Senior Manager, Finance Transformation, Expense & Operational Finance

About the role

Join a high-impact finance leadership role at the center of operational excellence and transformation. The Senior Manager, Finance Transformation, Expense & Operational Finance is a strategic and hands-on leader who will help shape the future of finance operations by leading core functions such as Accounts Payable, expense operations, process optimization, finance systems transformation, and data-driven decision support.

Responsibilities

• Lead modern finance operations with a focus on scalability, service excellence, and strong financial controls.
  • Oversee day-to-day operational finance functions, including Accounts Payable and key elements of expense management.
  • Ensure accuracy, timeliness, compliance, and a strong control environment across transactional finance processes.
  • Establish, monitor, and continuously improve service levels, KPIs, and operational performance metrics.
  • Identify and resolve process bottlenecks, control gaps, and inefficiencies that affect service delivery and business outcomes.
  • Drive process improvement, standardization, and continuous optimization across finance operations.
  • Lead process reengineering efforts that reduce cycle times, improve quality, and create more efficient end-to-end workflows.
  • Standardize policies, procedures, and operational workflows across teams, functions, and geographies.
  • Implement automation and streamline manual processes to improve productivity, scalability, and user experience.
  • Persistently partner with stakeholders to elevate service delivery, strengthen operating discipline, and support continuous improvement initiatives.
  • Partner with FP&A and business leaders to strengthen insight, planning, and decision support.
  • Collaborate with FP&A to support budgeting, forecasting, expense management, and financial planning activities.
  • Translate operational drivers into financial insights, recommendations, and business cases that inform better decision-making.
  • Analyze cost drivers, headcount trends, vendor spend, and operating metrics to identify optimization opportunities.
  • Enhance visibility into financial performance through enhanced reporting, dashboards, and actionable analytics.
  • Lead targeted finance transformation initiatives from strategy through execution.
  • Own and execute finance transformation initiatives with a focus on practical, measurable outcomes and sustainable business value.
  • Manage external vendors and implementation partners to drive accountability, execution quality, and alignment to transformation goals.
  • Support development of scalable operating models, including shared services, centralized support structures, and global process alignment.
  • Drive change adoption across teams by building readiness, communication, and engagement around new processes and technologies.
  • Advance technology, analytics, and data enablement across the finance organization.
  • Partner with IT and Finance teams to implement and enhance finance systems, reporting tools, and digital workflows.
  • Help define and maintain a finance operations technology roadmap aligned to business priorities, transformation objectives, and future scalability.
  • Leverage analytics, reporting, and data insights to improve decision-making, transparency, and operational performance.
  • Build trusted partnerships across Finance, Operations, and executive leadership.
  • Act as a strategic finance partner to operational leaders, business owners, and executive stakeholders.
  • Provide proactive insights that support cost management, investment prioritization, budgeting decisions, and operational planning.
  • Collaborate cross-functionally with Procurement, IT, HR, and other business teams to align priorities and deliver enterprise-wide improvements.

Qualifications

• We are looking for a leader who combines strong operational finance and finance transformation experience with the ability to influence across functions and levels of the organization.
• The ideal candidate brings a strategic mindset, strong execution discipline, and a track record of improving finance operations through process redesign, automation, systems implementation, analytics, and change management.
• Success in this role will require executive presence, excellent communication skills, strong business partnership capabilities, and the ability to translate complexity into clear actions and measurable outcomes.
• Preferred strengths include expertise in operational finance, Accounts Payable, expense management, procure-to-pay processes, FP&A partnership, financial analysis, vendor management, KPI development, process optimization, finance systems, reporting and dashboarding, and leading cross-functional transformation initiatives in complex organizations.
• The successful candidate is a collaborative people leader who develops talent, embraces innovation, and thrives in a fast-paced, evolving environment.
• Minimum Education: Bachelor’s Degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration or a related field.
• Preferred Education: Master's degree in Business Administration or related field.
• Minimum Years Of Experience: 10+ years of progressive experience in finance transformation, operational finance, FP&A, controllership support, shared services, procure-to-pay, or related finance leadership roles, including experience leading large-scale initiatives, cross-functional programs, process improvement efforts, systems implementations, and stakeholder-facing transformation work.

Benefits

Our employees are expected to embrace and uphold our firm values as a part of our DLA Piper culture. We are committed to excellence in how we represent our clients and develop our people. Physical Demands: Sedentary work: Exerting up to 10 pounds of force occasionally and/or a negligible amount of force frequently or constantly to lift, carry, push, pull or otherwise move objects, including the human body. Sedentary work involves sitting most of the time. Jobs are sedentary if walking and standing are required only occasionally and all other sedentary criteria are met. Work Environment: The individual selected for this position may have the opportunity for a hybrid work arrangement comprised of remote and in-office work, the requirement for which will be determined in coordination with the hiring manager or supervisor and may be modified in the firm’s discretion in the future.