission & Incentives Manager to own the strategy, design of sales compensation and SPIFF programs across our Go-To-Market organization. Reporting into Revenue Operations, this role is the single-threaded owner for translating GTM strategy into clear, motivating, and financially sound incentive mechanics that drive seller behavior across new business, renewals, expansion, and customer success motions.
This role is highly focused on commission plan architecture, SPIFF design, earnings modeling, payout accuracy, and cost-of-sales discipline. You will partner closely with Sales Leadership, Finance, HR, Legal, and Analytics to ensure incentives are competitive, attainable, operationally scalable, and tightly aligned to revenue, retention, and profitability goals.
What You'll Do Here:
Commission & SPIFF Strategy and Design
- Own annual and in-year commission plan design for all GTM roles (AE, AM/CSM, SDR/BDR, Channel/Partner, overlays), ensuring plans directly reinforce GTM priorities and desired seller behavior.
- Design and govern all incentive mechanics, including:
- Quotas and targets
- Commission rates and payout curves
- Accelerators, decelerators, caps and thresholds
- MBOs and short-term incentives (SPIFFs)
- Role-, segment-, and territory-based plan variations
- Lead the design and deployment of SPIFF programs to drive focus on priority products, segments, seasons, or behaviors; evaluate SPIFF ROI and sunset underperforming incentives.
- Run detailed scenario modeling and sensitivity analysis to balance motivation, earnings distribution, and total cost of sales while preventing gaming or unintended outcomes.
- Establish and maintain compensation governance, including plan documentation, eligibility rules, change control, and policy compliance.
Cross-Functional Partnership & Financial Alignment
- Partner with broader RevOps on alignment between comp plans, territories, coverage models, product priorities, and pricing/discount guardrails.
- Collaborate with Sales Leadership on incentive alignment to goals, quotas, and GTM motions.
- Partner closely with Finance on commission accruals, budgeting, forecasting, and period close, ensuring incentive expense predictability and control.
- Work with HR and Legal to ensure plans comply with employment policies and legal requirements.
- Partner with finance on spiff and comp effectiveness
- Partner with finance to ensure dashboards and insights are available for all roles
Skills You'll Need Here:
(Required)
- 5–7+ years of experience in Sales Compensation, Incentive Compensation Management, Revenue Operations, or Finance with deep incentive comp ownership.
- Proven track record designing and operating complex, multi-role GTM commission plans and SPIFF programs in a SaaS, subscription, or education/learning business.
Cengage Group is committed to working with broad talent pools to attract and hire strong and most qualified individuals. Our job applicants are considered regardless of any classification protected by applicable federal, state, provincial or local laws.
Cengage is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities including during our job application process. If you are an applicant with a disability and require reasonable accommodation in our job application process, please contact us at [email protected].
Cengage Group, a global education technology company serving millions of learners, provides affordable, quality digital products and services that equip students with the skills and competencies needed to be job ready. For more than 100 years, we have enabled the power and joy of learning with trusted, engaging content, and now, integrated digital platforms. We serve the higher education, workforce skills, secondary education, English language teaching and research markets worldwide. Through our scalable technology, including MindTap and Cengage Unlimited, we support all learners who seek to improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.
Compensation
At Cengage Group, we take great pride in our commitment to providing a comprehensive and rewarding Total Rewards package designed to support and empower our employees. Click here to learn more about our Total Rewards Philosophy.
The full base pay range has been provided for this position. Individual base pay will vary based on work schedule, qualifications, experience, internal equity, and geographic location. Sales roles often incorporate a significant incentive compensation program beyond this base pay range.
In this position, you will be eligible to participate in the company’s discretionary incentive bonus program. This position's bonus target amount, which is not guaranteed and is dependent on individual performance and overall company results among other factors, is provided below.
15% Annual: Individual Target$88,600.00 - $115,200.00 USD
Top Skills
What We Do
With more than 100 years of serving learners, Cengage Group is a global edtech company that enables student choice. No matter how, where, when or why someone wants to learn, our portfolio of education businesses supports all students, from middle school through graduate school and skills education, with quality content and technology. Collectively, our three business units – Cengage Academic, Cengage Work, and Cengage Select – help millions of students each year in more than 125 countries achieve their education and career goals and lead choice-filled lives. Visit us at www.cengagegroup.com
Why Work With Us
Our employee experience centers around a shared purpose: to help millions of learners achieve their dreams and improve their lives through education. Whether you want to make a difference in the world or start a fulfilling career in edtech, we focus on providing our employees with meaningful work while empowering them with resources to succeed.
