This is an exciting opportunity to join our Finance team supporting the business in accounts payable and procurement operations.  You will be a champion for ethical and efficient business practices across all aspects of our purchase-to-pay processes.  We are seeking someone with excellent communication skills and who has the ability to work autonomously as well as closely with others. The ideal candidate will have strong initiative and be able to consider ‘the big picture’.  

As part of this role, you will be essential to the smooth functioning of our accounts payable and finance teams.  Your responsibilities will ensure that processes are handled efficiently, with operational matters addressed promptly and professionally.  This will involve ensuring that our suppliers are paid on time and helping our business users navigate the purchasing process, all while ensuring a high level of compliance to corporate policy.  You will also produce dashboards, exception and trend reports to highlight anomalies and inefficiencies and help maintain clean purchase ledger records to ensure that the company can accurately account for its commitments.     

You will also support the Senior Procurement Manager by supporting some tactical projects, for example helping to identify inefficiencies in our supply chain relationship through small scale purchasing through similar multiple suppliers. By contributing to cost management and other critical tasks, this role will help drive the success of our overall business strategy.

Responsibilities

Process improvement for purchasing:

• Purchasing Help Desk: Acting as the primary point of contact for purchasing-related queries from the business, alleviating the workload of other finance teams by managing day-to-day operational issues. You will also provide support to users facing challenges with procurement systems and processes, ensuring compliance with service-level agreements (SLAs).
• Purchasing Controls: Conducting exception reporting, such as identifying inefficient use of processes (e.g., retrospective authorizations, multiple POs) and monitoring compliance.
• Continuous Improvement: Identifying opportunities for process enhancements and driving implementation.
• Expense Oversight: Monitoring business travel and expenses, managing corporate cards, and generating exception reports to ensure policy compliance.
• Supplier Assurance: Performing assurance checks in line with established processes and standards.
• Training: Delivering finance and business end-user training to support purchasing activities, fostering a comprehensive understanding of procurement policies across the business.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: Working with other support functions to resolve procurement-related issues and streamline cross-functional processes.  You will contribute subject matter expertise for upgrades to our AP and purchasing systems.

 Accounts Payable team responsibilities include:

• Invoice Management: Accurately entering supplier invoices and matching them to corresponding purchase orders and receipts.
• Payment Processing: Managing weekly multi-currency payment runs.
• Supplier Account Management: Setting up and updating supplier accounts.
• Expense Processing: Handling staff expense claims in compliance with the travel and expense policy.
• Query Resolution: Promptly addressing queries via the Accounts Payable mailbox.

• Strong experience in accounts payable and/or procurement operations roles. 
• Exceptional customer service skills: Capable of not only supporting stakeholders but also effectively challenging them to adhere to optimal purchasing processes and corporate policies.
• Advanced Excel proficiency: Adept at presenting information clearly and appropriately, ensuring data is easy to understand and actionable.
• Strong analytical abilities: Skilled in producing, analysing, and interpreting reports to drive informed decision-making.
• Decisive and self-assured: Confident in operating independently, with a positive, self-reliant, and enthusiastic attitude. Thrives in fast-paced, dynamic environments.
• Outstanding communication skills: Excellent written and verbal communication abilities, ensuring clear and effective interaction at all levels.