Director, Finance - Global Process Owner (Credit and Collections)

About the position

As the Director, Finance - Global Process Owner at Forward Air on our Global Shared Services team, you will be responsible for developing the process vision, strategy, and objectives for an end-to-end credit and collections process and their continued enhancement in support of delivering global business objectives across business and corporate segments. The GPO provides strategic and operational direction to drive process efficiency, standardization, and effectiveness across an end-to-end process and across functional silos, geographic and business unit boundaries to deliver sustained value to Forward Air. In this role, the Credit & Collections GPO will be the steward over the global capability to advance process efficiencies across the end-to-end value chain (i.e., credit risk management, loss mitigation by creating frameworks for managing non-performing accounts and minimizing risk, collections, DSO and AR management, cash application).

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to gather and analyze credit and collections data, providing insights into business performance, trends, and opportunities
• Set annual strategic direction and approach for identifying and executing process improvement opportunities across the value chain
• Develop a clear vision of excellence in credit and collections end-to-end process and solution area
• Align all strategic initiatives for processes, policies and technologies across geographies and ensure that related process activities and plans are consistent with the objectives of the company and strategic vision of global shared services
• Owns performance, process design and technology enablement to create incremental value through customer-centric and innovative solutions
• Ensure optimal use and adaptation of ERP / enabling technologies, co-owning the Technology Roadmap in partnership with IT/Ops/Controllership
• Leverage technology, working towards an end-to-end tool set, including self-service tools
• Define and own the SLA and KPI to measure end-to-end process performance, efficiency and quality
• Act as a key stakeholder to foster a culture which monitors and meets the needs of the business through process excellence, improvement and insight
• Secure the appropriate budget for Transformation / Improvement initiatives across the end-to-end process end state and manage said budget to deliver associated benefits
• Actively seeks opportunities to innovate and source best practices in terms of process strategy, improvement, performance, engagement and governance
• Drive transformative solutions to feed the annual planning cycle
• Provide regular proposals for process improvement initiatives and technological investments
• Ensure linkages with the global process, service offerings, SLA, KPI, and standards
• Other duties as assigned

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree or equivalent in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, or relevant degree required
• 8 years of progressive experience in the respective process area required; preferably in a shared service environment and Finance and accounting internal controls
• Domain expert in the credit and collections process area and Significant experience/use of relevant systems and technology in the respective process area
• Lean / Six Sigma qualifications and experience preferable with Strong analytical skills, collecting/analyzing data, evaluating information and systems
• Strong consultative and problem-solving skills with Knowledge of financial regulations, policies, practices, and accounting principles
• Business process automation and leading technologies such as Finance ERP and relevant technology/systems for respective process area
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills with track record of superior customer service and Excellent verbal and written communications, including active listening skills, verbal presentation skills and skills in presenting findings and recommendations