The Role
Lead design, modeling, and execution of global sales compensation programs for 200+ commission earners. Drive transition from TCV to ARR metrics, build financial models for quota, capacity, routes to market and M&A, partner cross-functionally with Sales, Finance, Marketing and Revenue Operations, and operationalize compensation plans to ensure accurate, timely payouts and governance.
Summary Generated by Built In
About the Position A Day in the Life
The Senior Manager, Sales Compensation Strategy owns the design, modeling, and execution of WatchGuard's global sales compensation programs and serves as a strategic partner across the go-to-market organization. Reporting to the VP of Business Operations, this role sits at the intersection of Sales, Marketing, Finance, and Revenue Operations, ensuring our incentive plans are aligned with company strategy, financially sound, and built to scale.
This is a high-visibility individual contributor role supporting a global commission population of 200+ team members, with the potential to build out a team over time. A key early focus will be modernizing how we measure and reward performance, including leading the transition from a TCV-based to an ARR-based compensation framework.
This is a high-visibility individual contributor role supporting a global commission population of 200+ team members, with the potential to build out a team over time. A key early focus will be modernizing how we measure and reward performance, including leading the transition from a TCV-based to an ARR-based compensation framework.
No two days look quite the same in this role. One morning you might be deep in a model evaluating the cost and behavioral impact of moving a compensation plan from TCV to ARR; by the afternoon, you're partnering with Sales leadership and FP&A on quota setting for the upcoming Annual Operating Plan. You field a question from Revenue Operations about how a new route to market should be incentivized, refine a Power BI dashboard so leadership can see attainment at a glance, and flag a process gap in how commission agreements are administered. You move fluidly between strategic, big-picture modeling and the detailed, hands-on work that keeps commissioned team members paid accurately and on time. Throughout, you act as the connective tissue between Operations, Finance, and the field, translating company strategy into compensation that drives the right outcomes.
Position Responsibilities
- Lead the planning, modeling, and execution of sales compensation programs across a global commission population of 200+ employees.
- Analyze current compensation plans for effectiveness, cost, and alignment with company objectives, and recommend improvements.
- Drive the transition of compensation structures from TCV-based to ARR-based metrics, including modeling the financial and behavioral impact of the change.
- Partner with FP&A and Sales leadership on the Annual Operating Plan (AOP) process, including quota setting, capacity planning, and cost modeling.
- Build financial models to evaluate new routes to market, sales team structures, and the compensation impact of M&A activity.
- Serve as a cross-functional partner across Sales, Marketing, Finance, and Revenue Operations to ensure compensation strategy supports broader go-to-market goals.
- Identify and close process gaps in compensation planning, governance, and administration.
- Partner with the commissions team to operationalize approved plans, translating plan design into clear calculation logic, documentation, and payout processes so commissions are calculated accurately and paid on time.
Skills and Qualifications
- Deep expertise in sales compensation plan design, modeling, and execution for sizable, distributed sales teams.
- Strong financial modeling skills, including modeling new routes to market, team structures, and M&A impacts.
- Proficiency with Tableau and/or Power BI for reporting and analysis.
- Demonstrated ability to partner cross-functionally across Sales, Marketing, Finance, and Revenue Operations.
- Excellent analytical, communication, and stakeholder-management skills.
- Comfort operating with ambiguity and driving process improvements in a fast-moving environment
- Familiarity with ARR-based metrics and recurring-revenue business models preferred.
- Exposure to sales compensation platforms and FP&A/ERP systems preferred.
Experience
- 10+ years of experience in sales compensation, sales strategy, sales finance, or a closely related field.
- Track record of owning compensation programs for large, distributed commission populations.
- Experience supporting a B2B SaaS or recurring-revenue business preferred.
Skills Required
- Deep expertise in sales compensation plan design, modeling, and execution for sizable distributed teams.
- Strong financial modeling skills, including modeling new routes to market, team structures, and M&A impacts.
- Proficiency with Tableau and/or Power BI for reporting and analysis.
- Demonstrated ability to partner cross-functionally across Sales, Marketing, Finance, and Revenue Operations.
- Excellent analytical, communication, and stakeholder-management skills.
- Comfort operating with ambiguity and driving process improvements in a fast-moving environment.
- Familiarity with ARR-based metrics and recurring-revenue business models.
- Exposure to sales compensation platforms and FP&A/ERP systems.
- 10+ years of experience in sales compensation, sales strategy, sales finance, or closely related field.
- Track record of owning compensation programs for large, distributed commission populations.
- Experience supporting a B2B SaaS or recurring-revenue business.
WatchGuard Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about WatchGuard and has not been reviewed or approved by WatchGuard.
-
Healthcare Strength — Health coverage is portrayed as comprehensive, including medical, dental, vision, and mental-health support. Feedback suggests plan breadth and quality are a recurring bright spot.
-
Parental & Family Support — Caregiver benefits include paid parental leave, backup care, adoption assistance, fertility coverage, and, in some locales, subsidized childcare. Feedback suggests these supports meaningfully enhance the total package for families.
-
Leave & Time Off Breadth — Generous PTO and holidays are emphasized alongside options like paid sick time and volunteer time. Feedback suggests time off provisions contribute to a favorable work-life balance.
WatchGuard Insights
Am I A Good Fit?
Get Personalized Job Insights.
Our AI-powered fit analysis compares your resume with a job listing so you know if your skills & experience align.
Success! Refresh the page to see how your skills align with this role.
The Company
What We Do
WatchGuard® Technologies, Inc. is a global leader in unified cybersecurity. Our Unified Security Platform® approach is uniquely designed for managed service providers to deliver world-class security that increases their business scale and velocity while also improving operational efficiency. Trusted by more than 17,000 security resellers and service providers to protect more than 250,000 customers, the company’s award-winning products and services span network security and intelligence, advanced endpoint protection, multi-factor authentication, and secure Wi-Fi. Together, they offer five critical elements of a security platform: comprehensive security, shared knowledge, clarity & control, operational alignment, and automation. The company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, with offices throughout North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. To learn more, visit WatchGuard.com.
