ARDEM Incorporated
Website:
ardem.com
Job details:
Senior Manager – Finance & Accounting Operations
Location: India, with meaningful overlap with U.S. Eastern Time
Role Type: Hands-on functional leader; client-facing and internally accountable
1. Role Purpose
Mission
Own the performance, growth, client confidence, people, controls, and economics of ARDEM’s complete portfolio of client Finance & Accounting operations.
Why This Role Exists
ARDEM requires a senior Finance & Accounting leader who can manage the F&A portfolio as both a business and an operating function.
The Senior Manager will provide functional oversight across the portfolio, strengthen Project Owners and delivery managers, establish clear accountability, lead client relationships, ensure strong financial controls, and build scalable delivery capabilities across: Accounts Payable/Accounts Receivable/Billing/Cash Application/Reconciliations/Month-End Accounting Support/General Accounting/Related Finance & Accounting Services.
Nature of the Role
This is a hands-on functional leadership role, not an administrative or coordination position.
The successful candidate must be a strong technical Finance & Accounting professional with expert knowledge of U.S. GAAP, taxation, financial reporting, accounting controls, and U.S. accounting practices.
The individual will serve as the technical authority and functional expert for Project Owners and managers, while remaining accountable for portfolio performance, client outcomes, people leadership, operational discipline, and continuous improvement.
The role requires someone who can operate at both levels:
Strategic: Portfolio leadership, client governance, organizational design, financial performance, and growth.
Operational: Reviewing work, challenging assumptions, diagnosing issues, coaching managers, resolving escalations, and improving delivery.
This is not a role for a senior individual contributor who has not previously carried comparable leadership and business accountability.
2. Organizational Scope
The Senior Manager will have responsibility for:
- The complete portfolio of client Finance & Accounting engagements.
- AP, AR, billing, cash application, reconciliations, accounting support, and adjacent F&A services.
- Direct leadership and development of Project Owners / delivery managers supporting the F&A portfolio.
- Approximately 30 client projects in the initial portfolio, many supported by teams of 1–3 FTE.
- Client governance from kickoff through stabilization and steady-state operations.
- Strategic-account and at-risk-client reviews.
- Portfolio economics, including revenue, direct cost, margin, capacity, productivity, retention risk, and expansion opportunities.
- Functional training standards, technical readiness, quality, and production capability.
- Technical guidance and decision support to Project Owners across Finance & Accounting responsibilities.
3. What This Role Owns
The Senior Manager is directly accountable for:
- Portfolio delivery and SLA performance
- Client satisfaction, confidence, retention, and escalation management
- Project Owner capability, accountability, and performance
- Staffing, capacity planning, succession, and personnel decisions
- F&A controls, documentation, quality, and audit readiness
- Portfolio revenue, cost, margin, utilization, and productivity
- Functional training and production-readiness standards
- Discovery, solution design, transitions, proposals, and expansion support
- Technical Finance & Accounting leadership across client engagements
4. Core Responsibilities:-
A. Functional Leadership
- Own the complete operating performance of the F&A function, including priorities, standards, people, client impact, risk, and results.
- Establish clear accountability below the role so responsibilities do not remain concentrated with executive leadership.
- Build effective dashboards, operating reviews, management cadences, decision rights, escalation paths, and follow-through mechanisms.
- Identify structural weaknesses and recommend the organization, roles, skills, and capacity required for future growth.
- Serve as the technical Finance & Accounting authority across the portfolio.
- Challenge accounting decisions, operating assumptions, controls, and delivery practices when necessary.
B. Client & Cross-Functional Leadership
- Establish clear senior accountability for client commitments, risks, escalations, and service outcomes.
- Participate directly in client kickoffs, strategic business reviews, at-risk situations, escalations, and major operational decisions.
- Build trusted relationships with Controllers, CFOs, Finance leaders, and other client stakeholders.
- Partner with Commercial, Operations, Quality, Talent, Technology, Finance, Solutions, and Transition teams.
- Bring facts, options, recommendations, owners, and timelines to escalations rather than simply forwarding problems.
- Protect client confidence by identifying and addressing risks before they become service failures.
C. People Leadership
- Own hiring quality, role clarity, performance management, coaching, development, engagement, retention, succession, and necessary personnel decisions.
- Evaluate managers and key contributors based on demonstrated outcomes, judgment, client presence, control discipline, and leadership behavior.
- Strengthen Project Owners and junior leaders through direct coaching and functional guidance.
- Build management depth and succession coverage to reduce dependency on individual employees.
- Hold managers accountable for timely feedback, accurate performance documentation, development plans, and corrective actions.
- Make difficult personnel decisions when required to protect client, employee, and business outcomes.
D. Business & Financial Leadership
- Understand the revenue, direct cost, productivity, capacity, utilization, external spend, and business value associated with the portfolio.
- Protect client retention while identifying responsible expansion opportunities.
- Identify avoidable cost, rework, underutilization, poor prioritization, and recurring management burden.
- Recommend actions that balance:
- Client experience
- Employee sustainability
- Revenue opportunity
- Operational risk
- Cost and productivity
- Support commercial teams with Finance & Accounting expertise during discovery, solution design, proposals, transitions, and expansion opportunities.
5. Definition of Success
Success in this role will be demonstrated through measurable improvement in:
- Client Satisfaction
- Employee Satisfaction
- Employee Retention
- Portfolio Delivery & SLA Performance
- Cost and Productivity
- Manager Capability and Accountability
- F&A Controls and Quality
- Client Retention
- Account Expansion and Revenue Contribution
The ultimate objective is to build a Finance & Accounting organization that delivers consistently strong client outcomes while becoming increasingly scalable, disciplined, and less dependent on executive intervention.
Required Experience
The ideal candidate should demonstrate:
- 12–15+ years of experience in BPO, BPM, shared services, managed services, outsourcing, professional services, or a comparable multi-client operating environment.
- Proven leadership of multiple Finance & Accounting accounts, teams, or service lines.
- Experience managing a portfolio rather than only one internal corporate accounting department.
- Expert knowledge of U.S. GAAP and financial reporting.
- Strong understanding of U.S. taxation and general U.S. accounting principles.
- Proven experience with budgeting, forecasting, and financial management.
- Strong working knowledge across: AP/AR, Billing, Cash Application, Reconciliations, General Ledger, Journal Entries, Month-End Close, Accounting Controls
Financial Reporting
- Proven experience improving underperforming teams and strengthening managers.
- Demonstrated ability to make difficult personnel and organizational decisions.
- Strong client-facing experience with Controllers, CFOs, Finance leaders, and operational stakeholders.
- Experience serving as a primary contact for external auditors and preparing or reviewing audit schedules.
- Comprehensive experience managing general ledger activities, journal entries, month-end closing, and reconciliation processes.
- Strong operational and financial management capability.
- CA / CPA preferred.
6. Leadership Behaviors Required at ARDEM
The successful leader must consistently demonstrate the following behaviors:
Own Outcomes
Takes accountability for results rather than simply coordinating activity or escalating problems without recommendations.
Lead Through Collaboration
Works effectively across departments and leadership levels while maintaining clear ownership and accountability.
Stay Close to the Work
Remains sufficiently connected to operational details to challenge assumptions, inspect evidence, diagnose problems, and coach managers without becoming the default individual contributor.
Lead With Facts
Uses operating data, financial information, direct observation, and evidence to make decisions.
Communicate Early
Raises risks early and clearly when commitments, controls, people, clients, or economics are at risk.
Make Difficult Decisions
Documents and executes necessary personnel and organizational decisions rather than preserving weak structures because change is uncomfortable.
Protect Client Outcomes
Works across functions without transferring accountability or allowing organizational ambiguity to become client risk.
Build Scalable Leadership
Creates repeatable systems, management cadences, standards, controls, and leadership depth so the function becomes less dependent on founders or individual high performers.
7. Likely Candidate Sources
Priority should be given to candidates from:
- BPO / BPM organizations
- Finance & Accounting shared services
- Managed Finance Services
- Outsourcing organizations
- Professional Services
- Global Business Services
- Multi-client Finance Operations
- Captive/shared-service environments with significant operational leadership
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