Accounts Receivable Leader

As Team Lead Accounts Receivable (AR) India, you will lead a team of AR Associates & Senior Associates to ensure the effective and punctual delivery of global order-to-cash services, including customer invoicing, cash application, and collections support. The Team Lead AR is responsible for day-to-day AR operations and team performance, providing guidance and oversight to maintain standardised, high-quality processes and ensure service excellence for internal business units (primarily in North America). You will manage your teams workload and performance, serve as a key escalation point for complex AR issues, and drive continuous improvement and automation initiatives within the AR process, all while upholding strict compliance and control standards.

Key Responsibilities

• Team Leadership & Coordination: Supervise the AR teams daily activities, including task assignment, scheduling, and ensuring SLA adherence for invoicing, receipt application, and collections. Monitor team workload and capacity, reallocate resources as needed during high-volume periods, and guide the team to maintain on-schedule, high-quality output. Lead regular team meetings to review status, challenges, and priorities, and provide coaching and feedback for ongoing development of team members.
• Operational Control & Service Delivery: Oversee end-to-end AR operations to ensure accurate billing, timely cash posting, and efficient collections. Monitor real-time operational metrics (e.g., invoices processed, cash applied, collection calls made) and backlogs to proactively address delays or bottlenecks. Enforce process consistency and quality by reviewing critical transactions (e.g., high-value invoices, complex receipt allocations) and ensuring the team follows GBS standard operating procedures.
• Customer Account Management & Escalations: Manage escalations and complex AR issues that the team cannot resolve, such as customer disputes over invoices, complicated payment reconciliations, protracted overdue accounts, or non-standard billing arrangements. Work closely with internal partners (Sales, Customer Service, Business Unit Finance) and directly with key customers’ finance contacts when necessary to drive resolution of aged or problematic receivables.
• Continuous Improvement & Automation: Champion process improvement and automation efforts in AR. Analyse team performance data and identify root causes of recurring issues (e.g., common billing errors, frequent payment application problems) and implement corrective actions. Lead the team in piloting new tools or processes (like improved e-invoicing or auto-cash application features) deployed by GBS leadership, ensuring successful adoption and benefit realisation.
• Compliance & Control Management: Ensure compliance with all internal controls, accounting policies, and regulatory requirements in AR operations. Oversee the team’s execution of key AR controls (e.g., credit limit checks, segregation-of-duties in cash applications, customer master updates) and prepare the team for audits, addressing any control gaps or errors promptly to maintain a robust control environment.
• Reporting & Stakeholder Communication: Monitor AR performance metrics (e.g., Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), overdue receivables, cash application accuracy) and compile regular status reports or dashboards for GBS management. Communicate with internal stakeholders (business units, Group Finance) regarding AR status (e.g., large overdue issues, expected cash flow impacts) and improvement plans, ensuring transparency and alignment.

Key Stakeholders / Interfaces

• External: Key Customers (Accounts Payable departments) – Engage with customers’ finance teams for higher-level receivables or payment escalations (e.g., negotiating payment plans for severely overdue accounts, resolution of complex disputes) to maintain positive relationships and facilitate collections.
• Internal: GBS AR Team (leading associates and senior associates); Business unit Finance/Controlling and Sales/Commercial (to coordinate on complex billing issues, customer credit matters, or collection strategies); Group Controlling/Treasury (for credit limit management, cash forecasting, and to escalate significant credit risk or potential write-offs); GBS Operations Manager or GBS AR Process Lead (for performance reporting, strategic guidance, and alignment on improvement initiatives); IT Support (for AR system improvements or issue resolution).

Required Qualifications and Experience

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Commerce, Business Administration or related discipline.
• Experience: 8+ years of Accounts Receivable or order-to-cash experience, with at least 2–3 years in a team lead or supervisory role in shared services/SSC context15. Experience managing a team responsible for multinational AR processes (including exposure to collections and customer dispute management) is preferred.
• Technical Skills: Strong proficiency in enterprise ERP/finance systems (e.g. SAP or similar) for AR (billing, cash application, reporting) activities. Solid MS Excel skills and familiarity with AR workflow tools (e.g., customer portals, collection management systems). Knowledge of financial and compliance requirements, such as credit management policies and SOX controls.
• Language: Fluent English (written and spoken) for regular communication with global stakeholders. Additional language skills are advantageous.

Key Skills and Competencies

• Leadership & Team Management: Effective leadership skills to manage and develop a team of AR professionals, fostering a high-performance, service-oriented culture. Experienced in delegation, coaching, providing constructive feedback, and managing team performance.
• Organisational & Strategic Thinking: Ability to plan and organise team workflows, identify resource needs, and align team efforts to meet operational goals and deadlines. Strategic thinking to anticipate workload peaks (e.g., quarter-end push) and implement staffing or scheduling adjustments to maintain service levels.
• Communication & Stakeholder Management: Excellent communication abilities for interfacing with international customers and internal management. Skilled at negotiating and handling sensitive customer situations diplomatically, and at conveying team performance data and improvements to upper management clearly.
• Problem Solving & Decision Making: Analytical and decisive, with the capacity to quickly navigate and resolve complex AR issues while considering risk and impact. Comfortable serving as the final decision authority for team-level operational issues, within the scope of GBS guidelines and credit policies.
• Process & Control Ownership: In-depth knowledge of AR processes and best practices, with the responsibility to ensure procedural adherence and robust internal controls. Vigilant about compliance and risk mitigation, instilling a strong control focus in the team.
• Continuous Improvement Mindset: Demonstrates a practical improvement mindset by identifying recurring issues and supporting incremental process standardisation and automation under defined GBS governance. Proactively leads the team in adopting more efficient methods and tools to enhance accuracy and productivity.

Work Window / Shift Coverage

• US Business Hours: This role operates on a fixed US business-hours shift (no domestic rotation). Typical working hours align with North American working hours (approximately IST 15:00 – 24:00 and later), to ensure direct support to US/Canada stakeholders. The first 6 months will be 100% US window coverage i.e. 6.00 PM to 3.00 AM to ensure set-up and stability of GBS operations in the first phase of transition.
• Close-Period Coverage: During month-end and quarter-end closures, the Team Lead – AR provides full coverage of US business hours, working extended hours and/or weekends as needed to guarantee all AR closing activities (e.g., final invoicing, cash cut-off, overdue collections follow-ups) are completed on schedule.

Performance Expectations / KPIs

• As Team Lead – AR, your performance will be measured by operational success and team management outcomes. Key expectations include:
• Operational KPIs: Target Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) and overdue receivables metrics met or improved, reflecting effective collections management. High accuracy in cash application and timely issuance of invoices (e.g., 98% of payments applied within one business day; 95% of invoices issued on time) indicate strong process control and execution.
• Team Performance & Development: The team consistently meets service levels for billing, cash posting, and query resolution, demonstrating a well-managed and skilled team. The Team Lead’s effective coaching and capacity planning result in high productivity, low error rates, and cross-trained team members capable of maintaining service continuity during peak periods or absences.
• Compliance & Improvement: No audit or compliance issues in the AR function under your leadership, indicating robust control oversight. Implementation of process improvements and automation projects that yield measurable benefits (e.g., reduction in unapplied cash, improved DSO trend) are also considered in performance evaluation as an indicator of strong leadership in process excellence.