Director, Sales Compensation Administration

Company Description

Our Mission

At Palo Alto Networks® everything starts and ends with our mission:

Being the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life.

We have the vision of a world where each day is safer and more secure than the one before. These aren’t easy goals to accomplish – but we’re not here for easy. We’re here for better. We are a company built on the foundation of challenging and disrupting the way things are done, and we’re looking for innovators who are as committed to shaping the future of cybersecurity as we are.

We’re changing the nature of work. Palo Alto Networks is evolving to meet the needs of our employees now and in the future through FLEXWORK, our approach to how we work. From benefits to learning, location to leadership, we’ve rethought and recreated every aspect of the employee experience at Palo Alto Networks.  And because it FLEXes around each individual employee based on their individual choices, employees are empowered to push boundaries and help us all evolve, together. 

Job Description

Your Career

As Director, Sales Compensation Administration, you will be responsible for driving operational excellence in monthly commission operations, including commission forecast, accruals, implementation of SOX controls, payout, and comp plan implementation. Consults and provides expertise to sales management regarding sales compensation best practices and trends. Works collaboratively and with a high-level of influence cross-functionally with Sales, Finance, IT, Human Resources and other functions as needed.

The candidate will also be responsible for identifying and driving process improvements as well as defining and documenting policies related to Sales Compensation. You will possess a mastery level of knowledge of commission and sales incentives. Includes demonstrated knowledge of sales standards, best practices, methodologies, and frameworks for sales comp operations and process management. Advanced working knowledge and ability to conduct various statistical and quantitative analysis.

 Your Impact

• In partnership with Sales Operations and the Data Analytics team, lead the comp plan implementation and day-to-day operations
• Gauge the efficacy of existing methodologies and strategies and provide input into overall plan design to drive key sales outcomes and leadership objectives
• Manage monthly processing and attainment calculations - Supervise, provide guidance and audit the calculations and analyses performed by the compensation team
• Serve as the primary system administrator of the Callidus Sales Compensation system and lead initiatives to streamline and automate all processes related to sales compensation
• Partner with various teams within Sales Operations, Billing, and Sales leadership to identify and implement process improvements
• Document existing processes that are internal to the sales compensation team (e.g. procedures related to the on-boarding and off-boarding of Sales reps, commission approval process) as well as those intended for Sales teams (e.g. Sales FAQs) 
• Identify and serve as subject matter expert in enhancing other processes that may impact sales compensation
• Devise, document and socialize policies for complex and unique sales/selling situations
• Provide analytical support (assessment of historical data, pipeline, etc.) and ad-hoc research and analysis on other related variable pay projects as identified by management - Summarize findings and communicate recommendations to senior leadership

Qualifications

Your Experience

• At least 8+ years of sales compensation experience with progressively increasing responsibility and complexity of work in a fast paced technical environment
• Experience leading compensation for a hybrid product and SaaS environment
• Strong management skills and ability to cultivate a high-performing global team
• Strong knowledge of sales incentive compensation concepts, sales data tracking processes, and methodologies
• Ability to manipulate large data sets and conduct scenario analyses/modelling  Keen focus on accuracy
• Advanced skills required in Callidus, Salesforce.com, Anaplan, People AI, Excel and Tableau 
• Ability to influence key stakeholders and partners throughout the business
• Excellent verbal, analytical, written communication and interpersonal skills
• Self-starter with exemplary organization and resolution management skills  
• Demonstrated experience of successfully executing against tight deadlines, with a collaboration mind-set
• Must be able to skilfully prioritize and manage concurrent projects and issues
• Experience working with cross-functional/cross-departmental and virtual teams at a senior level