Asst. Operations Manager - Purchase To Pay

Asst. Operations Manager - Purchase to Pay

UniOps team is the productivity engine for our company with the mission of driving centralized and digitized operations in a not so distant Digital future. The UniOps solutions organization is tasked with introducing new and enhanced services to the business, delivering a portfolio of integrated global services that enables the business to grow competitively.

Within UniOps, one of the most mature programs is led by the Commercial Experience (previously called Business and Finance Services-BFS) organization driving multiple projects year on year (YoY). Most of these have significant organization change including the roll out of new digital capabilities like Concur and Coupa and the establishment of new and value-added services including Treasury MO/BO, P&H Controllership, ZBB Program & Performance management, Piloting CD and Marketing Services among others. These are delivered through a 3-tier model including third party service providers, the Operating center and the Markets organization.

The Commercial Experience Purpose is to protect value and provide fuel for growth through excellent execution and continuous optimization of finance and supplier processes. Its strategic focus is to deliver full scale and edge to edge Supplier and Finance experience through upscaling of Operations Capabilities and Transformations. In this context – balancing sometimes contradicting priorities around cost, service, discipline and compliance become critical and need very capable leaders at the helm who can steer, balance, and land these strategic focuses.

It means delivering top quartile User Satisfaction, best in class service KPIs at competitive costs through a combination of highly efficient Global Operating hubs driving discipline across each process/service through multiple operating centers with a geography-based Service Delivery Organization which interface with the clusters and countries. Commercial Experience team is responsible for value delivery and provide 'one stop' accountability for all Purchase to Pay, Record to Report, and Supply Chain Finance service lines in the geography. Within Purchase to Pay, expectation is to have close business intimacy with market and country teams, in particular with Procurement, Supply Chain, and Finance.

Main purpose of job:

The Source to Pay (STP) – Asst. Operations Manager for Commercial Experience team will hold accountability for the handled PMU, e.g. Cluster of MYSG and VN, covering the end-to-end processes, continuous improvement, driving discipline across the 3 Tiers & driving cost saving projects across Source To Pay.

The role covers designing & driving the Commercial Experience strategy for the country handled and/or procurement operations, reporting to the Service Delivery Manager - STP. The role will be directly responsible for country handled including the 3PSP counterpart in the 3-tier model. Also, there are adhoc activities – project related to improvement of STP activities. This position provides the leadership, management and vision to ensure that the country will have appropriate direction, operational controls, administrative and reporting procedures to effectively manage service delivery. The role offers a unique opportunity to partner with the senior stakeholders of Unilever country Finance, and Supply Chain, and Procurement organization, alongside with external partnerships (eg. Vendor/Supplier interactions)

Key accountabilities:

• Responsible for service delivery of the STP Operations for the country handled
• Management of 3PSP i.e. IBM for the end to end STP process and ensuring key performance metrics are met and all controls managed by operating center are complied with.
• Help foster close relationships with the Service Lines (not just STP) to ensure tight integration and harmonized ways of working as part of the wider Global operating model.
• Act as the escalation point for most significant day-to-day issues or problems in country/business area for STP operations.
• Support on performing continuous feasibility & business case analysis for any opportunities of transition & transformation activities for the country in scope
• Managing the relations with third party service providers (3PSPs) with the right balance between creating accountability & strong visible partnership whilst ensuring control framework compliance within the country
• Governance and management of all inter-dependent processes enabling cross-functional coordination
• Ad-hoc activities such as corporate card administration, analysis and requests from internal ComEx contacts, country stakeholders, and 3PSPs to support decision making
• Act as a link between the Country Finance, UniOps Organization and Clusters facilitating flow of information relevant to STP operations in the country handled.

Experience and qualification required:

• An MBA, CPA, CIMA or equivalent Business Management or Finance degree with minimum 4-7 years of overall experience in Business Partnering, Controllership and Management roles
• Strong knowledge of key Source to Pay operations, financial processes, accounting standards and principles
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills
• Solid people management skills and demonstrated peer leadership
• Experience in a global or change management role would be preferred

Key interfaces:

• Country Leadership Team (Country VP Finance; Supply Chain and Procurement VPs & Directors)
• Cluster UniOps Leadership (Service Delivery Senior Managers and Director for Asia Clusters, Country Finance LT, UniOps LT)
• Country Finance Controllers
• Third party business partners
• Other teams (Process Excellence Team, GCAD, Internal Audit, Cluster/Country Tax & Legal teams, Global Performance Management Team, etc)

Unilever is an organization committed to equity, inclusion and diversity to drive our business results and create a better future, every day, for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business.

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