Director of Accounts Receivable

Director of Accounts Receivable

Overview

An established sales and marketing organization in Northern New Jersey, serving a premier Fortune 500 client base, is seeking a Director of Accounts Receivable to lead its corporate receivables strategy and day-to-day operations. This role will shape and manage the company's credit-to-cash processes, ensuring sustainable growth, optimized cash flow, accurate cash application, and an exceptional client experience in a fast-paced, performance-driven environment.

The ideal candidate is a forward-thinking, hands-on finance leader who combines strategic insight with strong operational execution. This individual will actively manage and develop the Accounts Receivable team while remaining closely involved in daily A/R activities, including collections, cash application, account reconciliation, billing, credit management, and issue resolution.

The successful candidate will be comfortable moving between high-level strategy and detailed execution—transforming processes, leveraging technology, resolving complex account issues, and developing a high-performing team to deliver measurable business impact.

Find out more about this role by reading the information below, then apply to be considered.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Financial Management

• Lead the Accounts Receivable function, driving strategy, policy, and best practices across invoicing, collections, cash application, and credit management.
• Establish and execute a corporate receivables roadmap that supports business growth, operational efficiency, and cash flow optimization.
• Partner with senior finance and business leaders to align receivables strategies with corporate financial objectives.
• Provide strategic and operational oversight of all A/R accounting, reporting, reconciliation, and cash application processes, ensuring compliance with GAAP and internal controls.
• Develop, monitor, and report on key performance metrics, including aging trends, DSO, collection effectiveness, unapplied cash, and cash application accuracy.
• Identify trends, root causes, and opportunities for improvement and translate findings into actionable plans.

Operational Excellence & Cash Application

• Oversee accurate and timely invoicing, payment processing, collections, and cash application across a complex, multi-state and multi-channel environment.
• Maintain hands-on involvement in daily A/R operations, including troubleshooting payment discrepancies, resolving unapplied or misapplied cash, reviewing account reconciliations, and addressing escalated customer issues.
• Ensure customer payments are accurately and promptly applied to open receivables across multiple payment methods and channels.
• Oversee the research and resolution of unidentified payments, short pays, deductions, overpayments, chargebacks, and other cash application discrepancies.
• Drive improvements in cash posting accuracy, unapplied cash balances, reconciliation processes, and month-end close activities.
• Implement automation and digital tools to streamline billing, collections, cash application, and credit workflows.
• Lead initiatives to enhance forecasting, analytics, and reporting, supporting executive decision-making and operational transparency.
• Ensure compliance with multi-state sales tax requirements (Avalara experience preferred).
• Calculate and process customer rebates in accordance with contractual requirements.
• Process and oversee credit card payments and ensure credit card discrepancies or issues are resolved promptly and accurately.

Credit & Risk Management

• Direct all aspects of credit evaluation, limits, and approvals, balancing growth opportunities with prudent risk management.
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with clients to resolve non-payment issues, negotiate settlements, and achieve positive business outcomes.
• Establish scalable credit policies and governance frameworks that support sustainable revenue growth.
• Partner with Sales and Operations to proactively address credit risk, payment disputes, deductions, and other issues that could affect collections or customer relationships.

Hands-On Team Leadership & Collaboration

• Provide direct, hands-on leadership and day-to-day management of the Accounts Receivable team, maintaining visibility into workloads, priorities, account issues, and performance.
• Manage, mentor, and develop team members through regular coaching, goal-setting, performance feedback, and professional development.
• Establish clear individual and team performance expectations and hold team members accountable for collections, cash application accuracy, reconciliations, and other A/R objectives.
• Work alongside the team when necessary to resolve complex customer accounts, payment application issues, collection challenges, and operational bottlenecks.
• Ensure appropriate workload distribution, coverage, cross-training, and process documentation across the A/R function.
• Foster a collaborative, solutions-oriented environment that emphasizes accountability, accuracy, responsiveness, and customer service.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Sales, Operations, Accounting, Treasury, and IT to enhance the end-to-end order-to-cash process.
• Champion a culture of continuous improvement while maintaining strong day-to-day operational discipline.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Management, or a related field; MBA preferred.
• 8+ years of progressive experience in accounts receivable, corporate accounting, financial operations, credit, or collections, including at least 3 years in a leadership role.
• Demonstrated hands-on experience managing an Accounts Receivable team, including coaching, performance management, workload prioritization, and direct involvement in day-to-day A/R operations.
• Strong cash application experience, including high-volume payment posting, account reconciliation, unapplied cash resolution, deductions, short payments, overpayments, and payment discrepancy research.
• Proven success managing large-scale receivables operations in a multi-entity, multi-channel, or high-growth environment.
• Strong understanding of the complete order-to-cash cycle, including billing, cash application, collections, credit management, reconciliations, and reporting.
• Strong command of financial systems (Microsoft Dynamics GP/Great Plains preferred) and advanced Excel capabilities, including pivot tables, lookups, and macros.
• Experience implementing or optimizing automation within billing, collections, or cash application processes strongly preferred.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, negotiation, and communication skills, with the ability to work effectively with both senior leadership and front-line team members.
• Demonstrated experience driving process transformation, automation, operational excellence, and measurable improvements in A/R performance. xhyhwjd
• Ability to thrive as a player-coach who can set strategy while remaining actively engaged in execution and problem-solving.

Equal Opportunity Employer