Finance Transformation Lead: Expense & Operations

DLA Piper; United States; Hybrid; USD 149,000 - 237,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical/dental/vision insurance

401(k) retirement plan

Job summary

DLA Piper offers a high-impact Senior Manager, Finance Transformation role focused on expense and operational finance. You will lead Accounts Payable and expense operations, drive automation, and partner with FP&A to deliver budgeting and forecasting support.

The role emphasizes scalable finance operations, data-enabled decision support, and global process alignment across multiple geographies. The position sits in a hybrid US office environment with collaboration across executive leaders,

Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive experience in finance transformation and related leadership roles.
• Strong experience in procure-to-pay, FP&A, shared services, and controllership support.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional programs and large-scale initiatives.
• Expertise in analytics, vendor management, and KPI development.

Responsibilities

• Lead modern finance operations with a focus on scalability, service excellence, and strong financial controls.
• Oversee day-to-day operational finance functions, including Accounts Payable and key elements of expense management.
• Ensure accuracy, timeliness, compliance, and a strong control environment across transactional finance processes.
• Establish, monitor, and continuously improve service levels, KPIs, and operational performance metrics.
• Identify and resolve process bottlenecks, control gaps, and inefficiencies that affect service delivery and business outcomes.
• Drive process improvement, standardization, and continuous optimization across finance operations.
• Lead process reengineering efforts that reduce cycle times, improve quality, and create more efficient end-to-end workflows.
• Standardize policies, procedures, and operational workflows across teams, functions, and geographies.
• Implement automation and streamline manual processes to improve productivity, scalability, and user experience.
• Partner with stakeholders to elevate service delivery, strengthen operating discipline, and support continuous improvement initiatives.
• Partner with FP&A and business leaders to strengthen insight, planning, and decision support.
• Collaborate with FP&A to support budgeting, forecasting, expense management, and financial planning activities.
• Translate operational drivers into financial insights, recommendations, and business cases that inform better decision-making.
• Analyze cost drivers, headcount trends, vendor spend, and operating metrics to identify optimization opportunities.
• Improve visibility into financial performance through enhanced reporting, dashboards, and actionable analytics.
• Lead targeted finance transformation initiatives from strategy through execution.
• Own and execute finance transformation initiatives with a focus on practical, measurable outcomes and sustainable business value.
• Lead RFP processes for finance systems, tools, and service providers, including requirements gathering, vendor evaluation, scoring, recommendation development, and executive presentations.
• Oversee end-to-end implementation of new tools, systems, and workflows, ensuring delivery against scope, timeline, budget, and business requirements.
• Manage external vendors and implementation partners to drive accountability, execution quality, and alignment to transformation goals.
• Support development of scalable operating models, including shared services, centralized support structures, and global process alignment.
• Drive change adoption across teams by building readiness, communication, and engagement around new processes and technologies.
• Advance technology, analytics, and data enablement across the finance organization.
• Partner with IT and Finance teams to implement and enhance finance systems, reporting tools, and digital workflows.
• Help define and maintain a finance operations technology roadmap aligned to business priorities, transformation objectives, and future scalability.
• Leverage analytics, reporting, and data insights to improve decision-making, transparency, and operational performance.
• Support introduction of automation, AI-enabled tools, and modern finance capabilities where they create clear operational benefit.
• Build trusted partnerships across Finance, Operations, and executive leadership.
• Act as a strategic finance partner to operational leaders, business owners, and executive stakeholders.
• Provide proactive insights that support cost management, investment prioritization, budgeting decisions, and operational planning.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Procurement, IT, HR, and other business teams to align priorities and deliver enterprise-wide improvements.

Skills

Accounts Payable

Expense management

Procure-to-pay

FP&A partnership

Financial analysis

Vendor management

KPI development

Process optimization

Finance systems

Reporting & dashboards

Transformation leadership

Change management

Executive partnership

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration or related field

Master's degree in Business Administration or related field

Job description

DLA Piper offers a high-impact Senior Manager, Finance Transformation role focused on expense and operational finance. You will lead Accounts Payable and expense operations, drive automation, and partner with FP&A to deliver budgeting and forecasting support.

The role emphasizes scalable finance operations, data-enabled decision support, and global process alignment across multiple geographies. The position sits in a hybrid US office environment with collaboration across executive leaders,