Senior Manager, Sales Compensation Systems & Analytics

Job Description

Where and how you can work

Our flagship office is in Sydney, Australia, but we've made our way from down under, to a hub in San Francisco, which is now home to our US operations. We offer flexibility in how and where you work. We trust our Canvanauts to choose the balance that empowers them and their team to achieve their goals.

About the role

We're looking for an experienced sales compensation leader to own the systems, data, reporting, and quarterly operating rhythm behind our global sales incentive programs. This role sits at the intersection of sales compensation, analytics, and technology. You'll make sure our incentive platform is reliable, our compensation data is trusted, and leaders have a clear view of whether our plans are driving the intended outcomes.

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.

What you'd be doing in this role

As Canva scales change continues to be part of our DNA. But we like to think that's all part of the fun. So this will give you the flavour of the type of things you'll be working on when you start, but this will likely evolve.

At the moment, this role is focussed on:

Own the sales incentive platform

• Act as the business owner for the incentive compensation platform, including configuration, data flows, integrations, access, releases, vendor management, system performance, and issue resolution.
• Translate plan mechanics into accurate, scalable, and auditable system logic. Own requirements, testing, production validation, and change control.
• Build and prioritize the platform improvement roadmap across stakeholder needs. Simplify complex processes and solve new problems where established solutions do not exist.

Own compensation data and payout readiness

• Own compensation data from source through payout, including eligibility, assignments, quotas, territories, crediting, rates, tiers, accelerators, and payment outputs.
• Lead recurring audits, reconciliations, and exception reviews. Proactively surface changes, risks, and root causes, then champion durable fixes.
• Partner with Sales Operations, People, Data Engineering, Revenue Accounting, Finance, and Payroll to maintain dependable data flows and on-time commission processing.
• Perform and validate complex or high-stakes sales compensation calculations.

Build reporting and plan health insights

• Build the quarterly sales compensation QBR, creating a fact-based view of plan health, seller outcomes, operational performance, and emerging risks.
• 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.
• Develop scalable dashboards and define the metrics, data structure, and quality standards needed for consistent decisions.
• Turn analysis into a clear point of view and build executive-ready Canva decks that explain what happened, why it matters, and what leaders should consider next.

Run annual/quarterly plan delivery

• Own plan setup, participant mapping, compensation letter generation, quality assurance, distribution, acknowledgement tracking, and final records.
• Maintain accurate plan documents, rate tables, version history, and change logs.
• Create practical materials that help sellers and managers understand how performance translates into payout.

Strengthen governance and scale

• Maintain audit-ready documentation and management review controls across the end-to-end commission process.
• Lead strategic projects and large-scale changes by setting clear outcomes, coordinating shared contributions, navigating competing priorities, and maintaining momentum.
• Establish operating standards and repeatable processes that improve accuracy, timeliness, transparency, and accountability.
• Use automation and AI thoughtfully while maintaining appropriate controls and human review.

You're probably a match if

• You have 8+ years of experience across sales compensation, incentive compensation systems, analytics, or related financial and operational work, with deep hands-on sales compensation experience.
• You've directly owned or administered an enterprise incentive compensation platform and can move comfortably between plan mechanics, system configuration, data validation, and stakeholder needs.
• You're a strong analyst who can structure ambiguous questions, validate complex calculations, identify patterns, and connect findings back to business behavior.
• You have advanced Excel or Google Sheets skills and experience with Tableau or Snowflake. SQL experience is strongly preferred.
• You can build a compelling executive story from data and create clear, polished presentations. Experience using Canva is preferred, and a willingness to become highly capable in the platform is essential.
• You understand sales compensation design and operations at scale, including quotas, crediting, eligibility, accelerators, guarantees, plan documents, controls, and payout processing.
• You've led complex cross-functional projects with limited direction and can influence without formal authority, navigate differing stakeholder needs, and find common ground when decisions are high tension.
• You bring strong judgment, curiosity, and ownership. You're comfortable creating structure in ambiguity, helping others make sound decisions, and lifting the capability of people around you.

What success looks like

• The incentive platform is stable, scalable, well controlled, and trusted.
• Compensation data and quarterly plan materials are accurate, complete, and delivered on time.
• Quarterly QBRs give leaders a consistent view of plan health and surface decisions early.
• Complex cross-functional changes move from ambiguity to clear outcomes, ownership, and delivery.
• Recurring issues are solved at the source, reducing manual adjustments as the business grows.

What's in it for you?

Achieving our crazy big goals motivates us to work hard - and we do - but you'll experience lots of moments of magic, connectivity and fun woven throughout life at Canva, too. We also offer a range of benefits to set you up for every success in and outside of work.

Here's a taste of what's on offer:

• Equity packages - we want our success to be yours too
• Health benefits plans to support you and your wellbeing
• 401(k) retirement plan with company contribution
• Inclusive parental leave policy that supports all parents & carers
• An annual Vibe & Thrive allowance to support your wellbeing, social connection, office setup & more
• Flexible leave options that empower you to be a force for good, take time to recharge and supports you personally

At Canva we value fairness, and we strive to provide competitive, market-informed compensation whilst ensuring internal equity within the team in each region. We make hiring decisions based on your skills, experience and our overall assessment of what we observed and learnt in the hiring process. The target salary range for this position is $181,000 to $260,000. When calculating offers, we make salary decisions based on market data and candidates' skills and experience.

Other stuff to know

We celebrate all types of skills and backgrounds at Canva so even if you don't feel like your skills quite match what's listed above - we still want to hear from you!

Check out lifeatcanva.com for more info.