Director, Sales Incentive Strategy & Execution

Staples; Framingham (MA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Inclusive culture

PTO 22 days

401(k) match

Job summary

Staples, a leading business-to-business retailer, seeks a Director of Sales Compensation to design, execute, govern, and optimize its incentive programs. This role partners with Sales, Finance, HR, and Sales Operations to drive profitable growth and align plans with company objectives.

The director will oversee compensation strategy, operations, systems, analytics, and governance for a complex national sales organization, ensuring SOX controls and accurate seller payments across the calendar.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in finance, accounting, economics, business, or related field.
• 10+ years in sales compensation, finance, sales operations, compensation, or related fields.
• 5+ years of leadership experience managing teams.
• 3+ years of experience leading implementation, enhancement, optimization, or administration of an incentive compensation management (ICM) platform.
• Experience supporting sales compensation programs involving complex organizational transformations, M&A integrations, or significant go-to-market changes.
• Experience managing large-scale compensation budgets, accruals, and payout processes.
• Advanced Excel proficiency.
• Experience with compensation management platforms (Anaplan, Xactly, Varicent, or similar).
• Experience working across Sales, Finance, HR, and Operations.
• Experience presenting business recommendations to senior leadership.

Responsibilities

• Lead the variable compensation execution team and ensure timely and accurate payments.
• Design, model, and execute variable compensation plans (commissions, SPIFFs) aligned to objectives.
• Lead monthly and quarterly close processes: accruals, data validation, payout files.
• Administer and configure the ICM tech stack: roadmap, data integrity, user adoption.
• Apply policies and SOX controls; remediate exceptions within 30 days.
• Draft plan documents, governance charters, and dispute-resolution processes with stakeholders.
• Develop dashboards and reporting for seller attainment and outcomes.
• Lead sales-comp workstreams for strategic projects (M&A transitions, new GTM models).
• Evaluate plan effectiveness and recommend enhancements based on performance.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic thinking

Analytical skills

Cross-functional collaboration

Change management

Executive presence

Detail-oriented

Negotiation

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business, or related field

Tools

Anaplan

Xactly

Varicent

Job description

Staples, a leading business-to-business retailer, seeks a Director of Sales Compensation to design, execute, govern, and optimize its incentive programs. This role partners with Sales, Finance, HR, and Sales Operations to drive profitable growth and align plans with company objectives.

The director will oversee compensation strategy, operations, systems, analytics, and governance for a complex national sales organization, ensuring SOX controls and accurate seller payments across the calendar.