Head of Finance SSC

About The Job:

• Head of Finance SSC
• End to end leadership of Finance Shared Services (primary)
• Assume full leadership and accountability for Finance Shared Services operations, covering Record to Report (R2R), Order to Cash (O2C) and Procure to Pay (P2P) across all in scope geographies.
• Ensure Finance Shared Services operates as a high performing, well governed global operation, delivering reliable outcomes at scale.
• Lead, develop and retain a diverse, geographically distributed workforce, setting clear expectations for performance, capability uplift and accountability.
• Act as the senior point of accountability for Finance Shared Services with Group Finance leadership, regional finance leaders and the broader business.

Essential Job Functions:

• Continuous improvement & operational excellence (explicit primary expectation)
• Introduce and embed proven continuous improvement methodologies and tools (e.g. Lean, Six Sigma, operational excellence frameworks, visual management, root cause analysis, standard work, problem solving disciplines) across Finance Shared Services.
• Build Finance Shared Services capability in process thinking, data-driven decision making and structured improvement, reducing reliance on individual dependency.
• Establish a strong performance management cadence, including clearly defined KPIs, SLAs, service quality measures, and improvement backlogs.
• Drive measurable and sustained improvements in:
• Timeliness (e.g. close cycles, transaction turnaround times)
• Quality and accuracy
• Exception and rework rates
• Cost to serve
• Control effectiveness and risk outcomes
• Create a culture where continuous improvement is embedded in BAU, not treated as a one-off transformation activity.
• Leadership of value stream SMEs
• Provide clear leadership and prioritisation to the three value stream leads (R2R, O2C, P2P), ensuring consistent application of improvement methodologies and operational standards and digital enablement across Finance Shared Services.
• Ensure the value stream leads are:
• Uplifting current state operational capability through the disciplined use of structured continuous improvement tools, automation, analytics, and AI to drive measurable productivity and controllership improvements, including faster close cycles, improved reconciliation quality, reduced manual journals, and stronger preventive controls
• Contributing high quality operational input into future state design, embedding automation first, data driven, and AI enabled solutions that are scalable, adoptable, and aligned to the future ERP and operating model
• Resolve cross value stream issues, dependencies, and trade offs to optimise end to end outcomes, controllership effectiveness, and overall Finance Shared Services performance.
• Back Office Modernisation – operational input & transition (secondary)
• Act as the senior operational authority for Finance Shared Services into the Back Office Modernisation program.
• Ensure future state process and operating model designs are:
• Fit for purpose for shared services
• Aligned to client’s “adopt not adapt” principles
• Supported by clear operational controls, metrics and ownership
• Lead Finance Shared Services readiness for transition to the new ERP and operating model, including people capability, process readiness and change adoption.
• Own the safe and effective transition of Finance Shared Services into the future state platform and operating model, maintaining operational continuity.
• Stakeholder leadership & governance
• Build strong, trusted relationships with Group Finance, regional and country finance leaders, auditors, and corporate stakeholders, acting as a credible and authoritative Finance Shared Services leader.
• Provide transparent, timely reporting on operational performance, controllership outcomes, statutory compliance, audit findings, risk exposures, improvement progress, and transformation readiness.
• Exercise clear ownership and accountability for statutory compliance, audit outcomes, and consistent enforcement of accounting policies across Finance Shared Services, ensuring alignment with Group Finance standards and regulatory requirements.
• Represent Finance Shared Services confidently in senior governance forums and executive discussions, providing informed recommendations and exercising financial governance sign off authority on key operational, compliance, and transformation decisions.
• Value Creation Lead (R2R)
• BAU uplift (operational excellence)
• Establish a clear current state baseline for close, accounting, reconciliations, and reporting activities across Finance Shared Services and in country teams, including the interfaces, hand offs, and dependencies between FSS and network teams; identify pain points, duplication, inefficiencies, and control gaps across the end to end process.
• Drive continuous improvement in R2R execution (standard work, controls discipline, issue management, quality assurance) with outcomes tracked through operational metrics (e.g., close timeliness, recon quality, journal accuracy, exceptions, audit readiness).
• Strengthen governance around master data, accounting rules and reporting consistency to reduce manual rework and improve reliability of management reporting.
• Future state design & BOM interface
• Act as the R2R process owner representative into the Back Office Modernisation program ensuring global R2R design is contemporary, standardised and automation enabled (including improved dashboards/infolets and subledger accounting practices where applicable).
• Support discovery/design by providing process insights, volumes, local variations and control requirements to enable a fit to standard model and reduce customisation.
• Partner with program leadership to define the R2R service catalogue, SLAs/OLAs and operating model (including what remains local vs centralised) for the expanded shared services model.
• Transition & adoption
• Prepare FSS teams for the new ERP and ways of working; support training needs, cutover readiness, and stabilisation/hyper care for R2R as countries and entities transition.
• Value Creation Lead (P2P)
• BAU uplift (operational excellence)
• Baseline current P2P performance end-to-end (requisition to PO, invoice processing, approvals, payments, supplier queries), identifying bottlenecks, control gaps, and manual workarounds.
• Drive process improvements focused on cycle time, compliance to policy/DOA, reduction in exceptions, and improved supplier experience—measured through operational metrics (e.g., invoice cycle time, first time match rate, on time payment rate, exception volumes, query volumes).
• Strengthen procurement/finance interfaces for policy alignment, spend visibility, and controls (segregation of duties, audit trails).
• Future state design & BOM interface
• Represent P2P into BOM discovery/design: define fit to standard global P2P processes, controls and enabling capabilities (e.g., supplier onboarding, portal/self-service, workflow approvals), aligned to “configuration not customisation.”
• Provide process/volume insights and local requirements to support design decisions and implementation planning.
• Co-define the P2P service catalogue, SLAs/OLAs and operating model scope for centralisation into FSS, supporting transition planning for in country activities.
• Transition & adoption
• Lead P2P readiness activities (training, knowledge transfer, cutover planning, hyper care) across implementation waves to ensure stable operations as the new ERP and shared services scope comes online.
• Value Creation Lead (O2C)
• BAU uplift (operational excellence)
• Diagnose current O2C performance and constraints (billing timeliness, AR ageing, dispute/credit handling, cash application efficiency), including cross system breakpoints that contribute to errors, delays and revenue leakage risk.
• Improve day-to-day O2C execution through standard work, prioritisation, exception management and stronger handoffs with commercial/country teams measured via operational metrics (e.g., DSO, ageing, unapplied cash, billing cycle times, error rates).
• Reduce manual handling and rework by streamlining processes and strengthening data quality and controls.
• Future state design & BOM interface
• Represent O2C into BOM discovery/design: define fit-to-standard future state, leveraging modern ERP capabilities for receivables automation and centralised cash application where relevant, aligned to “adopt not adapt.”
• Provide process detail, volumes and local nuances to accelerate solution design and reduce customisation risk.
• Define the O2C service catalogue, SLAs/OLAs and operating model boundaries (what is centralised vs retained locally), supporting the transition of in-country activities to FSS.
• Transition & adoption
• Support O2C cutover readiness, training and hyper care during deployment waves; embed new ways of working and continuous improvement mechanisms post go live.

Qualifications:

• Executive leadership experience in Finance Shared Services
• Strong expertise across R2R, O2C, and P2P processes
• Experience with ERP transformation and shared services setups
• Deep knowledge of continuous improvement frameworks (Lean, Six Sigma)
• Strong governance, audit, and stakeholder management capabilities

How to Apply: Interested candidates are encouraged to respond/submit their updated resumes, and for additional job opportunities, please visit Jobs In India – VARITE.

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About VARITE: VARITE is a global staffing and IT consulting company providing technical consulting and team augmentation services to Fortune 500 Companies in USA, UK, CANADA and INDIA. VARITE is currently a primary and direct vendor to the leading corporations in the verticals of Networking, Cloud Infrastructure, Hardware and Software, Digital Marketing and Media Solutions, Clinical Diagnostics, Utilities, Gaming and Entertainment, and Financial Services.

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