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Kong is seeking a strategic Director of Incentive Compensation to lead the design and execution of global sales incentive programs that align seller behavior with company strategy and support efficient growth. This is a high-impact role that sits at the intersection of GTM strategy, finance, and operations.
Key responsibilities include designing and evolving global incentive compensation plans that are simple, motivating, and aligned with business priorities. You will lead the redesign of incentive plans to support Kong's transition to a consumption-based GTM model, establishing clear accountability and crediting across teams that influence the full customer lifecycle. You'll use compensation as a strategic lever to improve seller productivity and return on sales investment while managing payout economics and commission expense.
You will serve as a trusted advisor to GTM and Finance leadership on incentive strategy, plan economics, and organizational trade-offs, bringing data-driven recommendations that balance field realities, employee motivation, and long-term company value. You own the end-to-end compensation lifecycle, including plan documentation, rollout, crediting, calculation, payout validation, and dispute resolution. This includes establishing scalable governance, controls, and exception-management processes.
Analytics and measurement are central to the role. You will measure plan effectiveness through attainment, payout, productivity, and behavioral analysis, identifying unintended incentives and opportunities for improvement. You'll own business requirements for incentive compensation systems and supporting integrations across CRM, billing, finance, HR, and payroll, driving automation and data quality improvements.
Change management is critical as Kong transitions its business model. You will lead clear communication and enablement for compensation plans, ensuring leaders and participants understand both mechanics and strategic intent, managing major transitions to build confidence and minimize disruption.
Required qualifications: 5+ years of direct ownership in sales compensation design (not just administration), hands-on experience with ICM systems like Xactly or Varicent, demonstrated success redesigning comp plans around significant GTM or business-model shifts, working knowledge of consumption/usage-based revenue models and sales crediting, and experience partnering with Sales Finance and GTM leadership on payout modeling and ROI analysis.
