Senior Principal, Sales Compensation Design & Strategy

About Us At Cloudflare, we are on a mission to help build a better Internet. Today the company runs one of the world’s largest networks that powers millions of websites and other Internet properties for customers ranging from individual bloggers to SMBs to Fortune 500 companies. Cloudflare protects and accelerates any Internet application online without adding hardware, installing software, or changing a line of code. Internet properties powered by Cloudflare all have web traffic routed through its intelligent global network, which gets smarter with every request. As a result, they see significant improvement in performance and a decrease in spam and other attacks. Cloudflare was named to Entrepreneur Magazine’s Top Company Cultures list and ranked among the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company. At Cloudflare, we’re not looking for people who wait for a polished roadmap; we’re looking for the builders who see the cracks in the Internet that everyone else has simply learned to live with. We value candidates who have the instinct to spot a "normalized" problem and the AI-native curiosity to create a solution using the latest tools. Our culture is built on iteration, leveraging AI to ship faster today to make it better tomorrow, while ensuring that every improvement, no matter how small, is shared across the team to lift everyone up. If you’re the type of person who values curiosity over bureaucracy, and that AI is a partner in solving tough problems to keep the Internet moving forward, you’ll fit right in. Available Locations • US Applications will be accepted until October 13, 2026. About the Role The Global GTM Strategy, Planning and Operations team at Cloudflare supports our high-growth Sales organization through scalable, AI supported GTM planning and operations. We focus on thoughtful planning of sales capacity, segmentation, territory carving, quota setting, and compensation design while ensuring clear rules of engagement for our Sales Team. Our goal is to establish a cohesive, consistent process framework that can support high growth, enable the Company's strategy, and accelerate Cloudflare's leadership in the developer and AI-native business segments. As the Senior Principal, Sales Compensation Design & Strategy, you will design and manage Cloudflare's Sales Compensation Plans across all customer facing teams including Sales, Technical Sales, Partner Sales, and Customer Success & Experience, to ensure they are motivating, aligned with Cloudflare's strategy, and industry leading. This is a high visibility role with significant executive engagement, including leading C-level discussions with our CRO, CFO, CPO, and COO, and serving as the design authority on the Executive Compensation Steering Committee. You will architect new compensation metrics that reflect how Cloudflare monetizes a developer first, AI supportive business - including consumption, adoption, and platform attach - and ensure roles, territories, and quotas align with compensation plans to achieve our GTM objectives. You will establish a governance framework for efficient compensation planning and partner closely with the Compensation Administration and Operations Teams to ensure effective implementation and accurate payouts. A strong understanding of SaaS bookings, monetization approaches, and consumption and adoption models is essential. The scope of executive influence, the architectural work required to support our developer/AI business model, and the AI-native transformation of the compensation design function make this seat fundamental to our GTM execution strategy. Responsibilities Executive Leadership & Design Authority • Lead the Sales Compensation Design Process with the Executive Steering Committee, including CRO, CFO, and CPO level stakeholders. • Drive C-level discussions on compensation philosophy, pay-for-performance outcomes, and strategic trade-offs; develop recommendation decks and own the narrative through approval. • Architect new metrics that align seller incentives with Cloudflare's developer platform and AI product strategy (e.g., Workers consumption, AI Gateway adoption, platform attach, multi-product penetration). • Create a 3-year roadmap for the Sales Compensation Design function. AI-Native Compensation Design • Build the AI Compensation Design Framework and Application - an internal capability that uses AI to accelerate plan modeling, scenario simulation, payout forecasting, and what-if analysis across thousands of sellers and territories. • Leverage AI to design high-quality SPIFFs and incentive structures, including generating candidate designs, simulating seller behavior, and stress-testing against historical data before launch. • Track ROI of comp plans, SPIFFs, and incentive programs using AI-driven analytics - moving from lagging reporting to predictive measurement of plan effectiveness, seller behavior change, and revenue lift. • Develop AI-powered pay-for-performance reporting that surfaces insights for executives, managers, and sellers in real time, replacing static quarterly reviews with continuous intelligence. Cross-Functional Execution • Collaborate with GTM Strategy, Operations, Finance, HR, IT, and Product to ensure effective deployment of compensation plans and GTM strategy. • Lead compensation enablement and change management for the global Sales team, including AI-assisted communications, FAQ generation, and plan-acceptance workflows. • Design SPIFFs and incentive strategies that balance long-term strategic bets with short-term revenue goals. • Partner with the Compensation Administration and Operations Teams to ensure design intent translates into accurate, auditable payouts. Required Experience & Skills • 15+ years of experience in Sales Compensation Design in a fast-paced tech company or as a management consultant. • Demonstrated fluency with AI tools and AI-augmented workflows - whether through prior comp design work, analytics