Ecolab - Senior Manager - Accounts Payable

Position Summary:

The Accounts Payable Senior Manager is responsible for leading the end-to-end Accounts Payable function, ensuring timely and accurate invoice processing, vendor payments, reconciliation activities, compliance with company policies, and continuous process improvement. This role provides strategic leadership to AP teams, drives operational excellence, manages stakeholder relationships, and ensures strong financial controls across multiple business units and geographies.

Key Responsibilities:

Leadership & Team Management - 200+ Team members:

• Lead, develop, and mentor Accounts Payable managers, supervisors, team leads, and analysts.
• Establish performance goals, monitor productivity, and drive employee engagement.
• Build a high-performing culture focused on accountability, customer service, and continuous improvement.
• Support organizational development, succession planning, and talent management initiatives.

Accounts Payable Operations:

• Oversee end-to-end invoice processing, payment execution, vendor maintenance, and AP reconciliations.
• Ensure compliance with service level agreements (SLAs) and key performance indicators (KPIs).
• Monitor invoice aging, payment accuracy, duplicate payment prevention, and exception resolution.
• Ensure timely month-end and year-end close activities related to AP.

Financial Controls & Compliance:

• Maintain strong internal controls and compliance with company policies, accounting standards, SOX requirements, and regulatory guidelines.
• Lead internal and external audit activities related to Accounts Payable.
• Drive risk identification and mitigation strategies within AP processes.

Vendor & Stakeholder Management:

• Develop strong relationships with vendors, procurement teams, treasury, finance leaders, and business stakeholders.
• Resolve complex vendor escalations and payment disputes.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to improve procure-to-pay processes.

Process Improvement & Transformation:

• Identify opportunities for automation, standardization, and process optimization.
• Lead AP transformation initiatives, system upgrades, and digitalization projects.
• Drive adoption of technologies such as OCR, workflow tools, vendor reconciliation solutions, and ERP enhancements.
• Utilize data analytics to improve process efficiency and decision-making.

Reporting & Analytics:

• Monitor AP metrics and prepare executive-level reporting.
• Analyze payment trends, aging reports, exception volumes, and productivity metrics.
• Present operational reviews and improvement recommendations to finance leadership.

Qualifications:

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, or related field.
• MBA, or equivalent professional qualification preferred.

Experience:

• 18+ years of progressive Accounts Payable experience (T&E, Invoice Processing etc).
• Experience of implementing projects related to accounts payable sub functions.
• 5+ years of people leadership experience managing mid to large AP teams.
• Experience supporting multi-country or global AP operations.
• Experience with implementation of ERP platforms such as SAP, Oracle, etc.

Preferred Skills:

• Strong understanding of Procure-to-Pay (P2P) processes.
• Excellent leadership and stakeholder management skills.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• Expertise in process improvement methodologies.
• Experience leading automation and transformation projects.
• Advanced Excel and reporting skills.
• Strong communication and presentation capabilities.

Key Success Measures (KPIs):

• Invoice processing turnaround time.
• Payment accuracy rate.
• On-time payment percentage.
• Aged payables reduction.
• Vendor satisfaction metrics.
• Productivity per FTE.
• Audit findings and control compliance.
• Cost savings and process efficiency improvements.
• Employee engagement and retention.