Associate Vice President Global Credit & Collections

The Associate Vice President, Global Credit & Collections is responsible for leading the company's global credit risk management, collections strategy, and accounts receivable optimization across all regions. This role develops and executes a world-class credit and collections organization that balances revenue growth, customer experience, risk mitigation, and cash flow objectives.

The AVP partners closely with Sales, Finance, Treasury, Customer Service, Legal, Shared Services, and Regional Leadership teams to establish policies, governance, controls, and operational excellence frameworks that support sustainable growth while minimizing bad debt exposure and improving working capital performance.

This executive leader drives global standardization, process transformation, digitalization, and continuous improvement initiatives across a complex international business environment.

• Develop and execute a global credit and collections strategy aligned with corporate financial objectives.
• Establish long-term roadmaps to improve cash flow, reduce credit risk, and optimize working capital performance.
• Lead a global organization across multiple regions, countries, and shared service centers.
• Drive organizational effectiveness, talent development, succession planning, and leadership capability building.
• Serve as the executive sponsor for global transformation and automation initiatives impacting the Order-to-Cash (O2C) process.

• Develop and maintain global credit policies, standards, and governance frameworks.
• Oversee customer credit evaluations, credit limit management, and risk assessment methodologies.
• Monitor global credit exposure and proactively identify potential financial risks.
• Partner with Sales and Commercial teams to support business growth while maintaining an appropriate risk profile.
• Lead strategies for managing high-risk accounts, bankruptcies, restructuring situations, and major customer disputes.
• Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements, internal controls, and corporate risk management policies.

• Establish global collection strategies, segmentation models, and escalation procedures.
• Drive improvements in accounts receivable performance and cash conversion.
• Monitor and improve key metrics, including:
  • Days Sales Outstanding (DSO)
  • Aging performance
  • Collection effectiveness index (CEI)
  • Past due balances
  • Bad debt expense
  • Write-off rates
  • Cash collections targets
• Oversee resolution of significant customer disputes impacting collections.
• Ensure consistent execution of collection activities across all regions.

• Partner with Treasury, FP&A, EFR and Business Finance leaders to maximize cash flow performance.
• Develop initiatives to improve cash conversion cycles and reduce working capital requirements.
• Provide executive-level reporting and insights on cash collection trends and risks.
• Support forecasting of collections and bad debt reserves.

• Lead global standardization of credit and collection processes.
• Implement automation solutions, AI-enabled collection tools, workflow management systems, and analytics capabilities.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives.
• Identify opportunities to improve efficiency, scalability, and customer experience.
• Sponsor ERP and finance transformation initiatives impacting Order-to-Cash operations.

• Act as the primary executive contact for complex customer credit and collection matters.
• Collaborate with Sales, Commercial Operations, Customer Service, Treasury, Accounting, Legal, Internal Audit, and Compliance teams.
• Influence senior leadership on credit risk decisions and working capital strategies.
• Present business performance, risks, and recommendations to executive leadership and finance committees.

• Ensure compliance with global accounting policies, SOX requirements, and internal control standards.
• Maintain strong governance over credit approvals, collections activities, and bad debt provisioning.
• Coordinate with Internal Audit and external auditors regarding credit and collection controls.
• Manage compliance with local regulations and international business requirements.
  
  

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, Economics, or related field.
• MBA, CPA, CMA, CFA, or equivalent professional qualification preferred.

• 15+ years of progressive experience in Credit, Collections, Accounts Receivable, Treasury, Finance Operations, or Order-to-Cash functions.
• 7+ years of leadership experience managing global teams.
• Experience leading large, international credit and collections organizations.
• Demonstrated success in driving working capital improvements and reducing bad debt risk.
• Experience operating within multinational, matrixed organizations.
• Strong knowledge of ERP platforms such as SAP, Oracle, S/4HANA, or similar systems.

• Strategic thinking
• Executive presence
• Talent development
• Change leadership
• Organizational effectiveness

• Global credit risk management
• Collections operations
• Accounts receivable management
• Working capital optimization
• Financial analysis and forecasting
• Order-to-Cash process management

• Stakeholder management
• Negotiation and influencing skills
• Cross-functional collaboration
• Customer relationship management

• Financial statement analysis
• Credit assessment methodologies
• Data analytics and performance management
• ERP and finance systems expertise
• Process automation and digital transformation
• Growth mindset