Service Delivery Manager — Finance Operations

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Service Delivery Manager leads the Finance Operations cluster — Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Billing and Collections — through the Team Managers running each line. The role carries the cluster end to end delivery, the P&L, the client relationship above the Team Manager, and the health of the people in it. It is the named owner on incidents in the cluster and is accountable for attrition, churn, CSAT and coaching compliance. Hands-on processing is not part of the role, and neither is running a queue. The role is also the layer the Team Managers underneath progress into, so developing them is part of the job rather than a by-product of it.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Finance operations

• Own the cluster P&L — revenue, cost, margin and utilization — and know what moves each
• Find where margin leaks: overtime, shrinkage, unbilled work, and work absorbed that was never charged for
• Accounts Payable — processing throughput and accuracy, PO and invoice matching, vendor statement reconciliation, duplicate and erroneous payments, aged payables
• Accounts Receivable and Collections — AR aging, DSO, collections against target, promise-to-pay conversion, disputes, credit holds, and what gets escalated for write-off
• Billing — billing accuracy, invoice submission into client portals, unbilled revenue, rebilling and billing disputes
• Cash application — application accuracy, remittance matching, and the age of unapplied cash
• Own the numbers that go to the client, and challenge them before they go

Leading the cluster

• Lead the Team Managers across the lines — set the standard, hold it, and run the performance loop through them rather than around them
• Build and hold the operating cadence — one to ones, reviews, WBRs and MBRs — and know when an account is in trouble before the Team Manager says so
• Named owner on incidents in the cluster. Establish scope before a cause is recorded, design the control that stops a recurrence, and see that it holds
• Own attrition, churn, CSAT and coaching compliance across the cluster, and act on them before they show up in a client conversation
• Carry the client relationship above the Team Manager, including the commercial conversation on scope and service levels
• Deliver bad news early and directly, to the client and to the Practice Leader
• Plan capacity against the work: coverage, single points of failure, and what the volumes say can and cannot be delivered
• Keep a trained backup on every seat where one person carries a scope on their own
• Develop the Team Managers into the next layer — identify who is ready, put the evidence behind it, and support them through the readiness track
• Recommend hiring, pay and performance actions with the evidence behind them, and route anything touching employment through HR
• Participate in continuous improvement projects across the Practice
• Hybrid work setup, with occasional on-site reporting as required by business needs
• Work schedule may be adjusted based on operational requirements

SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS

Educational background required / desired:

• Bachelor's Degree
• Or equivalent work experience

Work experience required / desired:

• Proven 3+ years managing Team Managers or team leaders, in addition to direct team leadership
• Deep order-to-cash background across at least two of AP, AR, billing, collections and cash application, in a BPO or shared-services environment
• Has carried a P&L, or has owned cost and margin on an account, and can show what they did with it
• Able to read an AR aging report and a collections tracker and ask the right questions on disputes, promises-to-pay and unapplied cash
• Hands-on with ERP and AP/AR platforms, client billing portals, and case or ticketing tools

Communications skills required / desired:

• 9/10

MS Office applications proficiency required / desired:

• Advanced

Other qualifications:

• Proven leadership and influencing skills, including with people who do not report to them
• Able to manage through managers — setting a standard and holding it on work they did not do themselves
• Able to run a documented performance loop with a Team Manager, from evidence through to HR where it goes that far
• Comfortable in a commercial conversation with a client on scope and service levels
• Results-oriented, with excellent time management and organizational skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Past background as a biller, collector or cash-application specialist who moved into people management is a strong plus