Manager, Compensation Systems & Operations

Job Description

Position Summary

The Manager, Compensation Systems & Operations is responsible for supporting the governance, administration, stability, auditability, and continuous improvement of Expeditors' global compensation systems, calculations, data, reporting, and operational processes.

This role supports commission and incentive compensation programs across Sales, Account Management, and other compensation-related programs. As a member of the Commission Operations function within Business Development Systems & Analytics (BDSA), this position is responsible for compensation system administration, commission operations, reconciliation and validation activities, audit and compliance support, analytics, automation, issue investigation, vendor management, and payee support.

The successful candidate will possess strong accounting and reconciliation expertise, a disciplined audit mindset, exceptional analytical capabilities, and extensive experience working with compensation systems, large data sets, complex business processes, and enterprise technologies.

This role regularly collaborates with employees, managers, vendors, and technology teams across multiple regions and time zones.

Key Responsibilities

Compensation Governance, Controls & Validation

• Perform detailed reviews of compensation calculations, commission rules, credit allocations, adjustment processing, and related system outputs.
• Develop and maintain audit-ready validation procedures, control frameworks, reconciliation processes, and supporting workpapers.
• Conduct independent reviews of compensation calculations prior to commission and payroll releases.
• Evaluate compensation system controls and recommend improvements that increase transparency, auditability, operational reliability, and governance effectiveness.
• Support internal and external audit activities related to compensation processes, controls, calculations, data, and supporting systems.
• Maintain documentation of compensation business rules, assumptions, calculation methodologies, validation procedures, reconciliation results, and control activities.
• Establish repeatable control procedures that provide sustainable audit trails and support management review processes.
• Identify control gaps, process weaknesses, and operational risks, and develop remediation recommendations.

Compensation Systems & Operations

• Participate in monthly compensation processing activities and operational support functions.
• Review compensation calculations, credit allocations, account assignments, retroactive adjustments, and related operational outputs.
• Support compensation plan implementation, system enhancements, and ongoing configuration maintenance.
• Ensure compensation processes are accurate, repeatable, auditable, and appropriately documented.
• Support compensation system administration activities and ongoing operational maintenance.
• Assist with production support, issue resolution, change management, and system release activities.

Commission Operations & Payee Support

• Support global commission and incentive compensation operations across Sales, Account Management, and other compensation programs.
• Research, investigate, and resolve payee inquiries, disputes, escalations, and support tickets.
• Communicate compensation calculations, adjustments, corrections, and investigation findings through clear and professional written and verbal communication.
• Partner with payees, managers, payroll teams, accounting teams, technology teams, and vendors to resolve compensation-related concerns.
• Provide timely, accurate, and professional support to stakeholders across multiple regions and time zones.
• Support compensation-related communications, case management, issue tracking, and service-level monitoring activities.
• Identify recurring issues and recommend operational improvements that reduce support volume and operational risk.

Systems Governance, Vendor Management, Analytics & Automation

• Support governance of compensation-related applications and supporting platforms.
• Coordinate issue investigation and resolution activities with technology teams and external vendors.
• Manage vendor relationships and monitor issue resolution, support requests, testing activities, and enhancement delivery.
• Participate in development (DEV), testing, user acceptance testing (UAT), and production validation activities supporting compensation system enhancements and releases.
• Review and validate business requirements, technical specifications, developer logic, scripts, calculations, configurations, and system outputs to ensure requirements are implemented accurately.
• Analyze large and complex data sets across multiple databases, applications, and reporting environments.
• Develop and maintain operational, analytical, management, executive, and exception reporting supporting compensation operations, governance, audit activities, and business decision-making.
• Design and maintain dashboards, scorecards, reconciliations, monitoring solutions, and operational reporting.
• Support data integrations between compensation systems, enterprise data platforms, payroll systems, reporting environments, and operational applications.
• Review and validate data feeds, SFTP processes, file transfers, integration outputs, and automated workflows to ensure data accuracy and completeness.
• Coordinate testing activities, document testing results, identify defects, and support deployment approvals.
• Identify opportunities to automate manual processes, streamline workflows, improve scalability, and reduce operational risk.
• Support root-cause investigations, remediation efforts, and continuous process improvement initiatives.

Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Information Systems, Business, Analytics, Computer Science, or a related field.

Experience

Required

• 10+ years of professional experience in one or more of the following areas:
  • Compensation Operations
  • Incentive Compensation
  • Commission Administration
  • Global Payroll
  • Accounting
  • Audit
  • Financial Systems
  • Business Systems Analysis
• Demonstrated experience performing:
  • Complex reconciliations
  • Validation testing
  • Root-cause investigations
  • Internal controls reviews
  • Large-scale data analysis
• Experience supporting enterprise business systems and multiple databases and data sources.
• Experience working with globally distributed teams, vendors, and stakeholders.
• Experience documenting business rules, process flows, control procedures, reconciliations, and audit-ready workpapers.
• Strong documentation, audit trail, and process governance discipline.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to independently research issues, develop conclusions, and communicate findings to technical and non-technical audiences.

Highly Preferred

• Big 4 public accounting Manager-level experience strongly preferred.
• Experience supporting commission, incentive compensation, global payroll, or financial governance environments.
• Experience managing complex operational issues, disputes, escalations, and remediation efforts.
• Experience supporting global operations across multiple time zones.
• Experience working with external vendors and outsourced technology teams.
• Experience supporting compensation system implementations, upgrades, stabilization initiatives, or governance programs.

Technical Skills

Required

• Advanced Microsoft Excel including Pivot Tables, Power Query, Data Modeling, Reconciliation Analysis, and Complex Financial Analysis.
• Advanced Alteryx experience including Data Preparation, Reconciliation Workflows, Validation Testing, Exception Reporting, and Audit Support Processes.
• SQL proficiency sufficient to analyze data, investigate issues, validate system outputs, and support compensation operations.
• Experience developing dashboards, reports, reconciliations, and operational reporting solutions.
• Experience working with large data sets across multiple systems and databases.
• Experience supporting DEV, UAT, and Production environments.
• Experience validating integrations, configurations, interfaces, calculations, system enhancements, automation processes, and developer-delivered solutions.
• Strong data validation, quality assurance, testing, and troubleshooting capabilities.

Preferred

• Power BI
• SAP HANA
• Azure DevOps
• ETL/Data Integration Tools
• SFTP/Data Exchange Platforms
• Python

Additional Information

What Success Looks Like

• Compensation calculations are accurate, validated, documented, and supported by effective controls.
• Reconciliation processes consistently identify issues before compensation results are released.
• Compensation business rules, configurations, and calculation methodologies are documented, governed, and auditable.
• Payee inquiries, disputes, and escalations are investigated and resolved accurately and professionally.
• Dashboards, reports, and monitoring solutions provide meaningful operational visibility.
• Data integrations, SFTP processes, and automated workflows operate reliably and accurately.
• Vendor-related issues are effectively managed and resolved.
• Root causes are identified, documented, and addressed through sustainable remediation efforts.
• Compensation operations become increasingly scalable, automated, transparent, and audit-ready.
• Leadership maintains confidence in the integrity, governance, and reliability of compensation calculations and supporting data

Expected base salary: $100,000 - $145,000

Expeditors offers excellent benefits:

• Paid Vacation (first year prorated based off month of hire then eligible for 15 days) 
• Holidays (10)
• Flexible Days (2)
• Paid Sick Time (accrual rate of 1 hour of sick time per 30 hours paid)
• 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan with employer match
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)
• Medical, Prescription Drug, Dental & Vision Coverage
• Health Savings Account (HSA)
• Life and Disability Insurance
• Paid Parental Leave (additional eligibility criteria)
• Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account (DC FSA)
• Commuter Benefit
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Training and Personnel Development Program
• Educational Assistance and Reimbursement

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO Guidelines.

May be eligible for bonus following first year of continuous employment in position.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

Compensation: 100000 to 145000 (USD) (YEARLY)