About the Role:
Grade Level (for internal use):
12
The Team
We are a high-accountability, globally connected Sales Compensation team that values disciplined execution, a strong sense of urgency, and end-to-end ownership. We expect our people to understand the full lifecycle of their work, anticipate downstream impacts, and communicate outcomes with exceptional clarity, whether supporting our broad population of 1,500+ plan participants or partnering with C-level executives. We value precision, responsiveness, sound judgment, collaboration, and people who take ownership through to resolution.
Responsibilities and Impact
This role is the global owner of sales compensation operations — accountable for the accuracy, governance, and financial integrity of commission payments across the full end-to-end process. Combining financial modeling, process discipline, stakeholder partnership, and strong audit readiness, this Associate Director ensures commission payments are accurate, timely, transparent, and aligned with company policy and financial controls.
- Lead and develop a team of compensation analysts and operations specialists — setting goals, maintaining accountability, and building a culture of precision, urgency, and end-to-end ownership, while overseeing timely and accurate resolution of plan participant queries across the global commission population.
- Build and execute scenario modeling and stress-testing frameworks to forecast total plan spend and assess the financial impact of plan adjustments, structural redesigns, and macroeconomic shifts — generating and refining global payout estimates and compensation decision models to support budget alignment and annual target-setting.
- Lead final validation and sign-off on global commission payroll processing runs — evaluating and authorising large payments, non-standard payouts, custom executive incentives, and approving custom withholding, recovery, non-recoverable draw, guarantee, and clawback protocols in partnership with Payroll, Legal, People Partners, and Compliance teams.
- Sign off on monthly SOX and Audit controls — performing ongoing risk evaluations related to deal cancellations, retroactive adjustments, unauthorized overrides, and data integrity risks, while conducting variance analyses and automated sanity testing to ensure commission calculation accuracy at scale.
- Partner with Legal and People Partners to resolve sensitive compensation disputes and high-value grievances — reviewing, evaluating, and approving calculation overrides, custom exception requests, and commission structures tied to Reductions in Force.
- Translate complex commission formulas, crediting rules, and payout outcomes into clear, step-by-step explanations for sales representatives, managers, and senior leaders across the organisation.
Compensation and Benefits (US Candidates Only)
S&P Global states that the anticipated base salary range for this position is $104,435 to $182,604. Final base salary for this role will be based on the individual's geographic location, as well as experience level, skill set, training, licenses and certifications.
In addition to base compensation, this role is eligible for an annual incentive plan. This role is eligible to receive additional S&P Global benefits. For more information on the benefits we provide to our employees, please visit: https://spgbenefits.com/benefit-summaries
What We Are Looking For
Basic Required Qualifications
- Experience: 7+ years in sales compensation operations, finance governance, audit, or corporate financial modeling within a complex commission-paying environment, including 2+ years in a people leadership role managing analytical teams.
- Sales Compensation Expertise: Proven knowledge of complex plan mechanics including quotas, accelerators, thresholds, caps, splits, crediting rules, draws, guarantees, clawbacks, recoveries, SPIFFs, and executive incentive structures.
- Financial Modeling: Advanced Excel proficiency including nested logic, dynamic arrays, Power Query, variance analysis, scenario modeling, stress testing, and payout forecasting across large, complex datasets.
- Risk Management and Controls: Experience identifying and mitigating commission-specific financial risks — including overpayments, underpayments, retroactive adjustments, unauthorized overrides, and data integrity issues.
- Audit and SOX/ICFR Controls: Proven experience maintaining SOX-compliant documentation, approvals, and audit-ready evidence for commission payroll processing cycles.
Additional Preferred Qualifications
- Demonstrated experience managing high-value and sensitive sales compensation grievances, payout disputes, calculation overrides, and exception requests — applying objectivity, diplomacy, confidentiality, and sound judgment throughout.
- Proven track record of delivering clear, data-backed recommendations to Sales executives, HR leaders, and Finance directors on commission governance, plan effectiveness, and risk mitigation.
- Hands-on administrative experience with enterprise commission platforms — Xactly, Varicent, Anaplan, or SAP Commissions — including configuration of rate tables, crediting rules, splits, and calculation logic.
- Proficiency in VBA, Python/Pandas, SQL, or Alteryx for large dataset pipeline reconciliation and integrity validation.
- Experience maintaining standardised SOPs, operational checklists, and governance workflows across fixed monthly payroll cycles.
- Exceptional self-organisation to balance daily query resolutions, ad-hoc dispute investigations, and strategic modeling alongside fixed monthly payroll cutoff dates.
- Experience translating complex commission formulas, crediting rules, and payout outcomes into clear written and verbal explanations for sales representatives and senior leaders.
Right to Work Requirements
This role is limited to persons with indefinite right to work in the United States.
Return to Work — Restart
Have you taken time out for caring responsibilities and are now looking to return to work? As part of our Return to Work initiative, Restart, we are encouraging enthusiastic and talented returners to apply, and will actively support your return to the workplace.
What’s In It For You?
Our Mission:
Advancing Essential Intelligence.
Our People:
We're more than 35,000 strong worldwide—so we're able to understand nuances while having a broad perspective. Our team is driven by curiosity and a shared belief that Essential Intelligence can help build a more prosperous future for us all.From finding new ways to measure sustainability to analyzing energy transition across the supply chain to building workflow solutions that make it easy to tap into insight and apply it. We are changing the way people see things and empowering them to make an impact on the world we live in. We’re committed to a more equitable future and to helping our customers find new, sustainable ways of doing business. Join us and help create the critical insights that truly make a difference.
Our Values:
Integrity, Discovery, Partnership
Throughout our history, the world's leading organizations have relied on us for the Essential Intelligence they need to make confident decisions about the road ahead. We start with a foundation of integrity in all we do, bring a spirit of discovery to our work, and collaborate in close partnership with each other and our customers to achieve shared goals.
Benefits:
We take care of you, so you can take care of business. We care about our people. That’s why we provide everything you—and your career—need to thrive at S&P Global.
Our benefits include:
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Health & Wellness: Health care coverage designed for the mind and body.
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Flexible Downtime: Generous time off helps keep you energized for your time on.
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Continuous Learning: Access a wealth of resources to grow your career and learn valuable new skills.
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Invest in Your Future: Secure your financial future through competitive pay, retirement planning, a continuing education program with a company-matched student loan contribution, and financial wellness programs.
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Family Friendly Perks: It’s not just about you. S&P Global has perks for your partners and little ones, too, with some best-in class benefits for families.
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Beyond the Basics: From retail discounts to referral incentive awards—small perks can make a big difference.
For more information on benefits by country visit: https://spgbenefits.com/benefit-summaries
Global Hiring and Opportunity at S&P Global:
At S&P Global, we are committed to fostering a connected and engaged workplace where all individuals have access to opportunities based on their skills, experience, and contributions. Our hiring practices emphasize fairness, transparency, and merit, ensuring that we attract and retain top talent. By valuing different perspectives and promoting a culture of respect and collaboration, we drive innovation and power global markets.
Recruitment Fraud Alert:
If you receive an email from a spglobalind.com domain or any other regionally based domains, it is a scam and should be reported to reportfraud@spglobal.com. S&P Global never requires any candidate to pay money for job applications, interviews, offer letters, “pre-employment training” or for equipment/delivery of equipment. Stay informed and protect yourself from recruitment fraud by reviewing our guidelines, fraudulent domains, and how to report suspicious activity here.
Equal Opportunity Employer
S&P Global is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race/ethnicity, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, marital status, military veteran status, unemployment status, or any other status protected by law. Only electronic job submissions will be considered for employment.
If you need an accommodation during the application process due to a disability, please send an email to: EEO.Compliance@spglobal.com and your request will be forwarded to the appropriate person.
US Candidates Only: Know Your Rights: Workplace discrimination is illegal
10 - Officials or Managers (EEO-2 Job Categories-United States of America), FINANC103.2 - Middle Management Tier II (EEO Job Group)