Advanced Specialist, Sales Incentives

Pearson; Harrisburg (Dauphin County); Remote; USD 90,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

Pearson is seeking an Advanced Specialist, Sales Incentives to design, govern, and administer incentive programs across the sales organization. The role partners with Sales Leadership, Revenue Operations, Finance, HR, and Commercial teams to ensure plans are clear, scalable, and delivered on time.

This remote, US-based role requires strong sales compensation expertise, stakeholder management, and hands-on execution.

Qualifications

• Sales compensation expertise: understanding incentives, payout calculations, plan design.
• Business partnership with sales leaders and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Analytical judgment with sales performance data, quotas, attainment, payout logic.
• Operational discipline with attention to detail and timely payment processes.
• Clear communication of compensation concepts to leaders, managers, and sellers.
• Problem solving to investigate discrepancies and identify root causes.
• Experience partnering with Sales, Finance, HR, Revenue Operations, or Commercial teams.
• Adaptability in a matrixed, fast-moving environment.
• Continuous improvement mindset for scalability, transparency, and governance.

Responsibilities

• Partner with Sales Leadership and cross-functional teams to align incentive programs with goals.
• Design, evolve, and deliver sales incentive plans, including annual and mid-year rollouts.
• Translate strategy and metrics into clear compensation frameworks.
• Calculate, validate, and process monthly, quarterly, and annual payments accurately.
• Validate attainment, quotas, accelerators, and payout eligibility.
• Coordinate plan documentation, communications, FAQs, and governance validation.
• Serve as a trusted contact for incentive plan questions and payout discrepancies.
• Support governance, approval workflows, and audit-ready documentation.
• Monitor outcomes and identify opportunities for improvement.

Skills

Sales compensation

Stakeholder management

Analytical judgment

Documentation

Communication

Problem solving

Adaptability

Continuous improvement

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Tools

Salesforce

SPIFF

Xactly

CaptivateIQ

Varicent

Job description

This role aligns to industry-level titles such as Senior Incentive Compensation Analyst, Senior Sales Compensation Specialist, Sales Incentives Analyst, Sales Incentives Specialist, Sales Compensation Analyst, or Sales Compensation Partner.

Join Pearson and help connect sales strategy, seller performance, and business growth. We are looking for a strategic, detail-oriented Advanced Specialist, Sales Incentives to support the design, delivery, governance, and administration of sales incentive programs across Pearson’s sales organization.

Your Opportunity

As Advanced Specialist, Sales Incentives, you will play a key role in translating commercial priorities into incentive plans that are clear, scalable, and operationally sound. You will partner closely with Sales Leadership, Revenue Operations, Finance, HR, and Commercial teams to help ensure incentive programs support business goals, reinforce the right sales behaviors, and are delivered accurately and on time.

This is a highly visible, business-facing role. You will support one or more business units as a dedicated incentive partner, helping leaders understand plan design, payout logic, governance requirements, and operational considerations. You will also work directly with sellers and sales managers on incentive-related questions, including attainment, opportunity crediting, and payout accuracy.

The right person will bring strong sales compensation experience, sound business judgment, excellent stakeholder management skills, and the ability to balance strategic thinking with hands‑on execution.

Key Responsibilities:

• Partner with Sales Leadership, Revenue Operations, Finance, HR, and Commercial teams to align sales incentive programs with business priorities and commercial goals.

• Support the design, evolution, and operational delivery of sales incentive plans, including annual and mid-year plan rollouts.

• Translate business strategy, sales priorities, metrics, targets, gates, payout rules, and payment timing into clear and executable compensation frameworks.

• Calculate, validate, and process monthly, quarterly, and annual sales incentive and commission payments accurately and on time.

• Validate attainment calculations, quotas, accelerators, modifiers, kickers, special incentive programs, and payout eligibility.

• Coordinate cross-functional readiness activities, including plan documentation, communications, FAQs, leader enablement, testing, and governance validation.

• Serve as a trusted point of contact for sales leaders, sellers, and sales managers on incentive plan questions, payout discrepancies, and operational issues.

• Support governance, approval workflows, audit-ready documentation, and operational controls related to incentive compensation.

• Monitor compensation outcomes, operational trends, and payout activity to identify opportunities for improvement.

• Help simplify, standardize, and improve incentive compensation processes, tools, documentation, and ways of working.

• Support future readiness for incentive compensation tools and Sales Performance Management platforms as the team continues to evolve.

Required Skills and Competencies:

• Sales compensation expertise: Strong understanding of sales incentives, commission operations, payout calculations, plan design, and compensation governance.

• Business partnership: Ability to work directly with sales leaders and cross-functional stakeholders, build trust, and connect incentive strategy to business outcomes.

• Analytical judgment: Comfort working with sales performance data, quotas, attainment, payout logic, and compensation trends.

• Operational discipline: High attention to detail, strong documentation habits, and the ability to manage time-sensitive, high-stakes payment processes.

• Communication and influence: Ability to explain compensation concepts clearly to leaders, sales managers, and sellers.

• Problem solving: Ability to investigate discrepancies, resolve questions proactively, and identify root causes behind operational issues.

• Stakeholder management: Experience partnering across Sales, Finance, HR, Revenue Operations, Sales Operations, Marketing, or Commercial teams.

• Adaptability: Comfort working in a matrixed, fast-moving environment with multiple business units, priorities, and stakeholders.

• Continuous improvement mindset: Ability to identify opportunities to improve scalability, transparency, efficiency, and governance.

Qualifications (Education & Experience):

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Economics, Operations, Human Resources, or a related field.

• 5+ years of experience in sales compensation, incentive compensation, commission operations, revenue operations, sales operations, commercial operations, or a related business function.

• Hands-on experience calculating, validating, and administering sales incentive or commission payments.

• Experience supporting or contributing to sales compensation plan design, payout rules, metrics, or governance processes.

• Experience partnering directly with sales leaders and cross-functional stakeholders in a business-facing role.

• Strong analytical, organizational, communication, and problem-solving skills.

• Experience working with CRM systems such as Salesforce or similar platforms.

• Familiarity with Sales Performance Management platforms such as SPIFF, Xactly, CaptivateIQ, Varicent, or similar tools is preferred, but not required.

• Experience working in a global, matrixed, or complex organization is preferred.

• Industry background is flexible; strong sales compensation experience and stakeholder partnership are more important than prior education industry experience.

Location & Work Set Up

This is a full-time remote role based in the United States, with occasional travel as business needs require.

Your Rewards & Benefits

Compensation at Pearson is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, and specific location. As required by California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York State, New York City, Vermont, Washington State, and Washington DC laws, the pay range for this position is as follows:

The minimum full-time salary range is between $90,000 to $100,000

This position is eligible to participate in an annual incentive plan, and information on benefits offered is here .

Applications will be accepted through October 2, 2026. This window may be extended depending on business needs .

Who we are:

At Pearson, our purpose is simple: to help people realize the life they imagine through learning. We believe that every learning opportunity is a chance for a personal breakthrough. We are the world's lifelong learning company. For us, learning isn't just what we do. It's who we are. To learn more: We are Pearson.

Pearson is an Equal Opportunity Employer and a member of E-Verify. Employment decisions are based on qualifications, merit and business need. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status or any other group protected by law. We actively seek qualified candidates who are protected veterans and individuals with disabilities as defined under VEVRAA and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act.

If you are an individual with a disability and you have a difficulty using or accessing our site as a result of your disability, you may request reasonable accommodations by emailing [e-mail].

Job:

Sales Enablement

Job Family:

GO_TO_MARKET

Organization:

Chief Business Office

Schedule:

FULL_TIME

Workplace Type:

Req ID:

25925

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