The Supplier Accounting Operations team lead is responsible for leading the firm’s global supplier accounting function, including Accounts Payable, invoice-to-pay operations, supplier inquiry management, and Travel & Expense (“T&E”) administration. The role is accountable for delivering accurate, timely, controlled, and scalable operations; maintaining a robust AP control environment; and continuously improving service, systems, data and operating efficiency.
In the role of Team Lead, Supplier Accounting Operations, the employee will be responsible for the following:
- Lead, develop, motivate, and evaluate the Supplier Accounting Operations team, fostering a collaborative, accountable, high-performance environment.
- Own the end-to-end global invoice-to-pay process, including invoice intake, coding, approval workflows, exception handling, payment readiness, supplier on-boarding for payment and invoice processing, supplier inquiries, and aging management.
- Ensure supplier invoices are processed accurately and within established service-level agreements, with appropriate expense allocation, classification, documentation, and approvals.
- Establish and maintain a strong control environment across supplier accounting processes, including approval authorities, segregation of duties, invoice validation, supplier-master changes, payment controls, audit evidence, and fraud-prevention procedures.
- Partner with the relevant stakeholders on procure-to-pay process, month-end and year-end accounting cycles (accounts reconciliation, certifications and accruals), payment-run readiness, payment exceptions, supplier payment inquiries, and cash-flow forecasting inputs.
- Oversee and enhance the T&E expense-management process, including collaborating on policy administration, employee support, approval workflows, compliance monitoring, reporting, and identification of process-improvement opportunities.
- Monitor and manage AP inboxes and case queues to ensure timely, accurate, and professional resolution of internal and external inquiries.
- Develop, track, and report operational KPIs, including invoice cycle times, approval aging, on-time payment performance, processing accuracy, exception volumes, inquiry response times, and policy-compliance metrics.
- Identify operational risks, control gaps, recurring exceptions, and root causes; implement remediation plans and escalate significant matters to Finance leadership as appropriate.
- Lead continuous-improvement initiatives across people, process, data, and technology, including Workday workflow optimization, automation opportunities, reporting enhancements, and process standardization.
- Prepare and communicate concise operational reporting, trends, risks, and recommendations to executive leadership and key stakeholders.
QUALIFICATIONS & REQUIREMENTS:
- In order to effectively represent the Company and communicate with stakeholders, the employee must be someone who has:
- Demonstrated leadership capability, with the ability to build, coach, retain, and develop an effective operations team.
- Strong knowledge of end-to-end accounts payable, supplier accounting, invoice-to-pay, T&E, and related financial-control best practices.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, including the ability to identify process breakdowns, assess root causes, and implement sustainable solutions.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present operational issues, financial information, and recommendations to senior stakeholders.
- Proven ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced, dynamic environment while maintaining high standards of accuracy, service, and control.
- Highly organized, detail-oriented, and proactive, with a strong sense of ownership and sound professional judgment.
- Experience working cross-functionally with Finance, Treasury, Procurement, Technology, Legal, Tax, and business stakeholders.
- Experience leading process improvement, automation, systems implementation, or ERP/workflow optimization initiatives is strongly preferred.
EDUCATION, TRAINING & EXPERIENCE:
- Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related business discipline, or equivalent relevant experience, required.
- 10-15 years of relevant experience in Accounts Payable, supplier accounting, or finance operations, including meaningful people-management responsibility.
- Experience leading a global, multi-entity, or complex accounting operation strongly preferred.
- Experience with Workday Financial Management and/or Workday Expenses preferred.
- Strong understanding of accounting principles, AP controls, invoice approval workflows, expense allocation, accruals, and close processes.
- Experience with AP automation, workflow tools, reporting, and data analysis strongly preferred.