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The Senior Compensation Professional serves as a senior individual contributor responsible for the end-to-end execution, oversight, and continuous improvement of complex short-term incentive compensation programs supporting multiple lines of business. This role ensures incentive compensation outcomes are accurate, compliant, scalable, and aligned with business strategy by applying advanced analytical expertise, deep technical knowledge, and independent judgment within established governance frameworks.
The role requires advanced, cross-functional expertise across Compliance, Enrollment Operations, Information Technology, Sales Operations, Accounting, Finance, and Payroll, with accountability for anticipating and mitigating risks that affect incentive eligibility, calculations, system logic, audit posture, and financial reporting. The incumbent acts as a subject matter expert (SME) and trusted advisor, regularly consulted for complex issues, escalations, and design considerations.
The Senior Compensation Professional operates with minimal supervision, leads complex validations, supports incentive strategy execution, and plays a key role in system enhancements, audit readiness, and cross-functional initiatives. This individual materially influences outcomes beyond their own deliverables and is recognized as a go-to resource for incentive compensation expertise across the organization.
Key Responsibilities
Incentive Compensation Administration & Oversight
Lead the administration and oversight of complex short-term incentive compensation programs, ensuring accuracy, compliance, and timely payout across insurance lines of business.
Serve as an escalation point for complex incentive discrepancies, calculation disputes, and non-standard compensation scenarios.
Interpret and apply complex incentive plan designs and governance standards to resolve ambiguous or high-risk compensation issues.
Anticipate downstream impacts of plan changes, roster movements, eligibility updates, or market adjustments on incentive outcomes.
Systems, Data & Technical Leadership
Lead user acceptance testing (UAT) for incentive compensation platforms (ICM/Varicent, Workday), including test strategy, scenario development, execution oversight, and defect resolution.
Provide advanced troubleshooting for system configuration, data integrations, and calculation logic, partnering closely with IT and system administrators.
Validate production readiness for system releases, platform upgrades, and incentive program changes.
Design and review complex manual calculations and off-cycle incentive payments; provide peer consultation and quality assurance.
Analytics, Reporting & Governance
Oversee advanced validation of compensable data, incentive calculations, and payout files prior to payroll submission.
Develop, enhance, and interpret monthly and quarterly incentive scorecards and reporting for leadership and governance forums.
Identify trends, risks, and recurring issues; recommend process, control, or system enhancements to improve accuracy and efficiency.
Establish and maintain incentive calculation documentation, validation methodologies, SOPs, and control artifacts.
Cross-Functional Leadership & Influence
Act as a primary incentive compensation SME and consultative partner to Compliance, Sales Operations, Enrollment, Finance, Payroll, and HR stakeholders.
Lead or significantly contribute to cross-functional initiatives related to incentive plan changes, system modernization, or operational improvements.
Support internal and external audits by independently explaining incentive methodologies, calculations, controls, and system logic.
Proactively identify compliance, financial, or operational risks and recommend mitigation strategies.
Sales, Finance & Business Acumen
Demonstrate advanced understanding of sales structures, roles, territories, and performance measures and how they translate into incentive earnings.
Partner with Finance to support incentive accruals, forecasting, reconciliation, and variance analysis.
Advise stakeholders on accounting and financial impacts of incentive plan design and payout timing.
Judgment & Accountability
Exercise independent judgment in complex, ambiguous situations with material business or financial impact.
Influence decisions related to incentive processes, controls, and operational execution within established governance frameworks.
Mentor and guide lower-level compensation professionals, sharing expertise and best practices.
A successful candidate would:
Have strong organizational skills and detail oriented
Demonstrate strong time management and multitasking skills
Demonstrate advanced Excel experience
Have PowerPoint experience
Strong relationship building capability
Consistently seeking process improvements and implementations for elevating the organization
Demonstrate exceptional communication skills, with the ability to clearly influence stakeholders and explain complex concepts at all organizational levels.
Use your skills to make an impact
Required Qualifications
Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Economics, or related field or 3 yrs of Compensation experience
3 or more years of modeling experience or data analytics
Demonstrated proficiency with Microsoft tools (e.g. Excel, Powerpoint, etc.)
Leverage strong to advanced compensation incentive knowledge (commissions, bonuses, accelerators, SPIFs) and compliance awareness.
Preferred Qualifications
2 or more years of large enterprise level project leadership experience
Extensive experience administering incentive compensation programs within multiple lines of business.
Advanced hands-on experience with ICM platforms, Varicent, and Workday, Azure DevOps/Jira, SQL basics, API/file integrations, and including system logic interpretation and UAT leadership.
Recognized SME with experience serving as the escalation point for complex incentive or system issues.
Strong cross-functional leadership skills, with demonstrated influence across Compliance, IT, Sales, Finance, Enrollment, and Payroll.
Experience supporting or leading large-scale incentive plan changes, platform enhancements, or operational transformations.
Advanced understanding of accounting and financial reporting impacts related to incentive compensation.
Additional information:
In this role you will be an individual contributor.
In this role travel is not a requirement and if needed it would be based on business need.
In this role you will report to Associate Director of Compensation.
This role is fully remote within the US.
Travel: While this is a remote position, occasional travel to Humana's offices for training or meetings may be required.
Scheduled Weekly Hours
40
Pay Range
The compensation range below reflects a good faith estimate of starting base pay for full time (40 hours per week) employment at the time of posting. The pay range may be higher or lower based on geographic location and individual pay will vary based on demonstrated job related skills, knowledge, experience, education, certifications, etc.
$94,900 - $130,500 per year
This job is eligible for a bonus incentive plan. This incentive opportunity is based upon company and/or individual performance.
Description of Benefits
Humana, Inc. and its affiliated subsidiaries (collectively, "Humana") offers competitive benefits that support whole-person well-being. Associate benefits are designed to encourage personal wellness and smart healthcare decisions for you and your family while also knowing your life extends outside of work. Among our benefits, Humana provides medical, dental and vision benefits, 401(k) retirement savings plan, time off (including paid time off, company and personal holidays, volunteer time off, paid par
