Head of New Business Ventures/Development

ZEISS•Princeton, NJ

About The Position

The Head of New Business Ventures/Development oversees customer financing plans, accounts receivable, customer credit, and other large-scale, complex business initiatives that fall outside the regular reporting or planning cycle. The role owns the cash consequences of the commercial terms agreed by the business. The position owns ZEISS Vision Care’s customer loan program end to end, including origination, assessment, documentation, approval routing, and portfolio monitoring. It ensures the program follows its compliance framework, including a mandatory compliance gate and written approval from the Global CFO of ZEISS Vision Care for every loan, regardless of size. Loans must remain clean seed capital without linkage to purchase commitments or commercial terms. The role is accountable for the US business’s accounts receivable position, customer credit policy, and independent credit input into deal approvals. It also builds and defends business cases for major initiatives, leads commercial and financial modelling for partnerships, major tenders, and new channel entries, and conducts post-investment reviews. The position leads and develops the Accounts Receivable Supervisor and, through them, the credit team.

Requirements

Ten or more years of experience across commercial finance, corporate development, or credit, with exposure to structured customer financing.
Bachelor’s degree or higher.
Practical credit and receivables leadership experience, including setting limits, running collections, and holding the credit position with a sales team seeking an order.
Comfort working with Legal and Compliance on regulated structures.
Ability to take an ambiguous initiative from idea through approval, funding, and review.
Senior presence with customers and with the group finance organization.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with Anti-Kickback Statute constraints.

Responsibilities

Own the customer loan program end to end, including origination, assessment, documentation, approval routing, and portfolio monitoring.
Operate the loan program within its compliance framework, including the mandatory compliance gate and written approval from the Global CFO of ZEISS Vision Care for every loan regardless of size.
Ensure loans remain clean seed capital with no linkage to purchase commitments or commercial terms, and escalate proposed structures that would create such a linkage.
Own the US business’s accounts receivable position, including DSO, ageing profile, collections performance, and bad debt provision.
Own customer credit policy, including credit limits, assessment criteria, payment terms, and escalation paths for accounts that breach them.
Provide an independent credit view in deal approvals so customer risk is assessed alongside deal margin by a team with no stake in the margin decision.
Build and defend business cases for major initiatives, including investment cases submitted to the group.
Lead commercial and financial modelling for partnerships, major tenders, and new channel entries.
Run post-investment reviews on completed initiatives and hold commitments made at approval to account.
Lead and develop the Accounts Receivable Supervisor and, through them, the credit team.