Director, Sales Compensation Strategy

Workday; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Workday in San Francisco is seeking a senior leader to shape and govern global incentive compensation for direct sales and overlay roles, aligning plans with GTM priorities and AI-enabled growth. You will partner with Finance, Revenue Operations, and Sales to drive strategy and ensure effective payouts.

You will lead a group delivering design, analytics, and governance, translating complex compensation mechanics into clear guidance for executives and ensuring reliable payouts across the

Qualifications

• 10+ years in sales or GTM roles.
• 8+ years designing annual and in-year compensation plans.
• 3+ years leading teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end design of annual and in-year compensation plans for direct sellers and overlay roles.
• Align compensation with GTM priorities including AI offerings.
• Design pay curves, accelerators, and performance levers.
• Partner with Finance and Revenue Operations on quota setting.
• Own dashboards and compensation analytics.
• Ensure governance for true-ups, exceptions, and complex deals.
• Drive compensation enablement and change management with activation teams.

Skills

Sales compensation design

GTM leadership

Executive communication

People management

Job description

Your work days are brighter here. We're obsessed with making hard work pay off, for our people, our customers, and the world around us. As a Fortune 500 company and a leading AI platform for managing people, money, and agents, we're shaping the future of work so teams can reach their potential and focus on what matters most. The minute you join, you'll feel it. Not just in the products we build, but in how we show up for each other. Our culture is rooted in integrity, empathy, and shared enthusiasm. We're in this together, tackling big challenges with bold ideas and genuine care. We look for curious minds and courageous collaborators who bring sun-drenched optimism and drive. Whether you're building smarter solutions, supporting customers, or creating a space where everyone belongs, you'll do meaningful work with Workmates who've got your back. In return, we'll give you the trust to take risks, the tools to grow, the skills to develop and the support of a company invested in you for the long haul. So, if you want to inspire a brighter work day for everyone, including yourself, you've found a match in Workday, and we hope to be a match for you too.

About the Team

The GTM Incentive Compensation team designs and delivers innovative, data-driven incentive compensation plans that align performance and pay to Workday's strategic objectives and drive sustainable revenue growth. We lead the global strategy, design, planning, enablement, communication, and analysis of Workday's incentive compensation plans for all GTM functions, including Sales, Services, Support, and Customer Experience roles.

About the Role

In this role, you will lead a team of incentive designers, establish overarching design frameworks and governance, and own ongoing optimization of sales incentive programs across our global sales organization to align compensation with strategic growth objectives and financial discipline. You will partner closely with Sales, Finance, Revenue Operations. To be successful, you will leverage strong stakeholder and program management skills, seek continuous process improvement, and enhance the team's analytical and AI capabilities to model outcomes, monitor performance metrics, and translate complex variable compensation mechanics into clear, actionable guidance for senior leadership.

You will:

• Lead end-to-end design of annual and in-year compensation plans for direct sellers and overlay roles.
• Align compensation structures with Workday's GTM priorities, including new business, expansion, retention, and AI offerings.
• Design pay curves, accelerators, and performance levers that incent the right behaviors while managing financial risk.
• Partner with Finance and Revenue Operations on quota-setting methodology and deployment.
• Ensure compensation mechanics align with territories, quotas, and fiscal planning.
• Support governance processes for true-ups, exceptions, and complex deals.
• Identify sales performance gaps and design targeted incentives such as SPIFFs and pilots.
• Measure incentive effectiveness and iterate based on data and results.
• Build and maintain compensation analytics to model outcomes before rollout and monitor performance during the year.
• Own dashboards that track attainment, payouts, risk, and variance.
• Partner with data teams to ensure reliable and scalable compensation data infrastructure.
• Play a key role in Workday's Compensation Governance processes.
• Partner with activation teams to land compensation enablement and change management for the global Sales team, including AI-assisted communications, FAQ generation, and plan-acceptance workflows.
• Partner with the Compensation Administration and Operations Teams to ensure design intent translates into accurate, auditable payouts.

VISA Sponsorship is not available for this role

About You

Basic Qualifications (Required)

• Minimum of 10 years' experience in sales or GTM functions
• Minimum of 8 years in sales compensation plan design (annual and in-year) for direct sellers and overlay roles
• Minimum of 3 years managing people

Other Qualifications:

• Strong executive communication and advisory skills, with the ability to simplify complex compensation mechanics for senior leadership
• Proficiency in directing analytical and AI adoption initiatives
• Deep knowledge of compensation and quota governance frameworks
• Experience architecting new metrics, including for consumption and AI monetization models
• Experience leading Executive Steering Committee meetings and driving key decision narratives
• Experience delivering cross-functional initiatives across Finance, HR, IT, Product, and GTM

Workday Pay Transparency Statement

The annualized base salary ranges for the primary location and any additional locations are listed below. Workday pay ranges va