Finance Product Owner - Order to Cash

The mission of The New York Times is to seek the truth and help people understand the world. That means independent journalism is at the heart of all we do as a company. It's why we have a world-renowned newsroom that sends journalists to report on the ground from nearly 160 countries. It's why we focus deeply on how our readers will experience our journalism, from print to audio to a world-class digital and app destination. And it's why our business strategy centers on making journalism so good that it's worth paying for.

About the Role:

This is a vital moment in the life of The New York Times. We have declared ourselves a subscription-first company, staking our future on producing journalism worth paying for and developing deeper relationships with our readers across a growing bundle of products. In a rapidly changing information landscape, where facts are contested and trust is fragile, our mission to provide thoughtful, truthful and independent journalism is more crucial than ever.

Our subscription business has grown close to 13 million subscribers, with a goal to reach 15 million and beyond by 2027. To support that ambition, we must modernize and tightly govern the systems and operations that power how we create and govern offers, bill customers, accept and settle payments, recognize revenue and report our performance.

We are hiring a Director, Subscription Finance Technology to serve as the global process owner for our end-to-end Order to Cash (O2C) workflow. You will sit at the intersection of Finance, Commerce Platforms, Data Platforms, Tax, Internal Audit and Compliance. You will ensure that the way we design products and systems also protects the integrity of our revenue, our controls and our reporting. We are looking for a specialist in financial processes with technical knowledge. This specialist will oversee the O2C operating model. Additionally, they will partner with Product and Engineering to embed those requirements into the products and platforms being built. You will report jointly to the Corporate Controller and the Executive Director of Product, Commerce Platforms.

This is a hybrid role based in our New York City headquarters. You can typically expect to be in the office three times per week.

If you are excited by the idea of owning and evolving the financial backbone of a global subscription business - and ensuring that our ambition to grow is matched by equally strong operations, controls and data - we'd love to hear from you.

Responsibilities:

• Be the single process owner and directly responsible individual (DRI) for O2C operations and workflows. These processes power offer configuration, subscription activation, billing, collections, entitlement management, revenue recognition, and reporting
• Provide strategic direction and prioritization guidance for the Finance Product team as you discover and implement technical solutions that make financial processes and controls efficient and compliant
• Refine the O2C processes within the subscription business. This includes establishing transparent planning and brainstorming across teams, defining ownership for all projects, and ensuring measurable outcomes for implemented solutions
• Articulate Finance, Audit and Compliance needs as clear, testable business requirements for Product, Engineering and Data teams
• Oversee the Finance Product Team managing the team's roadmap and managing prioritization decisions. You will directly manage two analysts within the team
• Ensure that decisions around pricing, offers, promotions, entitlements, and other commerce objects are implementable, compliant, and scalable in downstream financial systems. To achieve this, participate in the upfront design and planning forums across multiple product teams, and surface O2C risks and trade-offs early
• Represent O2C needs in design and planning forums by communicating risks/trade-offs to ensure commerce decisions are compliant and scalable in financial systems
• Maintain end-to-end visibility into how major product and platform programs affect revenue recognition, tax, controls and other back-office processes
• Identify how product and platform OKRs, roadmaps and technical designs impact Finance so they can plan accordingly, and vice versa
• Be the first line of escalation when product goals conflict with financial, tax or control requirements, resolving most issues at the working level and escalating material trade-offs to senior leadership
• Design and steward an interaction and governance model that brings together product development teams, Finance, Tax, Internal Audit and Compliance
• Define clear ownership for important decisions. Establish a structured path for raising and resolving issues when material financial, reporting, or control risks arise. This gives Finance a mechanism to surface and address these risks before launch
• Strengthen audit readiness by partnering with Internal Audit and Compliance to ensure that new and evolving O2C capabilities have appropriate preventive controls, documentation and testing plans
• Partner with data producers across the O2C process to provide a unified, reliable data foundation for subscriber and revenue reporting, including reconciled views across multiple billing systems, third-party platforms and internal marts
• Lead change management as Product and Engineering deliver new commerce, reporting and control capabilities through streamlining processes, updating documentation and upskilling operations teams
• Work with business owners to ensure that you adopt and embed new capabilities (e.g., new subledger features, tax automation, subscriber data products) in day-to-day operations, with clear owners and success measures
• Demonstrate support and understanding of our value of journalistic independence and a strong commitment to our mission to seek the truth and help people understand the world

Basic Qualifications:

• 7+ years of experience in order-to-cash, revenue operations
• Working knowledge of the U.S. GAAP, ASC 606, deferred revenue, subledger design and global tax topics and how they shape billing and revenue logic
• Experience working with home-grown billing and subscription platforms alongside vendor tools, reading system and data-flow diagrams, and partnering closely with engineering leads
• Demonstrated understanding of the software development lifecycle. You are proficient in querying and manipulating data. You use modern project management and issue-tracking tools, such as Jira, fluently. Additionally, you have hands-on experience working within Agile product development teams.
• Grounded in the product management craft. Experienced at framing problems and outcomes, setting clear success metrics, writing crisp requirements, and driving prioritization and trade-off decisions in partnership with cross-functional teams
• Experience leading through influence across executive leadership, Finance, Product, Engineering, Internal Audit and Compliance, with a track record of building trust and agreement in high-stakes environments
• Familiarity with shaping new roles and operating models, able to bring structure, documentation and clarity where responsibilities have historically been distributed in multiple teams

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in both consulting (auditing or internal controls advisory services) and in high-volume subscription or digital media businesses
• People management experience

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The annual base pay range for this role is between:

$160,000-$190,000 USD

For roles in the U.S., dependent on your role, you may be eligible for variable pay, such as an annual bonus and restricted stock. Benefits may include medical, dental and vision benefits, Flexible Spending Accounts (F.S.A.s), a company-matching 401(k) plan, paid vacation, paid sick days, paid parental leave, tuition reimbursement and professional development programs.


For roles outside of the U.S., information on benefits will be provided during the interview process.

The New York Times Company is committed to being the world's best source of independent, reliable and quality journalism. To do so, we embrace a diverse workforce that has a broad range of backgrounds and experiences across our ranks, at all levels of the organization. We encourage people from all backgrounds to apply.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate on the basis of an individual's sex, age, race, color, creed, national origin, alienage, religion, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation or affectional preference, gender identity and expression, disability, genetic trait or predisposition, carrier status, citizenship, veteran or military status and other personal characteristics protected by law. All applications will receive consideration for employment without regard to legally protected characteristics. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)'s Know Your Rights Poster is available here.


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