Accounts Receivable Team Leader

This position is part of Novanta’s Corporate and Shared Services global teams. Novanta’s Corporate and Shared Services teams play an important role in executing the company’s strategic mission and operations. Included in Corporate and Shared Services are the business functions including Finance, Accounting, Human Resources, Information Technology, Legal, Compliance, Corporate Development and Corporate Marketing. The Corporate and Shared Services teams work closely with all Novanta business units to support operating initiatives contributing to the organization’s financial success.

The AR Team Leader leads the four-person Shared Services AR & Collections team for a number of European Novanta entities, with scope expected to grow, and personally carries the senior credit, collections and AR KPI reporting portfolio, including ATI credit and collection support. The role owns AR / order-to-cash performance and SOX compliance, and supports the transition of AR processing from European sites to Brno.

• Lead the four-person AR & Collections team: direction, workload allocation, 1:1s, coaching, goal-setting and performance reviews.
• Onboard and upskill team members, including a junior hire backfilling manual tasks; ensure cross-training and absence cover.

• Analyse customer financial condition and credit risk; establish customer credit limits, subject to management approval.
• Review orders on credit hold; personally act to meet delivery dates.
• Collect receivables and resolve past-due accounts; act as primary liaison with sales support and customer service on credit holds.

• Review cash applications and reconcile to open receivables; oversee the cash-application activity performed in the Brno office.
• Supervise period-end closing (cash application, AR subledger) in cooperation with GL, ensuring accuracy and timeliness.
• Prepare AR KPI reports and receivables statistics.
• Monitor DSO, CEI, cash collection and aging; keep average days delinquent and past-due dollars and percentage within limits.

• Act as the team’s go-to person on complex transactions and, with IT, on AR system issues; perform AR accountant duties when required.
• Own, document and harmonise AR / order-to-cash processes across sites and entities in scope, aligned to best practice.
• Identify inefficiencies and drive continuous improvement in processes, controls and tools, including change management and training.
• Support the transition of AR processing to Brno and ad-hoc projects.

• Coordinate internal and external audit evidence and walkthroughs.
• Ensure SOX compliance, segregation of duties and adherence to accounting policies and the Novanta Approval Matrix.
• Maintain complete, accurate and up-to-date records of contacts, collection activities and account reconciliations.

• Customers - daily contact on collections, disputes and queries.
• Sales & customer service - credit holds and reconciliations.
• Corporate finance / GL - cash application, KPIs and the close.
• Business GMs & site operations leaders - outstanding AR issues.

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance/Accounting, Information Systems or equivalent.
• 5+ years’ total experience with 3+ years in AR, credit and collections or process improvement, including team leadership or supervisory experience. 
• Experience with multiple ERPs (SAP, Oracle R12, Aptean Intuitive) and customer-based portal accounts.
• Fluency in English, Czech is preferred.
• Strong analytical skills; able to interpret data from various sources and company collection policies and practices.
• Excellent verbal, written and interpersonal communication; strong negotiation, organisational, problem-solving and collaboration skills.
• Highly motivated self-starter who works well independently and in a team, and thrives in a fast-paced, changing environment.
• Familiarity with Agile, Scrum and JIRA a plus.
• Strong Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook) and Adobe Acrobat skills; attention to detail and self-learning capability.
• Eligible to work legally in Czech republic (permanent residency/free access to the job market).