Team Leader, Business Assurance – Finance (Billing, AP & Collections) - GBS Americas

SGS is the global leader in inspection, testing and certification, setting the international benchmark for quality and integrity. Through GBS by SGS, we centralize essential services such as Finance, Human Resources, IT and Procurement to drive efficiency and innovation. Our GBS Americas hub in Bogotá supports transformation across Latin America and North America, enabling smarter operations and delivering exceptional value to our clients worldwide.

Position Summary

The Team Leader, Business Assurance - Finance is responsible for providing strategic and operational leadership across three finance operational towers: Billing, Accounts Payable, and Collections. This role ensures the consistent delivery of high-quality financial operations, internal control compliance, KPI performance, and financial reporting accuracy. As a key partner to the Business Assurance Manager and multiple stakeholders across GBS Americas, the Team Leader drives operational excellence, risk mitigation, process improvements, and service reliability. The role is central to strengthening the integrity and performance of finance operations across the region, blending people leadership, KPI accountability, and financial governance. The position reports directly to Luisa Mateus, Manager - Business Assurance, GBS Americas.

Key Responsibilities

1. Leadership & People Management

The Team Leader is accountable for building, inspiring, and enabling a high-performing team of ~12 Business Assurance professionals across Billing, Accounts Payable, and Collections. This includes providing day-to-day guidance, coaching, and mentorship to ensure team members fully understand their roles, responsibilities, and performance expectations. The leader is responsible for establishing clear objectives linked to Finance and Business Assurance priorities, conducting structured 1:1 conversations, overseeing performance reviews, and creating tailored development plans to strengthen capabilities and long-term career paths. They must ensure balanced workloads, manage staffing needs, identify skill gaps, and lead ongoing training and cross-training programs to enhance team resilience.

The role also requires cultivating a culture of trust, accountability, and psychological safety, where employees feel empowered to raise concerns, propose improvements, and perform at their best. The Team Leader must monitor team morale, proactively address interpersonal or workload stressors, and ensure consistent communication so the team remains aligned, motivated, and engaged. As a visible and accessible leader, this role models integrity, professionalism, customer orientation, and collaboration at all times.

2. Operational Excellence Across Finance Towers (Billing, AP & Collections)

The Team Leader ensures that Business Assurance activities across Billing, AP, and Collections are executed reliably, accurately, and in accordance with internal controls, financial governance frameworks, and service-level expectations. For Billing, the role oversees the end-to-end validation of invoices, supporting documentation, certifications, and adjustments, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and compliance with contractual terms. The leader monitors cycle times, investigates discrepancies, and works with stakeholders to correct root causes.

For Accounts Payable, the role ensures invoice processing is compliant with approval hierarchies, documentation requirements, and internal policies. They oversee adherence to payment calendars, ensure that reconciliations are complete, and address recurring issues impacting accuracy, timeliness, or efficiency. For Collections, the Team Leader ensures robust follow-up standards, proper documentation for collection activities, and accurate monitoring of aging reports. They facilitate escalation protocols, support the team in addressing overdue balances, and collaborate with internal finance partners to resolve disputes or blockers.

In all three towers, the leader must ensure that BA checkpoints, reviews, controls, and validations are performed consistently, with findings translated into clear actions and documented for auditability.

3. Process Governance, Risk Management & Financial Reporting

The Team Leader upholds strong process governance by ensuring that Business Assurance activities consistently meet internal control standards, compliance requirements, and audit expectations. This includes overseeing the creation, maintenance, and periodic updating of process documentation such as SOPs, process maps, and desktop procedures across Billing, AP, and Collections. The leader conducts (or oversees) regular quality checks, sample reviews, and compliance assessments, ensuring findings are analyzed through a structured root-cause methodology and addressed through corrective action plans.

A critical component of this role is financial reporting accountability. The Team Leader ensures that financial BA insights (such as KPIs, control results, quality assessments, financial accuracy reviews, and compliance indicators) are consolidated into periodic reports for Finance leadership. The role must interpret performance data, highlight risk areas, identify financial exposure, and provide recommendations based on evidence and trends. Sound judgment, analytical rigor, and clarity in storytelling are essential to delivering reporting that supports decision-making at higher levels.

4. Workflow Planning, Prioritization & Performance Management

This role coordinates and orchestrates daily operations for Billing, AP, and Collections to ensure stability, efficiency, and alignment with business needs. The Team Leader must plan and distribute workload equitably among the ~12 team members, considering volume fluctuations, deadlines, and capacity constraints. They monitor real-time performance against KPIs, SLAs, and internal commitments, taking corrective action where needed and ensuring tasks are completed with accuracy and within prescribed timelines.

The Team Leader must also conduct daily operational huddles, weekly tower reviews, and structured performance deep dives to assess progress, identify bottlenecks, and reinforce accountability. When escalations arise (whether related to process dependencies, data issues, customer disputes, or control gaps) the leader must coordinate swift resolution across teams. The role is responsible for anticipating challenges, ensuring continuity plans are in place, and maintaining high levels of operational discipline.

5. Stakeholder Management, Communication & Escalation Handling

The Team Leader serves as a central point of contact for stakeholders across GBS Americas, including Local Finance, FSSC teams, Global Process Owners, Audit, Compliance, and Operations leadership. This requires maintaining proactive, transparent, and structured communication channels to ensure mutual alignment, expectation management, and early identification of risks or concerns. The leader must accurately represent the status of Billing, AP, and Collections operations, communicate performance insights, and provide clear explanations on issues, controls, or trends.

They must also manage escalations by coordinating cross-functional action plans, ensuring timely responses, and communicating outcomes to stakeholders. The role involves preparing and delivering presentations, dashboards, and reports that synthesize operational and financial insights. Effective stakeholder management requires diplomacy, credibility, and the ability to translate operational detail into strategic implications for the business.

6. Strategy Execution, KPI Accountability & Continuous Improvement

The Team Leader is accountable for translating the Business Assurance strategy into actionable plans for the Billing, AP, and Collections towers. This includes defining, monitoring, and evaluating KPIs to ensure performance targets are met, addressing gaps proactively, and driving a data-driven culture. The leader must be able to interpret KPI trends, identify operational inefficiencies, and convert insights into improvement initiatives.

The role champions continuous improvement by promoting innovation, challenging outdated or inefficient processes, and encouraging teams to propose new approaches. The Team Leader supports automation, standardization, and best-practice adoption across finance operations. They also play an active role in transformation initiatives, migrations, or process stabilization phases, ensuring readiness, documentation, and risk controls are in place. Their ability to lead through change, maintain engagement, and sustain operational excellence is fundamental to the ongoing maturity of Business Assurance across GBS Americas.

Qualifications

Education

A Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, Economics, Engineering, or a related field is required. This educational foundation ensures that the Team Leader possesses the technical understanding of financial operations, internal controls, data analysis, and business processes necessary to effectively oversee Billing, AP, and Collections activities.

Experience

Candidates must have at least 2 years of experience in finance operations (specifically in Billing, Accounts Payable, Collections, P2P, O2C, or R2R), within shared services or corporate finance environments. Experience leading teams, supervising daily operational workflows, or acting as a senior specialist with leadership responsibilities is essential. The role requires familiarity with KPIs, performance dashboards, internal controls, process compliance, and audit readiness. Experience supporting transitions, migrations, knowledge transfers, or stabilization phases is considered a strong plus, as the role frequently interacts with evolving processes and business transformations across GBS Americas.

Technical Skills

The candidate must demonstrate strong proficiency in Microsoft Office applications, particularly Excel (for analysis and reporting), PowerPoint (for presentations), and Word (for documentation). Hands-on experience with ERP systems is highly desirable. Strong analytical capabilities, precise attention to detail, and excellence in process documentation and business reporting are critical to managing BA activities for Billing, AP, and Collections.

Languages

An English level of B2+ is required for business operations, enabling the Team Leader to interact fluently and professionally with regional and global stakeholders, prepare reports, participate in management discussions, and support cross-border initiatives.

Travel

Occasional travel within the region may be required to support trainings, process reviews, on-site assessments, stakeholder meetings, or stabilization activities in alignment with GBS Americas priorities.

Core Competencies

• Strategic Thinking & Process Orientation: Understands end-to-end finance processes and connects day-to-day operations with broader business objectives, ensuring that BA activities support financial integrity and strategic growth.
• Continuous Improvement & Innovation: Identifies operational gaps, proposes enhancements, and supports standardization and automation initiatives that strengthen efficiency and service quality.
• Stakeholder Influence & Relationship Management: Collaborates effectively with Local Finance, FSSC teams, Global Process Owners, and other partners, using clear communication and data-supported insights to influence decisions and build trust.
• People Leadership & Team Engagement: Creates a motivating and inclusive team environment where employees feel supported, challenged, and aligned with goals. Maintains high performance standards through coaching, feedback, and accountability.
• Decision Making & Problem Solving: Uses data, judgment, and structured analysis to assess issues, prioritize actions, and resolve process challenges. Anticipates risks and implements preventive measures.
• Operational Discipline & Results Orientation: Ensures adherence to controls, timelines, and quality expectations while consistently delivering high-quality outputs and meeting service commitments across all finance towers.
• Ethical Leadership & Integrity: Acts with transparency, responsibility, and respect, upholding high ethical standards in financial processes, people interactions, and compliance-related tasks.

Reporting Line

• Direct Manager: Manager, Business Assurance, GBS Americas; matrix reporting to NAM Controller and Global Head of BA Shared Services.
• Team: Approximately 12 team members distributed across Billing, Accounts Payable, and Collections, with varying seniority levels and functional focus.