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Salary: USD 181,000 - 260,000 / annual
Canva is seeking an experienced sales compensation leader to own the systems, data, reporting, and quarterly operating rhythm behind their global sales incentive programs. This role sits at the intersection of sales compensation, analytics, and technology.
You will act as the business owner for the incentive compensation platform, including configuration, data flows, integrations, access, releases, vendor management, system performance, and issue resolution. You'll translate plan mechanics into accurate, scalable, and auditable system logic, owning requirements, testing, production validation, and change control. You'll build and prioritize the platform improvement roadmap across stakeholder needs, simplifying complex processes and solving new problems where established solutions do not exist.
You will own compensation data from source through payout, including eligibility, assignments, quotas, territories, crediting, rates, tiers, accelerators, and payment outputs. You'll lead recurring audits, reconciliations, and exception reviews, proactively surfacing changes, risks, and root causes while championing durable fixes. You'll partner with Sales Operations, People, Data Engineering, Revenue Accounting, Finance, and Payroll to maintain dependable data flows and on-time commission processing, and perform and validate complex or high-stakes sales compensation calculations.
You will build the quarterly sales compensation QBR, creating a fact-based view of plan health, seller outcomes, operational performance, and emerging risks. You'll analyze attainment distributions, pay-for-performance alignment, payout-to-revenue ratios, incentive effectiveness, payout concentration, ramp outcomes, exceptions, error trends, and performance by role, segment, and region. You'll develop scalable dashboards and define the metrics, data structure, and quality standards needed for consistent decisions. You'll turn analysis into clear executive-ready presentations that explain what happened, why it matters, and what leaders should consider next.
You will own plan setup, participant mapping, compensation letter generation, quality assurance, distribution, acknowledgement tracking, and final records. You'll maintain accurate plan documents, rate tables, version history, and change logs, and create practical materials that help sellers and managers understand how performance translates into payout.
You'll maintain audit-ready documentation and management review controls across the end-to-end commission process. You'll lead strategic projects and large-scale changes by setting clear outcomes, coordinating shared contributions, navigating competing priorities, and maintaining momentum. You'll establish operating standards and repeatable processes that improve accuracy, timeliness, transparency, and accountability, using automation and AI thoughtfully while maintaining appropriate controls and human review.
This is a senior individual contributor role with broad ownership and influence. You'll work independently, using judgment to solve complex problems and seeking guidance only in the most complex situations. You may mentor teammates and lead cross-functional work, but direct people management is not the primary focus.
Canva offers flexibility in how and where you work, with a flagship office in Sydney and a US hub in San Francisco. Benefits include equity packages, health benefits plans, 401(k) retirement plan with company contribution, inclusive parental leave policy, an annual Vibe & Thrive allowance, and flexible leave options.
REQUIREMENTS:
- 8+ years of experience across sales compensation, incentive compensation systems, analytics, or related financial and operational work, with deep hands-on sales compensation experience
- Direct ownership or administration of an enterprise incentive compensation platform with comfort moving between plan mechanics, system configuration, data validation, and stakeholder needs
- Strong analytical skills: ability to structure ambiguous questions, validate complex calculations, identify patterns, and connect findings back to business behavior
- Advanced Excel or Google Sheets skills and experience with Tableau or Snowflake; SQL experience strongly preferred
- Ability to build compelling executive stories from data and create clear, polished presentations; experience using Canva preferred, with willingness to become highly capable in the platform essential
- Understanding of sales compensation design and operations at scale, including quotas, crediting, eligibility, accelerators, guarantees, plan documents, controls, and payout processing
- Experience leading complex cross-functional projects with limited direction; ability to influence without formal authority, navigate differing stakeholder needs, and find common ground in high-tension decisions
- Strong judgment, curiosity, and ownership; comfort creating structure in ambiguity, helping others make sound decisions, and lifting the capability of people around you
