Senior Manager-Sales Incentive

SUMMARY OF THE ROLE

The Senior Incentive Manager will lead the design, governance, and optimization of sales incentive plans for the China commercial organization. This role partners closely with Sales, Finance, HR, and Compliance to translate strategy into effective, compliant incentive plans that drive performance across field teams and key account segments. The ideal candidate combines deep incentive design expertise in pharmaceuticals with strong analytical capability, stakeholder management, and a rigorous governance mindset. 

ROLE & RESPONSIBILITIES

1.Incentive Strategy & Design: Develop end-to-end sales incentive policies and plan architectures aligned with brand/portfolio strategy, market dynamics, and compliance requirements.

2.Performance Metrics & Targeting: Define and operationalize KPI frameworks (e.g., sales productivity, volume/value growth, multi-channel engagement quality, account coverage) including segmentation, weightings, and target-setting methodologies.

3.Modeling & Analytics: Build robust financial models to forecast incentive cost, sensitivity test plan scenarios, and measure plan effectiveness (ROI, pay-for-performance, pay equity, and risk analyses). Provide insights to optimize plan design.

4.Plan Governance & Compliance: Establish and maintain policies, controls, and documentation to ensure incentives comply with China regulations, industry codes, and company policies; partner with Legal/Compliance on reviews.

5.Operational Excellence: Oversee monthly incentive calculation processes, dispute resolution, and payout approvals. Drive process automation and data quality improvements in collaboration with Commercial Operations and IT.

6.Stakeholder Engagement: Facilitate cross-functional design workshops, secure executive alignment, and communicate plan rules and changes clearly to field teams and managers. Provide training materials and FAQs.

7.Change Management: Lead annual plan cycle and in-year adjustments for market changes, product launches, organizational shifts, and strategic priorities. Manage timelines, cutovers, and communication plans.

8.Benchmarking & Continuous Improvement: Monitor market practices in China’s pharma sector (MNC and local), run external/internal benchmarks, and propose innovations (e.g., customer outcome metrics, omnichannel KPIs,

differentiated plans by role).

9.Risk & Audit Readiness: Prepare audit-ready documentation, maintain calculation traceability, and manage controls for exceptions, manual overrides, and disputes; conduct periodic risk assessments and remediation.

REQUIREMENTS

1.Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Economics, Statistics, or related field; Master’s degree or MBA preferred.

2.8+ years in sales incentive design/compensation, commercial operations, or finance within the pharmaceutical or healthcare industry; experience in multinational companies in China strongly preferred.

3. Advanced Excel and financial modeling; proficiency with BI tools (e.g., Power BI/Tableau) or similar for data analysis.

4. Strong understanding of quota methodologies, KPI frameworks, and pay-for-performance analytics.

5. Regulatory & Compliance Knowledge: Solid understanding of China regulatory environment and industry codes relevant to sales incentives, including anti-bribery/anti-kickback standards and promotional compliance.

6. Excellent stakeholder management, structured communication, and presentation skills; ability to influence senior leaders and drive cross-functional alignment.

7. Strong problem-solving and attention to detail.

AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity. We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills. We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics. We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorisation and employment eligibility verification requirements.