Finance Operations Senior Manager

BTI Executive Search Pte Ltd; Kuala Lumpur; On-site; MYR 320,000 - 460,000; Full time

Job summary

BTI Executive Search Pte Ltd is seeking a Senior Manager to lead Finance Operations, drive governance and optimize service delivery across AP, T&E, intercompany, fixed assets and lease accounting. You will partner with regional and global teams to ensure accuracy, controls and timely close, while advancing automation and process improvements.

The role requires 10–12 years of experience in high-volume finance operations, with strong leadership and governance capabilities to support transformation

Qualifications

• 10–12 years of experience in finance operations or controllership.
• Strong governance, risk and stakeholder-management background.
• Proven leadership of large, multi-workstream finance teams.

Responsibilities

• Provide leadership across Finance Operations with clear operating plans and governance.
• Own end-to-end service performance across multiple workstreams against SLAs and KPIs.
• Establish governance forums to manage risks, aging items, and escalations.
• Act as senior escalation point for complex issues and cross-functional dependencies.
• Deliver insights and recommendations to improve performance and transformation.
• Oversee Accounts Payable, T&E, Intercompany, Fixed Asset and Lease Accounting governance.
• Lead stakeholder engagement across regional and global finance teams for issue resolution.
• Champion automation, standardization and continuous improvement initiatives.

Skills

Executive communication

Analytical thinking

Problem-solving

Coaching

Change leadership

Continuous improvement

Education

Bachelor's in Accounting or Finance

ACCA/CPA/CIMA or equivalent

Tools

Oracle ERP

Workday

Coupa

OneStream

Job description

1. Finance Operations Leadership & Governance

• Provide leadership across Finance Operations, translating service priorities into clear operating plans, governance routines and measurable outcomes.
• Own end-to-end service performance across multiple finance operations workstreams, ensuring delivery against SLAs, KPIs, controls, quality standards and stakeholder expectations.
• Establish operational governance forums, performance reviews and escalation channels to ensure risks, aged items, exceptions and service issues are proactively managed.
• Act as senior escalation point for complex operational issues, cross-functional dependencies and matters requiring management judgement or stakeholder alignment.
• Provide insight and recommendations to the Finance Operations Service Lead on service performance, resource priorities, risk areas and transformation opportunities.

2. Accounts Payable (AP) – Senior Oversight

• Own the AP operating model and ensure invoice processing, payment execution, vendor maintenance and exception handling are delivered with strong controls and service discipline.
• Provide oversight of payment governance, approval controls, blocked invoices, AP aging and exception management to minimize financial, operational and reputational risk.
• Partner with Procurement, Business Units, Tax, Treasury and Finance stakeholders to resolve systemic issues and improve upstream process quality.
• Drive performance conversations on invoice accuracy, payment timeliness, vendor experience and aged item reduction, with corrective actions where required.
• Sustained AP service performance and control compliance
• Reduced aged, blocked and exception items
• Effective payment governance and audit readiness

3. Travel & Expense (T&E)

• Provide senior oversight of T&E operations, ensuring employee reimbursements, corporate card activities and policy exceptions are managed consistently and transparently.
• Strengthen policy compliance, exception governance and employee experience through clear controls, communication and stakeholder engagement.
• Identify recurring claim issues, policy gaps and process inefficiencies, and drive corrective actions with relevant stakeholders.
• Improved T&E compliance and service quality
• Reduced recurring policy exceptions
• Strong employee and stakeholder experience

4. Intercompany Accounting

• Own governance over intercompany reconciliation, confirmation, settlement and aged balance resolution across relevant entities and counterparties.
• Lead senior stakeholder engagement with local, regional and global finance teams to resolve complex mismatches and recurring intercompany issues.
• Ensure intercompany activities support accurate reporting, elimination requirements, transfer pricing documentation and close timelines.
• Timely intercompany close and reconciliation completion
• Reduced aged intercompany differences
• Improved governance over recurring mismatches

5. Fixed Asset Accounting

• Provide senior oversight of fixed asset accounting, ensuring capitalization, transfers, disposals, depreciation and register integrity are governed effectively.
• Partner with Finance, Business Units and asset owners to strengthen capital expenditure governance, asset verification and financial reporting quality.
• Ensure compliance with accounting standards, company policy and audit requirements for asset-related activities.
• Accurate and complete fixed asset register
• Strong capital expenditure and asset governance
• Timely depreciation and reporting support

6. Lease Accounting

• Oversee lease accounting governance and ensure compliance with IFRS 16 / MFRS 16 requirements across lease recognition, modifications, reassessments and reporting.
• Ensure lease data completeness, accuracy and alignment with reporting, close and audit requirements.
• Provide senior review and challenge over complex lease matters, accounting judgements and recurring data quality issues.
• Lease accounting compliance and reporting accuracy
• Timely close support and reconciliations
• Resolved lease data and control exceptions
• Lead bank reconciliation governance across entities and accounts, ensuring full reconciliation coverage, timely completion and effective oversight of reconciling items.
• Ensure aged reconciling items are investigated, escalated and resolved with clear ownership, minimizing operational, financial and compliance risks.
• Strengthen reconciliation controls, audit evidence and management reporting to provide transparency over cash-related exceptions and risks.
• 100% monthly reconciliation completion within close timelines
• Clear visibility and reduction of aged reconciling items
• Robust reconciliation controls and audit readiness

8. Oracle Master Data Maintenance

• Provide senior oversight of Oracle master data maintenance activities, ensuring supplier, customer, employee, banking, and other finance master data are created, updated and maintained accurately and timely.
• Strengthen governance over master data change requests, approvals, segregation of duties, data validation, documentation and audit evidence.
• Partner with Finance, Procurement, Business Units, IT and control teams to resolve master data issues, improve upstream request quality and reduce recurring data defects.
• Monitor master data quality, aging, exceptions and control breaches, ensuring timely remediation and continuous improvement of Oracle data integrity.
• Accurate and timely Oracle master data creation and maintenance
• Strong master data governance, approval controls and audit readiness
• Reduced master data defects, exceptions and recurring data quality issues
• Own the Finance Operations control environment, ensuring controls are embedded, evidenced, monitored and continuously strengthened.
• Provide senior oversight of audit readiness, SOX/internal control testing, segregation of duties and remediation of control gaps.
• Identify emerging operational risks and lead mitigation plans across processes, systems, people and third-party touchpoints.
• Ensure compliance with accounting standards, company policies, tax requirements, regulatory expectations and service governance requirements.
• Set the continuous improvement agenda for Finance Operations, prioritizing initiatives that improve quality, cycle time, control effectiveness and stakeholder experience.
• Sponsor automation, standardization, workflow enhancement and knowledge management initiatives across finance operations workstreams.
• Lead root cause analysis of recurring service issues and drive sustainable corrective actions across process, system and stakeholder touchpoints.
• Support transitions, migrations, operating model changes and process transformation projects with clear governance and adoption plans.

11. Stakeholder Management & Business Partnership

• Build trusted relationships with Finance, Procurement, Business Units, regional teams, auditors and other key stakeholders to ensure service alignment and timely issue resolution.
• Represent Finance Operations in senior stakeholder discussions, service reviews, governance meetings and transformation forums.
• Communicate performance insights, risks, decisions required and improvement plans in a clear, commercially aware and action-oriented manner.

12. People Leadership & Capability Building

• Lead, coach and develop managers and finance professionals, building leadership bench strength, technical capability and service excellence mindset.
• Set clear expectations, performance standards and development priorities aligned to service outcomes and organizational goals.
• Drive succession planning, cross-skilling, workforce planning and knowledge continuity across Finance Operations.
• Create a culture of accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement and customer-focused delivery across the team.
• Bachelor's Degree in Accounting, Finance or related discipline.
• Professional qualification such as ACCA, CPA, ICAEW, CIMA, CA or equivalent is preferred.

Experience

• Minimum 10–12 years of relevant experience in finance operations, shared services, accounting operations or controllership support, including responsibility for multiple finance operations workstreams.
• At least 5 years of people leadership experience, including leading managers or senior team leads, developing capability and managing performance across a sizeable operations team.
• Proven experience owning service delivery outcomes, operational governance, complex escalations, audit readiness, risk mitigation and stakeholder management in a high-volume environment.
• Strong working knowledge of ERP, workflow and reporting systems such as Oracle, Coupa, Workday, OneStream or equivalent, including Oracle master data maintenance and experience supporting automation or transformation initiatives.

Technical & Leadership Competencies

• Finance operations governance and shared services leadership
• Accounts Payable, Travel & Expense, Intercompany, Fixed Asset, Lease Accounting and Bank Reconciliation oversight
• Controls, audit readiness, SOX/internal control compliance and operational risk management
• Oracle master data maintenance governance, data quality management and control compliance
• Service performance management, SLA/KPI governance and management reporting
• Senior stakeholder management, influencing and escalation leadership
• Continuous improvement, automation, transformation and change adoption
• People leadership, coaching, succession planning and workforce capability building
• Demonstrates senior ownership of service delivery outcomes, control environment, risk management and stakeholder confidence.
• Able to operate with limited supervision, make sound judgement calls, prioritize competing demands and escalates strategically when required.
• Strong ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders and resolve complex issues across Finance, Procurement, Business Units, regional teams and external parties.
• Strong understanding of finance operations controls, audit evidence, segregation of duties, regulatory expectations and compliance requirements.
• Comfortable leading in a shared services environment with high transaction volumes, multiple entities, competing priorities and evolving stakeholder expectations.
• Strong executive communication, analytical thinking, problem-solving, coaching, change leadership and continuous improvement skills.
• Able to build team capability, strengthen succession pipeline and sustain a culture of accountability, service excellence and continuous improvement.
• Finance Operations services are delivered with clear senior ownership, strong governance and sustained achievement of agreed SLAs, KPIs and quality expectations.
• Operational risks, aged items, exceptions and complex escalations are proactively identified, governed and resolved with appropriate stakeholder alignment.
• AP, T&E, Intercompany, Fixed Asset, Lease Accounting, Bank Reconciliation, Oracle master data maintenance and Finance Query Management processes operate with robust controls, audit readiness and timely issue resolution.
• Stakeholders experience consistent, transparent and professional service delivery supported by actionable performance insights and clear communication.
• Continuous improvement, standardization, automation and transformation initiatives deliver measurable improvements in cycle time, quality, control effectiveness and stakeholder experience.
• Finance Operations teams demonstrate stronger capability, accountability, succession readiness and leadership depth under the Senior Manager’s direction.