Senior Team Lead, Collections

NTT Global Data Centers•Texas, United States of America, TX

9d•$106,300 - $129,000•Remote

About The Position

The Senior Team Lead, Collections oversees a global portfolio of accounts receivable, leading a team responsible for cash collection, dispute resolution, credit risk mitigation, and AR aging health. This role partners closely with Sales, Billing, Cash Application, and Revenue Accounting to accelerate cash, minimize bad debt, and improve Days Sales Outstanding (DSO). The role combines people leadership, portfolio strategy, and operational excellence, ensuring adherence to company policies, SOX/internal controls, and applicable regulations.

Requirements

Strong command of Order‑to‑Cash (O2C) processes—billing, cash app, credit risk, and collections best practices.
Proficient in ERP/finance systems (e.g., SAP S/4HANA, Oracle) and collections/workflow tools (e.g., HighRadius, GetPaid, BillTrust) and customer portals.
Advanced Excel/Sheets (lookups, pivots, modeling), comfortable with BI tools (Power BI/Tableau) for AR analytics and forecasting.
Understanding of IFRS/GAAP concepts relevant to AR and internal controls/SOX.
Data‑driven decision maker with bias for action and ownership of outcomes.
Persuasive communication and negotiation skills—able to handle executive‑level client escalations.
People leadership: coaching, performance management, and mentoring, with demonstrated ability to elevate team capability.
High degree of integrity, judgment, and resilience in a fast‑paced, global environment.
Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Business, or related field (required).
7–10 years total experience in Collections/Credit & Collections/O2C, including 2–4 years in people leadership.
Proven track record of improving cash collections, reducing DSO/aging, and resolving high‑value disputes.
Experience working with enterprise/strategic accounts and navigating customer procurement/AP portals.
Prior exposure to global operations and working across time zones/stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

MBA/PGDM in Finance or professional credential (e.g., CA Inter, CMA, CCE/Credit Management) preferred.
Training/certification in Lean/Yellow Belt or Data Analytics (Power BI) is a plus.

Responsibilities

Lead, coach, and develop a team of collectors and senior collectors (typically 6–12 FTEs) with clear goals, weekly pipeline reviews, and performance feedback.
Own team capacity planning, queue assignment, and prioritization based on risk, aging buckets, and value-at-risk (VaR).
Build a high-performance culture with dashboards, incentives, and recognition tied to cash targets and quality metrics.
Own Global/segment cash collection targets, DSO, Current %, and >90/120 aging reduction plans; publish weekly and monthly performance packs.
Oversee proactive outreach cadence (email/calls/portals), payment plan negotiations, short‑pay management, and promise‑to‑pay adherence.
Govern dispute triage (pricing, PO issues, service credits, billing errors), driving root-cause analysis and cross‑functional closure SLAs.
Partner with Credit Risk to recommend credit limit changes, account holds/releases, and escalations for high‑risk customers.
Ensure cash application alignment (remittance, short pays, unapplied, on‑account), working closely with the Cash Apps team to clear exceptions.
Manage month-end close inputs: cash forecast, allowance for doubtful accounts (AFDA) insights, and aging commentary for Finance/Controllership.
Maintain collection strategies by segment (enterprise, commercial, strategic accounts), leveraging segmentation, scoring, and dialer/workflow tools.
Run cross-functional AR standups with Sales/CS/Billing to unblock disputes and accelerate payments.
Lead structured client escalations with account teams; participate in Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) for top past‑due customers.
Provide executive-ready reporting to Finance Leadership on risk exposure, cash variances, and remediation plans.
Uphold SOX/internal control compliance across collections, adjustments, and write‑off workflows; ensure documentation and audit readiness.
Identify and execute process improvements/automation (e.g., dunning optimization, template standardization, portal enrollment, RPA opportunities).
Drive data quality—customer master hygiene, invoice accuracy, billing addresses, and payment method enablement (ACH/wire/SEPA/virtual card).
Contribute to policy updates (credit, collections, dispute, write‑off thresholds) and train the team on changes.
Track and improve customer experience in the collections process (professional tone, clarity, and resolution speed).