Global Director - Accounts Payable

CAI; Dublin; On-site; EUR 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

CAI is a professional services company renowned for delivering operational readiness and elite expertise across a global client base. The Global Director, Accounts Payable and Procurement will lead the end-to-end Procure-to-Pay and AP operations, shaping policy, controls, and performance in a multi-country environment.

In this senior role, you will drive vendor governance, integration with acquired entities, and robust reporting while ensuring timely payments and strong internal controls.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in Accounting/Finance or related field.
• 8+ years of procurement, AP, procure-to-pay, shared services, or finance leadership experience, multi-country exposure.
• Experience with ERP systems, procurement workflows, and automation is desirable.
• Strong process improvement experience in global/complex organizations is highly desirable.

Responsibilities

• Lead global Procure-to-Pay and AP operations, policy, controls, and performance across countries.
• Own procurement intake, PO governance, vendor onboarding, invoice processing, and payment runs.
• Collaborate with Legal, Tax, Treasury, IT, and local finance to ensure compliance and alignment.
• Drive centralization and automation of procurement and AP processes, including OCR and ERP controls.
• Oversee vendor master governance, card/expense management, and policy compliance.
• Support acquisitions by mapping legacy processes and integrating entities to standards.

Skills

Procure-to-Pay leadership

Accounts payable management

Vendor governance

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Accounting/Finance or related field

Tools

ERP systems

Procurement workflows

Workflow automation

Internal controls

Job description

The Global Director, Accounts Payable and Procurement leads the global Procure-to-Pay finance process and owns both accounts payable and procurement operations. This role is responsible for procurement policy, purchasing controls, vendor sourcing support, vendor master governance, purchase order compliance, invoice intake, invoice approval workflows, payment execution, expense processing coordination, AP controls, shared services performance, and AP and procurement integration for acquired companies. This role ensures that goods and services are procured appropriately, vendors are paid accurately and timely, AP records are complete, accurate, and up to date, and reliable AP information is available to support FP&A, while protecting the company through strong controls, consistent policies, transparent global reporting, and disciplined purchasing practices.

Key Responsibilities

• Establish global procurement and AP policies, procedures, controls, service levels, approval matrices, purchasing thresholds, preferred vendor requirements, and process metrics across all countries and shared services resources.
• Own the global procure-to-pay process, including procurement intake, purchase requisitions, vendor sourcing support, purchase order governance, vendor onboarding, invoice receipt, coding, approval routing, payment runs, exception handling, vendor inquiries, and AP month-end procedures.
• Partner with Legal, Tax, Treasury, Accounting, IT, operations, and local finance teams to ensure vendor compliance, proper approvals, tax documentation, payment accuracy, purchasing discipline, contract visibility, and system alignment.
• Lead procurement and AP process centralization and automation, including reducing manual effort, purchasing workflows, vendor portals, OCR, procurement intake tools, T&E integrations, purchase order matching, and ERP-enabled controls.
• Manage shared services performance for routine procurement and AP processing, including work queues, productivity, defect rates, aging, turnaround times, purchase order compliance, and escalation management.
• Oversee the global corporate card and expense management processes, including card administration, approval and spending controls, transaction reconciliation, policy compliance, and timely processing of employee expenses.
• Support acquisition integration by mapping legacy procurement and AP processes, migrating vendors, aligning approval workflows, onboarding acquired entities to company policies, and stabilizing purchasing and payment operations.
• Maintain strong controls over vendor selection, vendor master data, segregation of duties, bank detail changes, duplicate payments, fraud prevention, purchase approvals, payment approvals, contract support, and documentation retention.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, Supply Chain, Procurement, or related field preferred.
• 8+ years of procurement, AP, procure-to-pay, shared services, accounting operations, or finance process leadership experience, including experience in a multi-country or multi-entity environment.
• Experience with ERP systems, procurement workflows, purchasing controls, vendor master governance, workflow automation, internal controls, and acquisition integration is preferred.
• Experience driving process improvement across a global or complex organization is highly desirable.

Are You Ready?

CAI is a professional services company established in 1996 that has grown year over year to nearly 800 people worldwide. For mission-critical and regulated industries that need to deliver critical solutions in high-stakes environments, we provide accelerated operational readiness and unparalleled performance at the highest standard through our rigorous approach, field-tested processes, and elite expertise developed over 30 years.

Our approach is simple because our Purpose informs everything we do.

We exist to be the trusted solution for our clients as they strive to build a better working world and improve the human experience.

Our Foundational Principles

• We act with integrity
• We serve each other
• We serve society
• We work for our future

At CAI, we believe in a relentless dedication to excellence, pushing boundaries and surpassing expectations. From the beginning, we’ve challenged ourselves to do what others wouldn’t. Not just setting industry standards, but redefining them entirely. We are bold in our thinking and creative in our approach. We operate at the intersection of wisdom and technology and thrive when they come together with humanity.

For us, operational readiness isn’t simply a goal—it’s a way of life. Tomorrow demands to be at the forefront of today. We get there through tireless effort, precision, efficiency, and an unwavering belief that there is always room for advancement. We’re not interested in how it used to be done. We’re obsessed with how it will be done.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.