Sales Incentive Design Manager

Posted Monday, August 3, 2026 at 4:00 AM |Current USA TODAY Co. Employees- Please ensure you are using our abbreviated process on the internal Careers site by logging into Dayforce through MyApps| USA TODAY Co., Inc. is a diversified media company with expansive reach at the national and local level dedicated to empowering and enriching communities. We seek to inspire, inform, and connect audiences as a sustainable, growth focused media and digital marketing solutions company. Through our trusted brands, including the USA TODAY NETWORK, comprised of the national publication, USA TODAY , and local media organizations, including our network of local properties, in the United States, and Newsquest , a wholly-owned subsidiary operating in the United Kingdom, we provide essential journalism, local content, and digital experiences to audiences and businesses. We deliver high-quality, trusted content with a commitment to balanced, unbiased journalism, where and when consumers want to engage. Our digital marketing solutions brand, LocaliQ , supports small and medium-sized businesses with innovative digital marketing products and solutions. USA TODAY Co. open roles are featured on various external job boards. When applying to a position at USA TODAY Co., you should be completing an application on USA TODAY Co. Careers via Dayforce . Job postings directing you to complete an application on other external sites may not be valid. If you are a California resident, you acknowledge that by applying for a job with us, this California Job Applicant Privacy Notice will apply to our collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information. To connect with us, visit www.usatodayco.com Design the plans that drive our business. Sales compensation is one of the most powerful levers a company has to influence growth. We're looking for someone who understands that. As our Sales Compensation Manager, you'll own the strategy, design, governance, and evolution of our sales incentive programs. You'll partner directly with Sales Leadership, Finance, HR, and executive stakeholders to create compensation plans that motivate the right behaviors, support business strategy, and drive measurable results. This is not a commission processing role. We're looking for someone who enjoys solving business problems through compensation design. Someone who can challenge assumptions, model ideas, influence leaders, and create plans that are both motivating for sellers and sustainable for the business. If you're energized by designing compensation strategies rather than calculating payouts, we'd love to meet you. What You'll Do: Design compensation programs that drive results. Partner with Sales Leadership to translate business priorities into effective sales compensation strategies. Design annual and in-year incentive plans, including performance measures, quotas, thresholds, accelerators, decelerators, payout curves, SPIFFs, and role-specific incentive structures. Continuously evaluate whether plans are driving the intended seller behaviors and business outcomes. Model before you build. Develop financial and behavioral models to evaluate new incentive ideas before implementation. Analyze business impact, cost, seller behavior, pay-for-performance alignment, and ROI. Use data-driven insights to recommend plan improvements. Own governance. Own governance for all sales compensation programs, including plan documentation, policy interpretation, exception governance, audit readiness, and change management.Ensure plans remain scalable, understandable, equitable, and operationally executable.Partner with operations teams responsible for implementation while maintaining ownership of plan intent and governance. Be a trusted advisor. Partner with Sales Leadership, Finance, HR, Revenue Operations, and Payroll to shape compensation strategy. Challenge assumptions, present data-driven recommendations, and influence executive decision-making. Continuously improve. Evaluate seller attainment, incentive effectiveness, plan competitiveness, and business outcomes. Continuously refine programs to improve performance, simplicity, and long-term scalability. What Makes Someone Successful: They have personally designed sales compensation plans - not only administered them. They understand how compensation influences seller behavior and business performance. They are equally comfortable discussing financial models with Finance and compensation strategy with Sales Leadership. They balance innovation with governance and operational simplicity. This Role Is Not Focused On Routine commission processing, Payroll administration, Calculating monthly payouts, Maintaining commission systems as the primary responsibility #LI-REMOTE #LI-NR2 The annualized base salary for this role will range between $110,000 and $130.000.  Base compensation is reflective of many factors, including, but not limited to, the market in which one lives/works, individual education level, skills, certifications and experience. Note: variable compensation is not reflected in these figures and based on the role, may be applicable. USA TODAY Co., Inc. is a proud equal opportunity employer committed to building and maintaining a diverse workforce. As such, we will consider all qualified applicants for employment and do not discriminate in connection with employment decisions on the basis of an applicant or employee’s race, color, national origin, ethnicity, ancestry, citizenship status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, marital status, personal appearance (including height and weight), sexual orientation, family responsibilities, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy status (including childbirth, breastfeeding or related medical conditions), education, genetic characteristics or information, political affiliation, military or veteran status or other classifications protected by applicable federal, state and local laws in the jurisdictions where USA TODAY Co. employs employees. In addition, USA TODAY Co., Inc. will provide applicants who require a reasonable accommodation, as a result of an applicant’s disability or religion, to complete this employment application and/or any other process in connection with an individuals’ application for employment with USA TODAY Co., Inc. Applicants who require such accommodation should contact USA TODAY Co., Inc.’s Recruitment Department at [email protected] . Applicants must be authorized to work in the applicable location. Applications from outside these regions will be removed from our system after submission.