Compensation Director

San Antonio Spurs Sports & Entertainment•San Antonio, TX

18h

About The Position

At Spurs Sports & Entertainment (SS&E), we work in service of something bigger than ourselves. To us, it’s more than a game or concert—it’s about creating moments that excite, memories that endure, and connections that strengthen our community. SS&E owns and operates the San Antonio Spurs (NBA), Austin Spurs (NBA G-League), San Antonio FC (USL), and manages the Frost Bank Center, Toyota Field, and STAR Complex. With a workforce of 1,000+ employees across sports, entertainment, and operations, how we enable our people, matters deeply. We believe our people are our greatest asset. Guided by our values—Integrity, Success & Caring—we are building a modern, inclusive, and data-enabled HR function that empowers leaders to make smarter decisions and delivers an exceptional employee experience. The Director, Compensation will lead and evolve the organization’s compensation function by building and strengthening the underlying infrastructure, while providing strategic direction, governance, and hands-on execution across all compensation programs. Reporting directly to the CPO, this role serves as a critical advisor and is responsible for operationalizing and advancing an established compensation philosophy in support of Spurs Sports & Entertainment’s business strategy and talent objectives. This is a transformational role focused on building and modernizing compensation capabilities to support consistency, scalability, and sound decision-making. The Director will design, implement, and sustain core compensation frameworks — including job and pay architecture, market benchmarking, incentive and bonus programs, sales incentive compensation, and pay governance. Success in this role requires comfort operating in evolving environments, strong executive partnership, and the ability to translate strategy into practical, durable solutions. The role carries a strong financial and operational focus, requiring deep understanding of compensation economics, annual planning cycles, and budget management.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Finance, Business, Economics, or a related field.
10+ years of progressive compensation experience, including leadership at the Director level or equivalent.
Demonstrated success implementing and evolving compensation programs, including job architecture, market pricing, incentive, and sales compensation plans.
Strong executive presence with the ability to influence senior leaders and serve as a trusted advisor in complex, evolving environments.
Ability to communicate complex compensation and financial concepts clearly and confidently, translating data and analysis into clear narratives and recommendations.
Sound professional judgment with comfort navigating ambiguity, tradeoffs, and competing priorities.
Proven capability to lead through change, introducing new structures and guardrails while maintaining trust and momentum.
Strong financial acumen, including the ability to: Build, manage, and steward compensation budgets. Model and forecast compensation costs under multiple scenarios. Analyze and explain the P&L impact of merit, incentive, promotion, and market adjustment increases. Translate complex financial data into clear, actionable recommendations for senior leaders.

Responsibilities

Lead the execution and ongoing evolution of the organization’s established compensation philosophy.
Partner directly with the CPO and executive leadership as the primary compensation subject matter expert.
Ensure compensation programs are aligned with business priorities, talent strategy, and financial parameters.
Provide strategic recommendations to leadership based on market insights, internal equity, and financial impact.
Design and implement a comprehensive job architecture, including job families, leveling, and career paths across the organization.
Build and maintain market-competitive salary structures, pay ranges, and frameworks.
Ensure consistent role evaluation and application in partnership with HR Business Partners and leaders.
Lead the annual compensation planning process, including merit increases, bonus payouts, sales incentive plans, and promotional increases.
Develop and manage compensation budgets, including forecasting, scenario modeling, and cost impact analysis.
Partner closely with Finance to ensure compensation programs are affordable, sustainable, and aligned with annual operating plans.
Provide guidance, tools, and guardrails to leaders to support effective compensation decision-making.
Design, implement, and oversee short-term incentive, bonus, and sales compensation programs.
Partner with Revenue, and Finance leaders to align sales incentive plans with revenue goals, performance metrics, and desired behaviors.
Ensure bonus programs are financially sound, scalable, and consistently administered.
Develop plan documentation, eligibility criteria, metrics, payout calculations, and communication materials.
Establish and maintain a rigorous benchmarking approach using relevant market data sources, including sales and revenue-generating roles.
Monitor market competitiveness, internal equity, compression, and pay progression.
Deliver data-driven insights, dashboards, and recommendations to executive leadership.
Ensure compensation programs comply with applicable federal, state, and local regulations, including pay equity and transparency requirements.
Identify and mitigate compensation-related risks, including those associated with incentive and sales compensation plans.
Support audits, governance reviews, and leadership reporting.
Build, lead, and develop the compensation function and team, as applicable.
Partner cross-functionally with Finance, Legal, People & Culture, Sales, and business leaders across all lines of business.
Serve as a trusted advisor on complex, sensitive compensation matters.
Lead change management related to compensation program enhancements and structural improvements.
Partner with Learning & Development and Communications to develop clear, leader-ready communications and training materials.
Drive understanding, adoption, and confidence in compensation programs across the organization.