Director of Accounting Operations

About Piedmont Global

Piedmont Global is a Strategic Globalization Organization (SGO) integrating cultural fluency, strategic insight, and custom technology to help clients scale with speed, navigate complexity, and operate seamlessly across cultures, markets, and systems. Headquartered in Washington D.C with team members spanning five continents, Piedmont Global equips organisations with the people, capabilities, and strategies to lead - globally, fluently, and confidently.

As the Director of Accounting Operations at Piedmont Global, you will report directly to the CFO and own the operating side of the Accounting department: daily cash and liquidity, the release of payments, the corporate card program, accounting and payment system issues, the department's service levels and measures, and its outside operating relationships. You will measure how the department performs and lead the changes that make it faster and less manual.

The Controller leads the accounting team and owns the books, the close, consolidation, intercompany, accounts payable and receivable accounting, and the design of internal controls. This role takes the operating and administrative work that would otherwise sit on the Controller's desk, so the Controller can concentrate on the team and the integrity of the books. The two roles work as partners.

The department supports six billing entities and four employer entities, posts about 20,000 transactions in a month and pays more than 1,000 vendors and interpreters in a single payment run. You will work with the Controller, Financial Reporting, the AP and AR Leads, the technology, people and contracts teams, and with banks, payment processors, the card issuer, the insurance broker and outside advisors.

Job Responsibilities

Treasury and Working Capital

·      Own the daily cash position across every entity and bank account, and report the company's liquidity daily.

·      Maintain the short term cash view used to plan each payment run, identify shortfalls before they occur, and supply it to the Controller's cash flow reporting.

·      Decide the timing and priority of each payment run against available cash, within approved limits, and release the payments the Controller's team has approved and coded, keeping payment release separate from bank reconciliation.

·      Track and report days sales outstanding, days payable outstanding and other working capital measures.

·      Own the corporate card program: set and adjust card limits within the program total, utilization against each limit, payment timing that keeps the cards active, and administration of the employee expense process.

Controls and Compliance

·      Operate the payment, wire and card controls the Controller designs, and keep the records that show each one operated for the Controller's control evidence.

·      Recommend changes to the payment, card and expense procedures based on what the measures show.

·      Own the administrative calendar for insurance certificates and renewals, and track notices from banks, processors and agencies through to a response by the right owner.

Service Levels and Measures

·      Serve as the intake point for requests from other departments and hold the department to its responsiveness standard: every request answered the same day if possible and no later than the next business day.

·      Own the department's email and inquiry log and follow every open item through to closure.

·      Maintain the department's performance measures and report the daily and monthly counts of invoices processed, bills recorded, payments recorded and inquiries answered to senior leadership.

Operating Model and Improvement

·      Use staff timesheets to build and maintain the department's cost model: how many invoices, bills and payments one person processes in a day and what each costs.

·      Use the cost model to recommend staffing levels, work to eliminate, consolidate or reassign, and where automation pays for itself.

·      Own the department's standard operating procedures: draft them, keep them in one controlled library with an index, version and review date for each, and update them when a process changes. The Controller approves the procedures that cover accounting work and holds the team to them.

·      Map the department's processes with the Controller and measure how closely the department follows its procedures.

·      Identify where AI and automation can reduce manual effort, and lead their implementation.

Systems and Outside Relationships

·      Own Business Central integration and API issues: find out what each issue is, coordinate with the technology team, vendors and consultants to fix it, and follow it through until it is resolved.

·      Own the same work for the payment platforms, including Tipalti and Bill.com, so every system issue has one owner and reaches a permanent fix.

·      Manage the department's operating relationships with banks, payment processors, the card issuer and the insurance broker, and resolve escalations with them.

·      Support the month end close by tracking the close calendar, open items and sign offs.

·      Serve as the go to person for operational problems in the department, and escalate matters that require an executive decision with options and a recommendation.

Requirements

·      Operational ownership: a record of running a financial operations function and being accountable for its results.

·      Follow through: a record of taking problems to completion and putting a safeguard in place so they do not recur.

·      Influencing collaboratively: gets results through people who do not report to you, including other departments, vendors, banks and outside advisors.

·      Controls: strong understanding of segregation of duties, approval limits and payment controls, and experience operating them.

·      Cash and payments: experience managing daily cash, wires, payment runs and bank relationships.

·      Process improvement: experience writing and maintaining procedures, documenting processes, measuring productivity and setting routines so that work is done the same way every time; experience with AI or automation tools is a plus.

·      Systems: experience with accounting and payment systems. Experience with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is a plus and can be learned on the job.

·      Eight or more years of progressive experience in accounting, finance or financial operations.

·      Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance or a related field preferred.

·      Exposure to government contracting is preferred.

·      Analytical skills, attention to detail, critical thinking and excellent oral and written communication skills.

As part of the interview process for this position you will be asked to complete an AI screening which takes about 10 minutes and gives us a starting point to target interview depth more completely. The salary range for this position is budgeted at $115,000 - $135,000 annually.