Director, Global Accounts Payable

What You’ll Do:

We are seeking a Director of Global Accounts Payable to own end-to-end AP operations, vendor management, invoice processing, payments, month-end close, and AP internal controls, across a high-growth, multi-entity environment. A core focus of this role is direct spend: the high-volume, PO-driven invoice flow tied to hardware, infrastructure, and operationally critical purchases. You will lead a lean global team with a mandate to transform AP into a strategic, SOX-ready, AI-native pillar of Finance. This role is a builder, equal parts strategist, technical accountant, and operator.

About the role:

Strategy, Scaling, and Transformation

• Set the long-term vision and roadmap for global AP across direct spend, indirect spend, T&E, and intercompany payables.
• Scale the function ahead of business growth, multiplying invoice volume, entities, and currencies without linear headcount increase.
• Champion AI and automation across the procure-to-pay lifecycle: invoice ingestion, GL coding, three-way match exception handling, GR/IR remediation, duplicate detection, and audit evidence collection. Make "could this be automated?" the default question on every workflow.
• Apply Lean and Six Sigma principles (DMAIC, value stream mapping, root cause analysis) to drive measurable reductions in defects, cycle time, and cost per invoice.
• Benchmark against industry best practices (APQC, IOFM, Hackett) and set stretch targets toward top-quartile performance.

Accounting, Close, and SOX Excellence

• Own the accounting impact of AP across the GL: ensure invoices, accruals, prepaids, and intercompany activity are recorded accurately and in the right period.
• Review and approve AP journal entries, manual JEs, accruals (RNI/INR), reclasses, with a high bar for documentation, GL coding accuracy, and reviewer evidence.
• Own AP-driven balance sheet reconciliations (AP subledger-to-GL, GR/IR clearing, accrued liabilities, vendor debit balances) and drive aged item resolution to a defined SLA.
• Partner with Controllership and Technical Accounting on capex vs. opex, software capitalization, lease vs. service treatment, and ASC 842 implications.
• Design, document, and execute SOX-compliant AP controls, preventive and automated by default. Own walkthroughs with external auditors and lead remediation of any control gaps.

Direct Spend, GR/IR, and Three-Way Match

• Own the three-way match process and drive match rate, exception throughput, and first-time-right processing as core KPIs.
• Own GR/IR account integrity: aging-based resolution, root cause analysis of recurring imbalances, and clean monthly reconciliation with Controllership.
• Partner with Procurement, Supply Chain, and Engineering/IT stakeholders to fix upstream drivers of mismatches (pricing variances, partial receipts, master data quality) and to manage complex direct-spend categories (hardware, compute, data center).
• Own accruals for received-not-invoiced (RNI) and invoiced-not-received (INR) positions; ensure accurate liability recognition at close.

Operations and Team Leadership

• Oversee global invoice-to-pay operations, weekly payment runs across multiple methods and banking platforms, and month-end close deliverables.
• Manage international AP complexity: VAT/GST, withholding tax, e-invoicing mandates.
• Maintain vendor master integrity, OFAC compliance, and banking change controls as critical fraud controls.
• Partner with Treasury to optimize working capital through payment timing and early-pay discount capture.
• Lead and develop a lean global team; manage offshore shared services and third-party providers with clear SLAs and quality standards.

Who You Are:

Required

• 12+ years of AP experience at a high-growth technology company, i