Program Manager

Role: Global Program Manager

Duration: 6+ Months (Potential to Extend)

Work Location: Hybrid / Chicago IL 60601

Executive Summary We are seeking an experienced Global Program Manager to bring multiple deductions initiatives together into one integrated, outcome-led program. The program spans three connected priorities: reducing incoming deductions, resolving deductions faster, and reducing financial leakage through improved recovery. This senior program leadership role will align global and regional stakeholders around one roadmap, governance model, and benefits framework, connecting process improvement, technology, data, policy, and organizational change.

About the Role The Program Manager will own integrated planning, governance, delivery oversight, and benefits tracking for the global Deductions Program. You will turn initiatives at different stages of maturity into a coordinated execution plan with clear accountability, sequencing, dependencies, and resource requirements. Working across GBS, Finance, Sales, Customer Supply Chain, IT, data teams, and external partners, you will challenge fragmented approaches and enable timely decisions without relying on direct reporting authority. This is not a standalone IT project manager or deductions operations role: initiative owners remain accountable for their workstream delivery, functional decisions, and operational results, while you lead integration and drive delivery of agreed program outcomes. Global standards and regional deployment plans must reflect local requirements; North America-specific targets in the current program baseline must remain distinct from global commitments.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and maintain one integrated program charter, roadmap, milestone plan, and critical path across deduction prevention, faster resolution, and leakage reduction; reconcile overlapping initiatives and dependencies rather than manage them as disconnected projects.

• Establish executive steering and cross-functional working governance, clear decision rights, named initiative owners, and disciplined risk, issue, dependency, and decision management; close ownership gaps and escalate decisions with options and business impact.

• Align global and regional leaders on program scope, priorities, operating-model changes, and measurable outcomes; secure resource commitments and resolve competing business and technology priorities through agreed governance.

• Integrate root-cause prevention efforts across pricing and allowances, quantity discrepancies, fees and fines, product master data, and system reason-code integrity, connecting Lean Six Sigma analysis with business-owned corrective actions.

• Coordinate technology and process delivery across HighRadius, Compass, and GFIN, including under-tolerance automation, the deduction resolution interface, Project Shield, and AI-enabled document parsing; integrate requirements, testing, release readiness, cutover, and stabilization with accountable delivery leads.

• Maintain an integrated view of business cases, budgets, capacity, vendor commitments, and delivery forecasts; recommend sequencing and scope trade-offs based on value, readiness, risk, and available resources, with changes approved through governance.

• Connect recovery policy, write-off controls, deduction playbooks, supply-chain validation, and third-party recovery activities into a coherent leakage-reduction plan, preserving functional approval authority and avoiding duplicate effort or double-counted benefits.

• Anticipate and manage cross-workstream risks, including interface failures, data quality, unresolved ownership, technology delays, operational capacity, and adoption readiness; drive mitigations and recovery plans with accountable owners.

• Provide concise, decision-ready executive reporting covering outcomes, benefits, milestones, financial outlook, dependencies, risks, and required interventions; partner with data teams to replace fragmented manual reporting with a trusted program performance view.

• Lead integrated change and deployment planning with regional and functional owners, covering standardized ways of working, Sales onboarding, training, business readiness, and operational handover; scale proven solutions while accommodating justified local requirements.

• Agree baselines, metric definitions, regional targets, and benefit owners with Finance and operational leaders; track incoming deduction ratio, resolution cycle time, automation, productivity, recovery, and leakage. Validate benefits against the approved baseline.

Required Qualifications

• Substantial progressive experience in transformation and program management, typically 10+ years overall, including at least 5 years leading complex, multi-workstream programs across countries and functions; demonstrated accountability beyond project coordination or status reporting.

• Proven delivery of integrated business and technology transformation with measurable financial and operational benefits, including executive governance, dependency management, resource planning, budget oversight, and benefits realization.

• Strong working knowledge of Order-to-Cash / Invoice-to-Cash and customer deductions, including trade and non-trade claims, validation, dispute resolution, recovery, write-offs, and the links to pricing, Sales Finance, and Customer Supply Chain.

• Ability to turn fragmented initiatives into one executable program with clear ownership, critical path dependencies, realistic sequencing, regional deployment plans, and traceability from business outcomes to delivered capabilities.

• Credibility with senior global and regional leaders; strong influencing, negotiation, and conflict resolution skills, with the judgment to challenge assumptions, secure commitments, and escalate effectively in a matrix environment.

• Strong analytical and financial acumen: able to scrutinize business cases, distinguish cash recovery from productivity and prevention benefits, validate baselines, and build reliable performance reporting without double counting.

• Excellent executive communication and facilitation skills, translating complex operational and technology issues into concise recommendations, clear decisions, and accountable actions across regions and time zones.

• Practical understanding of enterprise system integrations, data quality, automation, testing, and change adoption; able to challenge business and technical delivery plans without needing to be a solution architect or hands-on developer.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with HighRadius or comparable deductions and receivables platforms, ERP interfaces, trade-spend processes, and customer-level deduction analytics.

• Experience applying AI-enabled document processing, automation, and analytics to finance operations, with appropriate validation, controls, and operational adoption.

• Program or project management certification such as PgMP, PMP, or MSP; Lean Six Sigma qualification and experience combining structured program governance with Agile delivery.

• Experience coordinating technology vendors, implementation partners, and recovery providers within a single business-led delivery and value-realization framework.

• Experience in global GBS or shared-services transformation and consumer goods or similarly complex customer environments, balancing global standards with regional operating requirements.