VP Finance, Global Business Services

UL Solutions•Northbrook, IL

5h•$250,000 - $300,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Vice President, Global Business Services (GBS) leads a large, globally distributed organization across end-to-end service towers, centers of excellence, process excellence, data enablement, digital transformation, business insights, and regional delivery hubs. The model integrates ULS talent and strategic delivery partners to serve the enterprise at scale. The Vice President, Global Business Services is the enterprise executive accountable for the strategy, operating model, performance, transformation, talent, controls, and sustained value delivery of GBS. The role has evolved well beyond traditional shared services leadership. It combines global operations, end-to-end process ownership, business partnership, digital and AI enablement, data and insights, and transformation. The leader sets the aspiration for GBS and converts it into a sequenced portfolio of structural, operational, digital, and capability-building priorities. The role must simultaneously protect day-to-day service, improve customer outcomes, working capital and cost efficiency, modernize the footprint, and build scalable capabilities that position GBS as a trusted enterprise partner.

Requirements

15+ years of progressive experience, including significant executive leadership of large-scale global operations, shared services or GBS, and enterprise transformation in a complex multinational environment.
Demonstrated success transforming a shared-services organization into an integrated GBS model with stronger end-to-end ownership, scalable delivery, measurable enterprise value, and disciplined governance.
Executive presence and credibility to advise, influence, and challenge C-suite leaders, business presidents, functional executives, boards, auditors, and external partners.
Proven ability to lead a broad portfolio spanning finance operations, customer operations, payroll, procurement operations, master data, process excellence, analytics, digital enablement, controls, and service management.
Strong commercial, financial, and operational acumen, including business cases, productivity and cost management, working capital, vendor contracts, investment prioritization, and benefit realization.
Practical understanding of digital transformation, automation, AI, enterprise platforms, data architecture, governance, and technology-enabled operating-model redesign.
Exceptional global people leadership, with experience building leadership teams, developing successors, leading through ambiguity, and inspiring geographically and culturally diverse organizations.
Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Business, Economics, Finance, Operations, Engineering, or a related discipline.

Nice To Haves

GBS architect: Has designed and led a modern GBS model that integrates service delivery, process ownership, transformation, data, digital, controls, and talent under one enterprise agenda.
Transformation at scale: Has successfully led multi-year, cross-functional transformations involving organization redesign, process standardization, outsourcing or insourcing, location strategy, technology deployment, automation, and change management.
Operational rigor: Establishes transparent performance systems and has the judgment to distinguish isolated service issues from systemic process, capacity, accountability, or control failures.
Enterprise influence: Navigates matrixed organizations, aligns leaders with competing priorities, and moves decisions forward without relying solely on formal authority.
Digital and AI fluency: Connects emerging capabilities to real business problems, redesigns work before automating it, and balances speed with governance, control, adoption, and measurable impact.
Global footprint leadership: Has directed multi-country operations and delivery hubs, built resilient location and sourcing strategies, and managed strategic partners without diluting enterprise accountability.
Value orientation: Converts GBS performance into business outcomes, including customer experience, cash, growth enablement, productivity, cost, quality, control, cycle time, and organizational capacity.
Change leadership: Communicates with clarity and empathy, makes difficult decisions, builds followership, and leaves behind stronger leaders, capabilities, governance, and institutional discipline.
Advanced degree preferred.

Responsibilities

Define and continuously evolve the GBS strategy, service portfolio, governance, delivery footprint, tower model, centers of excellence, and location strategy in alignment with enterprise and CFO priorities.
Drive ownership across Order-to-cash, invoice-to-pay, payroll, customer care and certification operations, master data and data enablement, with clear process boundaries, service expectations, controls, and decision rights.
Lead a disciplined performance system anchored in SLAs, KPIs, quality, productivity, capacity, cost-to-serve, working capital, customer experience, risk, and control effectiveness. Intervene quickly where performance or business outcomes are at risk.
Sponsor and govern a complex portfolio of operating-model, process, automation, AI, data, technology, and integration initiatives. Ensure investments have clear outcomes, owners, milestones, controls, adoption plans, and measurable benefits.
Build future-ready capabilities through intelligent automation, AI-enabled service delivery, governed data foundations, decision-focused insights, and thoughtful integration of technology into redesigned processes.
Serve as a senior advisor to the CFO, Finance Leadership Team, business segments, functions, and technology leaders. Translate enterprise needs into scalable solutions while challenging fragmented work, avoidable complexity, and local optimization.
Build a diverse, high-performing global team; create succession depth and career pathways; strengthen site leadership and capability academies; and foster a culture of accountability, inclusion, continuous improvement, learning, and enterprise-first decision-making.
Maintain a strong control environment across global operations, including SOX and financial reporting controls, audit readiness, data governance, third-party oversight, policy compliance, business continuity, and sustainable remediation.
Own strategic service-provider relationships, statements of work, commercial protections, performance commitments, transition governance, quality assurance, and continuous value realization.
Lead sensitive global transformations, acquisitions, separations, transitions, and new-scope migrations with disciplined Day 1 readiness, stakeholder alignment, communications, talent planning, and stabilization.