Director, Commercial Excellence - Incentive Compensation

This is where your work makes a difference.

At Baxter, we believe every person—regardless of who they are or where they are from—deserves a chance to live a healthy life. It was our founding belief in 1931 and continues to be our guiding principle. We are redefining healthcare delivery to make a greater impact today, tomorrow, and beyond.

Our Baxter colleagues are united by our Mission to Save and Sustain Lives. Together, our community is driven by a culture of courage, trust, and collaboration. Every individual is empowered to take ownership and make a meaningful impact. We strive for efficient and effective operations, and we hold each other accountable for delivering exceptional results.

Here, you will find more than just a job—you will find purpose and pride. 

Summary

The Director, Commercial Excellence – Incentive Compensation UCAN is accountable for the end‑to‑end design, governance, and execution of Baxter’s incentive compensation programs across assigned commercial businesses. This role leads a high‑performing team and serves as the enterprise expert on incentive compensation strategy, ensuring programs are aligned with business objectives and delivered with accuracy, compliance, scalability, and operational excellence. The role partners closely with Sales Leadership, Finance, HR, IT, and Analytics to translate commercial strategy into clear, executable incentive plans that drive performance, transparency, and accountability.

This role is critical to enabling Baxter’s commercial transformation—ensuring incentive programs evolve alongside changing business models, systems, and growth priorities while maintaining clarity, trust, and disciplined execution across the field.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Strategic Partnership & Advisory
  Act as a trusted advisor to commercial leadership, Finance, and HR by translating business strategy into effective incentive plan designs that balance growth objectives, simplicity, risk management, and field motivation.
• End‑to‑End Incentive Compensation Ownership
  Own the full incentive compensation lifecycle, including plan design support, scenario modeling, approval governance, system configuration, quota and territory alignment, payout calculation, validation, and payment execution.
• Team Leadership & Development
  Lead, coach, and develop a global or regional incentive compensation team, building strong technical expertise, commercial understanding, accountability, and a culture of continuous improvement.
• Governance, Controls & Compliance
  Establish and maintain robust governance frameworks, controls, documentation, and audit‑ready processes to ensure accuracy, SOX compliance, and adherence to internal policies and external regulatory requirements.
• Operational Excellence & Continuous Improvement
  Drive standardization, simplification, and scalability of incentive compensation processes by leveraging automation, best practices, and data‑driven insights to improve cycle time, accuracy, transparency, and user experience.
• Systems, Data & Analytics Enablement
  Partner with CRM, incentive compensation systems, and analytics teams to ensure strong system integration, data integrity, and reporting capabilities that provide timely, decision‑support insights.
• Change Management & Communication
  Lead change management and communication strategies for new or evolving incentive plans, systems, and policies to ensure strong field understanding, adoption, and confidence.
• Stakeholder Management
  Coordinate effectively with commercial leaders and cross‑functional partners including Finance, HR, Legal, IT, and external vendors to resolve issues, manage dependencies, and deliver against commercial timelines.
• Transformation
  Lead the team through IT systems and process transformation initiatives to meet the needs of a changing organization and support future growth.

Qualifications

• Deep expertise in incentive compensation plan design, operations, and governance
• Strong people leadership skills with the ability to build, inspire, and manage high‑performing teams
• Advanced critical thinking and problem‑solving capabilities, with the ability to navigate ambiguity and complex trade‑offs
• Strong financial and analytical acumen, including modeling and scenario analysis
• Proven ability to influence senior stakeholders and operate effectively in a matrixed environment
• Demonstrated experience driving process standardization, automation, and operational rigor
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to translate complex concepts into clear, actionable messages
• High attention to detail with a strong control, risk, and compliance mindset
• Proven success managing senior stakeholders

Education and/or Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Economics, Analytics, or a related field (or country equivalent) required
• Master’s degree or MBA preferred
• 10+ years of progressive experience in incentive compensation, sales operations, commercial excellence, or a related discipline

• Advanced experience across the Incentive Compensation technology stack, including CRM and business intelligence tools

• Prior people management experience required

• Experience operating in complex, matrixed, and global commercial organizations strongly preferred
• Prior experience within healthcare, life sciences, or similarly regulated industries preferred

We understand compensation is an important factor as you consider the next step in your career. At Baxter, we are committed to equitable pay for all employees, and we strive to be more transparent with our pay practices. The estimated base salary for this position is $184,000 - $253,000 annually. The estimated range is meant to reflect an anticipated salary range for the position. We may pay more or less than of the anticipated range based upon market data and other factors, all of which are subject to change. Individual pay is based on upon location, skills and expertise, experience, and other relevant factors. This position may also be eligible for discretionary bonuses, commission, and/or long-term incentive. For questions about this, our pay philosophy, and available benefits, please speak to the recruiter if you decide to apply and are selected for an interview.

Baxter is committed to supporting the needs for flexibility in the workplace. We do so through our flexible workplace policy which includes a required minimum number of days a week onsite. This policy provides the benefits of connecting and collaborating in-person in support of our Mission. The flexible workplace policy is subject to local laws and legal requirements. At its discretion, Baxter may decide to adjust, suspend, or discontinue as business needs change.

US Benefits at Baxter (except for Puerto Rico)

This is where your well-being matters. Baxter offers comprehensive compensation and benefits packages for eligible roles. Our health and well-being benefits include medical and dental coverage that start on day one, as well as insurance coverage for basic life, accident, short-term and long-term disability, and business travel accident insurance. Financial and retirement benefits include the Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP), with the ability to purchase company stock at a discount, and the 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan (RSP), with options for employee contributions and company matching. We also offer Flexible Spending Accounts, educational assistance programs, and time-off benefits such as paid holidays, paid time off ranging from 20 to 35 days based on length of service, family and medical leaves of absence, and paid parental leave. Additional benefits include commuting benefits, the Employee Discount Program, the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), and childcare benefits. Join us and enjoy the competitive compensation and benefits we offer to our employees. For additional information regarding Baxter US Benefits, please speak with your recruiter or visit our Benefits site: Benefits | Baxter

Equal Employment Opportunity

Baxter is an equal opportunity employer. Baxter evaluates qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, protected veteran status, disability/handicap status or any other legally protected characteristic.

Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal

Reasonable Accommodations

Baxter is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities globally. If, because of a medical condition or disability, you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or interview process, please click on the link here and let us know the nature of your request along with your contact information.

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