Head, International Payment Operations - Pharma Manufacturing!

For a Global Capability Centre, Navi Mumbai | Reports to: Head, GCC

Job Summary

Lead the transition of accounts payable and payment operations for organization's international subsidiaries across Australia, the European Union, the United States, and Latin America into the organization's GCC, and thereafter own the end-to-end multi-country operation. The role has two mandates. Deliver the transition country by country and run the function while keeping complete focus on the speed and quality of the deliverables.

Key Responsibilities

Transition Leadership (phased, country by country)

- Lead end-to-end transition of AP and payment processes from international subsidiaries to the GCC: process discovery per country, knowledge capture from local finance teams, SOP and desktop procedure documentation reflecting country-specific requirements, and training design.
- Sequence the multi-country transition wave plan, balancing entity readiness, statutory calendar constraints, and GCC ramp-up capacity.
- Design and execute parallel-run and cutover plans per entity, including entry and exit criteria, error thresholds, and sign-off gates.
- Baseline service levels pre-transition and stabilize post-cutover performance to agreed SLAs within two to three close cycles per entity.
- Manage relationships with local finance teams and retained roles through each transition, maintaining cooperation and knowledge flow in sensitive people contexts.
- Recruit, train, and cross-skill the GCC team in parallel with transition execution, building multi-country coverage and time-zone-aligned shifts.

Accounts Payable Operations

- Own end-to-end invoice processing across all in-scope entities: receipt, validation and matching against purchase orders, exception resolution, and approval workflow management.
- Manage payment runs across countries, payment methods, and banking platforms, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and adherence to entity-level authorization matrices.




- Ensure vendor master governance in partnership with the centralized Master data team.

Multi-Country Compliance and Statutory Interface

- Ensure AP processing respects country-specific requirements: e-invoicing mandates and formats (including EU and Latin American electronic invoicing regimes), withholding tax application, VAT and GST treatment on invoices, and local document retention rules.
- Support local finance and tax teams with data and reconciliations for indirect tax filings; execution of filings remains with local or retained teams.
- Maintain segregation-of-duties and internal-control discipline across all entities, including SOX-relevant controls for the US entity.

Close, Reporting, and Working Capital

- Deliver month-end AP close activities per entity: accruals, sub-ledger to general-ledger reconciliations, and ageing analysis to group timetables.
- Report AP performance metrics (cycle time, first-pass match rate, on-time payment, discount capture) by entity and consolidated.
- Support working capital objectives through payment-term compliance and early-payment discount management.

Process Optimization and Automation

- Standardize processes across entities onto a common GCC operating model wherever local regulation permits, documenting deviations explicitly.
- Drive RPA, AI-assisted invoice capture, and workflow automation after processes stabilize, collaborating with GCC IT for implementation.

Audit and Compliance

- Coordinate with internal and external audit teams across all in-scope jurisdictions, ensuring audit readiness of transitioned processes.




- Respond to audit queries with complete and timely information; maintain the control documentation created during transition.

Key Requirements

Key Requirements

- Chartered Accountant or equivalent qualification with 12+ years of experience in accounts payable, procure-to-pay, or finance operations, including at least 5 years in a multi-country or global shared-services environment.
- Must have led at least one end-to-end transition of AP or P2P processes from overseas entities into an India-based shared-services or GCC environment, covering knowledge transfer, SOP documentation, parallel run, cutover, and post-cutover stabilization. Candidates who have only operated an already-established offshore function will not qualify.
- Demonstrated experience running AP across at least two of the four in-scope regions (North America, EU, Australia, Latin America), with working knowledge of the compliance environments involved (e-invoicing mandates, withholding tax, VAT and GST treatment).
- Hands-on experience with SAP; experience with SAP Ariba or an equivalent procurement platform.
- Demonstrated experience building or significantly scaling a finance operations team, including hiring, training, cross-skilling, and shift design for multi-time-zone coverage.
- Experience managing overseas stakeholders across time zones, including in transition or transformation contexts.
- Robust background in internal controls, segregation of duties, and audit coordination, including SOX-relevant environments.
- Experience with RPA or AI-assisted invoice capture and workflow automation.
- Pharmaceutical or manufacturing industry background.
- Prior experience in a GCC or shared-services build-out phase (as opposed to steady state only).
- Experience in implementing controls around vendor onboarding, bank account changes, duplicate payments, sanctions screening, and payment fraud prevention.
- Managed a large team across multiple geographies.
- Familiarity with GDPR - data-handling considerations across geographies.

📌 Head, International Payment Operations (GCC) (Navi Mumbai)
🏢 Maxis Clinical Sciences
📍 Navi Mumbai