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Job Summary

Under guidelines established by Caltech and reporting to the Director of Procurement Services, the Associate Director (AD), Payment Services, is responsible for leadership and the strategic direction of all Accounts Payable and Disbursement activities at Caltech, as well as Tax Reporting programs. The AD is responsible for ensuring very high levels of satisfaction with the campus and supplier community, while balancing compliance with state and federal laws, regulations and policies as well as other sponsor restrictions and accounting best practices. The AD is also responsible for interfacing with suppliers, campus personnel and auditors in a fast paced and high volume environment, and will facilitate best-in-class customer service working with central support groups.

Job Duties

• Direct/manage the following functional areas: Accounts Payable, Specialty Team, Disbursement, Records Retention, and Tax Reporting
• Organize, staff and train Payment Services departments to ensure high levels of satisfaction with campus users and suppliers, in particular, working closely with Procurement management and central support groups to create seamless and easily understood processes for all Procurement staff and campus customers
• Continuously seek to improve quality and efficiency of services provided while developing an operational environment appropriate for the recruitment and retention of quality professionals
• Participate in and, where required, leadAr design, development and implementation of new business processes and technologies in support of Payment Services business processing
• Recommend enhancements to ERP (Oracle Financials) and Procure-To-Pay (P2P) system (Jaggaer)
• Act as a strategic partner with other financial and administrative departments and the Caltech academic community in defining and articulating a vision from Payment Services that meets the goals of Caltech’s programs
• Responsible for long range planning of Payment Services initiatives
• Develop and communicate relevant operational metrics and measures to Administrative Department Heads and Academic Division Administrators on a regular basis
• Create reports and analysis for use in decision making by Caltech administration
• Maintain a strong working relationship with internal and external auditors and ensure that audit requests are satisfied
• Regularly communicate with the campus community on payment issues, in writing and through personal visits
• Provide campus training on a routine basis
• Ensure policies and procedures are properly documented and in compliance with government regulations
• Work in conjunction with central Oracle Financials operations groups, oversees A/P portion of month-and year-end processes to ensure timely review and posting of transactions and accruals, and reconciliation of assigned balance sheet accounts
• Continuously improve accounting processes for speed and effectiveness
• Oversee tax reporting, withholding and filings in collaboration with Office of Tax Compliance
• Manage Procurement Services budget with Director oversight; provide monthly budget reports
• Other duties as assigned

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Accounting or closely related field
• 8 or more years of progressive experience in procurement, accounts payable or related financial services
• 3 or more years of experience managing staff
• Experience with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) as it relates to Cost Accounting Standards
• Experience with tax reporting and records retention
• Exceptional customer service with all levels of management personnel, as well as internal and external customers and stakeholders
• Excellent presentation skills
• Must demonstrate sound business judgement and be able to provide solutions to complex technical, administrative and personnel issues
• Ability to work under pressure; multi-tasking on time, sensitive requests and projects.
• Ability to champion change management efforts in highly decentralized and diverse environment

Preferred Qualifications

• A motivational leader with demonstrated skills in building and maintaining teams and effective relationships with employees, customers and stakeholders
• Ability to work well under pressure; to guide, motivate and mentor a diverse workforce; and, to embrace and lead change initiatives and process improvements in a dynamic work environment – Thorough understanding of Caltech’s business processes and culture
• Broad cross-disciplinary knowledge
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to research and apply federal regulations, sound accounting practices and Caltech’s policies and procedures to resolve issues
• MBA and/or advanced professional degree
• Higher Education experience with knowledge of financial and administrative system
• 10 or more years of related experience
• Experience with an Enterprise Resource Planning system (i.e., Oracle) as well as a Procure-To-Pay (P2P) System (i.e., Jaggaer)

Required Documents

• Resume
• Cover letter