GTM Commission Manager (Remote)

Cengage is seeking a Sales GTM Commission & Incentives Manager to own the strategy, design of sales compensation and SPIFF programs across our Go-To-Market organization. Reporting into Revenue Operations, this role is the single-threaded owner for translating GTM strategy into clear, motivating, and financially sound incentive mechanics that drive seller behavior across new business, renewals, expansion, and customer success motions.

This role is highly focused on commission plan architecture, SPIFF design, earnings modeling, payout accuracy, and cost-of-sales discipline. You will partner closely with Sales Leadership, Finance, HR, Legal, and Analytics to ensure incentives are competitive, attainable, operationally scalable, and tightly aligned to revenue, retention, and profitability goals.

What You'll Do Here:

Commission & SPIFF Strategy and Design

• Own annual and in-year commission plan design for all GTM roles (AE, AM/CSM, SDR/BDR, Channel/Partner, overlays), ensuring plans directly reinforce GTM priorities and desired seller behavior.
• Design and govern all incentive mechanics, including:
  • Quotas and targets
  • Commission rates and payout curves
  • Accelerators, decelerators, caps and  thresholds
  • MBOs and short-term incentives (SPIFFs)
  • Role-, segment-, and territory-based plan variations
• Lead the design and deployment of SPIFF programs to drive focus on priority products, segments, seasons, or behaviors; evaluate SPIFF ROI and sunset underperforming incentives.
• Run detailed scenario modeling and sensitivity analysis to balance motivation, earnings distribution, and total cost of sales while preventing gaming or unintended outcomes.
• Establish and maintain compensation governance, including plan documentation, eligibility rules, change control, and policy compliance.

Cross-Functional Partnership & Financial Alignment

• Partner with broader RevOps on alignment between comp plans, territories, coverage models, product priorities, and pricing/discount guardrails.
• Collaborate with Sales Leadership on incentive alignment to goals, quotas, and GTM motions.
• Partner closely with Finance on commission accruals, budgeting, forecasting, and period close, ensuring incentive expense predictability and control.
• Work with HR and Legal to ensure plans comply with employment policies and legal requirements.
• Partner with finance on spiff and comp effectiveness
• Partner with finance to ensure dashboards and insights are available for all roles

Skills You'll Need Here:

(Required)

• 5–7+ years of experience in Sales Compensation, Incentive Compensation Management, Revenue Operations, or Finance with deep incentive comp ownership.
• Proven track record designing and operating complex, multi-role GTM commission plans and SPIFF programs in a SaaS, subscription, or education/learning business.

Cengage Group is committed to working with broad talent pools to attract and hire strong and most qualified individuals. Our job applicants are considered regardless of any classification protected by applicable federal, state, provincial or local laws.
 

Cengage is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities including during our job application process. If you are an applicant with a disability and require reasonable accommodation in our job application process, please contact us at [email protected].
 

Cengage Group, a global education technology company serving millions of learners, provides affordable, quality digital products and services that equip students with the skills and competencies needed to be job ready. For more than 100 years, we have enabled the power and joy of learning with trusted, engaging content, and now, integrated digital platforms. We serve the higher education, workforce skills, secondary education, English language teaching and research markets worldwide. Through our scalable technology, including MindTap and Cengage Unlimited, we support all learners who seek to improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.