Senior Accounts Payable & Expense Operations Specialist

Ian Martin Group; Calgary; On-site; CAD 46,000 - 56,000; Full time

Job summary

Ian Martin Group seeks a Senior Accounts Payable & Expense Operations Specialist in Calgary for a 1-year contract. You will own complex full-cycle AP, employee expenses, and explain discrepancies while driving smarter, automated workflows with strong financial controls.

This role reports to the Team Lead, Accounts Payable, and requires a proven track record with SAP/Concur, plus the ability to optimize straight-through processing and monitor KPIs to improve payment performance.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of full-cycle accounts payable, employee expense, or related financial operations experience.
• Strong knowledge of 2-way and 3-way matching, PO processing, GR/IR, exception management, duplicate-payment controls, reconciliations, and financial controls.
• Experience with SAP, Concur, or comparable ERP and expense management systems.
• Experience troubleshooting automated invoice workflows and transactions that fail straight-through processing.
• Ability to interpret AP dashboards, reports, and KPIs, recognize broader patterns, and translate findings into practical action.
• An innovator who questions established practices and develops automation solutions.
• Strong organizational, communication, customer service, and stakeholder-management skills.

Responsibilities

• Own complex full-cycle AP activities, including invoice validation, coding, 2-way and 3-way matching, processing, payment support, reconciliations, and exception resolution.
• Investigate transactions that fall outside straight-through processing and determine root cause.
• Resolve complex employee expense and policy exceptions and provide submission guidance.
• Investigate duplicate invoices and payments, recurring control issues, payment holds, validation concerns, and payment-readiness risks.
• Monitor AP queues, aging, failed workflows, and invoices at risk of late payment.
• Support month-end and year-end close, including accruals, reconciliations, and variance analysis.
• Use AP dashboards and KPIs to assess backlog and cycle time, then act on findings.
• Identify root causes across PO, receiving, master data, and workflow to prevent recurrence.
• Challenge manual practices and develop opportunities for automation and stronger controls.
• Review AP processes and handoffs against best practices and propose smarter ways of working.
• Collaborate with AP, SCM, Master Data, Tax, Finance, suppliers and stakeholders to resolve issues and implement improvements.
• Act as technical escalation resource for complex AP matters.

Skills

Analytical thinking

Root-cause analysis

Stakeholder management

Communication

Process improvement

Education

Accounting/Finance degree

Tools

SAP

Concur

Job description

Senior Accounts Payable & Expense Operations Specialist

• Pay Rate: $33.15 - $40.44/hour, depending on experience
• Contract: Start Date 11/23/2026 End Date 11/22/2027(1 Year)
• Location: Calgary, Alberta

Raise is currently hiring a Senior Accounts Payable & Expense Operations Specialist on behalf of our client. They’re expanding their team to meet growing needs, making this a unique opportunity to work with an industry leader. Our Client, the third largest producer of Canadian oil and natural gas and the second largest refiner and upgrader with extensive midstream and downstream infrastructure.

Note: The primary pay rate is based on T4 classification; however, we will also consider applications from candidates interested in an INC classification, where applicable.

Description

Reporting to the Team Lead, Accounts Payable, this role owns complex, full-cycle accounts payable and employee expense work in a high-volume, automated enterprise environment. You will resolve challenging invoice, PO, GR/IR, payment, expense, workflow, and reconciliation issues; determine why transactions fail automated processing; and create practical solutions where existing processes fall short. Designed for an experienced AP innovator, this role requires someone who looks beyond immediate transactional processing to identify recurring patterns, optimize straight-through processing (STP), and establish smarter, sustainable workflows while maintaining strong financial controls and compliance.

Responsibilities

• Own complex full-cycle AP activities, including invoice validation, coding, 2-way and 3-way matching, processing, payment support, reconciliations, and exception resolution. Diagnose and resolve complex PO, goods receipt/service entry, GR/IR, pricing, quantity, tax, coding, approval, supplier master, and workflow exceptions.
• Investigate transactions that fall outside straight-through processing and determine whether the cause is transactional, process, system, data, control, or role-related.
• Resolve complex employee expense and policy exceptions and provide guidance on submission requirements.
• Investigate duplicate invoices and payments, recurring control issues, payment holds, validation concerns, and payment-readiness risks.
• Monitor AP queues, aging, failed or stalled workflows, approval delays, and invoices at risk of late payment.
• Support month-end and year-end close, including accruals, complex reconciliations, reporting, aged-item resolution, and variance analysis.
• Use AP dashboards and KPIs to assess backlog, aging, exception rates, first-pass match rates, straight-through processing, cycle time, and payment performance, then turn findings into action.
• Identify root causes and recurring patterns across PO compliance, receiving, invoice quality, master data, workflow, and payment processes, and create solutions that prevent recurrence.
• Challenge inefficient or highly manual practices and develop practical opportunities for automation, standardization, simplification, and stronger controls.
• Review AP processes, handoffs, and role responsibilities against best practices and recommend clearer, smarter, and more effective ways of working.
• Collaborate with AP, SCM, Master Data, Tax, Finance, employees, suppliers, and business stakeholders to resolve issues and implement sustainable improvements.
• Act as the technical escalation resource for complex AP and employee expense matters, providing guidance to other AP resources without direct supervisory responsibility.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of full-cycle Accounts Payable, employee expense, or related financial operations experience.
• Strong knowledge of 2-way and 3-way matching, PO processing, GR/IR, exception management, duplicate-payment controls, reconciliations, and financial controls.
• Experience with SAP, Concur, or comparable ERP and expense management systems.
• Experience troubleshooting automated invoice workflows and transactions that fail straight-through processing.
• Ability to interpret AP dashboards, reports, and KPIs, recognize broader patterns, and translate findings into practical action.
• Strong analytical and root-cause problem-solving skills, with the ability to resolve complex issues independently and prevent recurrence.
• An innovator and creator who questions established practices, thinks beyond known fixes, and develops new process, control, and automation solutions.
• Ability to assess processes, handoffs, and role responsibilities against best practices and recommend smarter ways of working.
• Strong organizational, communication, customer service, and stakeholder-management skills
• Education and Certifications
• A degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, or a related field is considered an asset.

Looking for meaningful work? We can help!

We strive to build teams that reflect the diversity of the communities we work in. We encourage all qualified applicants to apply, including people from traditionally underrepresented groups such as women, visible minorities, Indigenous peoples, people identifying as LGBTQ2SI, veterans, and people with visible/nonvisible disabilities.

We have a dedicated webpage for accommodations where you can learn more about what we offer and request accommodation: https://raise.jobs/accommodations/