As the world's leader in digital payments technology, Visa's mission is to connect the world through the most creative, reliable and secure payment network - enabling individuals, businesses, and economies to thrive. Our advanced global processing network, VisaNet, provides secure and reliable payments around the world, and is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second. The company's dedication to innovation drives the rapid growth of connected commerce on any device, and fuels the dream of a cashless future for everyone, everywhere. As the world moves from analog to digital, Visa is applying our brand, products, people, network and scale to reshape the future of commerce.

At Visa, your individuality fits right in. Working here gives you an opportunity to impact the world, invest in your career growth, and be part of an inclusive and diverse workplace. We are a global team of disruptors, trailblazers, innovators and risk-takers who are helping drive economic growth in even the most remote parts of the world, creatively moving the industry forward, and doing meaningful work that brings financial literacy and digital commerce to millions of unbanked and underserved consumers.

You're an Individual. We're the team for you. Together, let's transform the way the world pays.

 PURPOSE

The candidate will be responsible for the oversight of the Accounts Payable (AP) and Travel and Expense (TE) functions in the Dubai Hub Shared Service Center including analysis of AP-Hub transactions, with secondary requirement of processing invoices and payments within defined time periods and in accordance with company policies.  The principal focus of this position is to guide the payment processing and the card program for entities across CEMEA – Central Europe, Middle East, and Africa. An essential requirement for this individual is on analysis (both quantitative and qualitative) and the ability to bring the full AP Hub picture together for the Senior finance and business leaders. This role will have high visibility in the regional hub and beyond.

KEY RESULT AREAS

1.     Perform the CEMEA region TE & AP transaction analysis with a keen focus on supporting the controllership function and the business while considering the relevant CEMEA individual country business environment

2.     Own the global corporate and purchasing card program for the CEMEA employees including: issuance, renewal, modification, cancellation, records retention, Oracle linkage, distribution lists, and customer service (credit limit increases, policy interpretation, exception transaction processing, etc.) while maintaining audit controls

3.     Ensure processing/payment of invoices are in compliance with established key controls

4.     Coordinate with global treasury team to arrange weekly funding requests to cover CEMEA region supplier payments

5.     Prepare and review the weekly payment batches to ensure all invoices are approve for payment in compliance with established key controls

6.     Liaise with cash management team and review the bank reconciliations for CEMEA region bank accounts

7.     Coordinate with all CEMEA region local banks to discuss queries in payments and resolve them on timely manner

8.     Review the local bank requirements to make sure all payments are initiated as per the local bank laws

9.     Ensure TE & AP transactions are captured, recorded, summarized and reported in compliance with policies & procedures, US GAAPs, IFRS, as well as statutory, corporate and tax requirements (as applicable)

10.   Provide qualitative and quantitative analysis to the CEMEA AP Director as well as to other Finance and Business team members to assess requirements for change in processes, procedures and workflows. Initiate and propose procedural changes to enhance data quality and process flows

11.   Review and assess the impact of actual or planned changes to accounting policies, processes and other parameters

12.   Analyze executed business transactions to detect anomalies and non-compliance. Work with other supporting functions to investigate report and assist the business units to remediate the issues and implement effective AP controls to avoid re-occurrence

13.   Liaise with business owners and the Tax department on treatment of withholding taxes

14.   Interact with cardholders and other finance groups, including Controllership, Global Sourcing, Accounts Payable, Data Maintenance, IT, HR, and Products and global card administrators, to support questions related to corporate and purchasing card transactions

15.   Participate in global card program and system rollouts including user testing, communications and training

16.   Confirm that central travel account statements in the iExpense application are reconciled effectively

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

1.     Ensure meeting accounting deadlines for monthly, quarterly and annual financial close. Quality of accounting records – compliant with corporate policies, GAAP, FCPA, SEC and SOX. Accurate accounting of AP transactions – leading to minimum accounting adjustments/errors.

2.     Effectively participate in the payables team and TE with an environment focused on controls, ensuring compliance with key operating controls and proper segregation of duties, while meeting stated service levels

3.     Quality of supervision/advice given and effectiveness of the team in jointly producing the desired output.  Be a role model to demonstrate efficient execution, constant enhancement, ownership of core values

4.     Focus on providing perceptive analysis with a specific effort on seeing the big picture while not losing sight of the critical details

5.     Lead and operate with minimal supervision and make decisions based on acquired skills and knowledge. Propose and design analytical tools which will allow for an effective management of processes, workflows, teams, etc… within the AP&TE function and beyond

6.     Effective communication with stakeholders to ensure consistent application of key accounting treatments

7.     Excellent project management skills to drive various projects to completion with minimal supervision

8.     Non-recurrence of audit issues

9.     Timely and effective implementation of assigned projects/duties

10.   Adhere to personal and team targets in invoices and amounts processed during the established timespan.

11.   Promptly monitor and respond to queries sent to the Accounts Payable general mailbox.

12.   Implement analytical triggers to ensure withholding Tax and GST/VAT are properly accounted for and coded correctly

13.   Develop and maintain key operating metrics to determine backlogs or processing gaps to properly allocate activity focus

14.   Take measures to prevent shortages, unlawful expenditures of money and inventory holdings, violation of financial and tax legislation

15.   Instruct employees on company policies and procedures, while guiding the CEMEA card program and overseeing the general employee T&E related items and Purchasing Card topics

DECISION MAKING

• Make decisions on the analytical framework design to allow for the success of the CEMEA Hub AP & TE functions while considering compliance with published policies and guidelines.

• Prioritize tasks within job function balancing the need to meet tight deadlines, stated service level agreements, and other corporate demands

• Initiate and implement process changes within assigned function to improve controls, productivity or quality of work output

• Exercise good judgment to escalate issues to AP Director and other key stakeholders along with recommended solution to resolve

• Assist with internal audit, walk-through, and SOX documentation with ability to provide appropriate recommendation

DIMENSIONS

• Provide analysis for the Accounts Payable and TE roles for CEMEA entities

• Collection, review, summarization, analysis and reporting of financial and non-financial information for area of responsibility

• Provide evidence of adherence to stated SOX controls

• Assist management with ad hoc projects as necessary, including enhancement of Finance systems and rollout of new corporate card to new entities

• Professional accounting qualification (ACA, ACCA CPA or equivalent) or near completion strongly preferred
• Minimum 8 years of AP and/or business analyst experience in a multinational services firm required; focus on expense accounting preferred
• Hands on knowledge of US GAAP/IFRS
• Exposure to cross border payments and knowledge of regional bank standards
• Experience with multiple currencies including FX
• English fluency is required; Knowledge of Russian, Arabic preferred
• Experience in a Big 4 accounting firm is preferred
• Professional accounting qualification (ACA, ACCA CPA or equivalent) or near completion strongly preferred
• Minimum 8 years of AP and/or business analyst experience in a multinational services firm required; focus on expense accounting preferred
• Hands on knowledge of US GAAP/IFRS
• Exposure to cross border payments and knowledge of regional bank standards
• Experience with multiple currencies including FX
• English fluency is required; Knowledge of Russian, Arabic preferred
• Experience in a Big 4 accounting firm is preferred
• Corporate, Data or Business Analysis qualifications strongly preferred

Technical

• Required systems experience: Oracle R11i and 12 GL, AP, PO, iExpense, iProcurement; knowledge of Markview 170 Systems, OBIEE, Primavera, Discoverer modules
• Strong technical accounting and analytical skills with experience researching and documenting accounting issues
• Knowledge of Microsoft office applications – Excel, Word, Access
• Conceptual and working knowledge of financial databases
• Familiar with CEMEA tax regimes (e.g. CIT, VAT, GST) with an ability to process invoices in view of accounting and tax implications preferred
• Familiar with different banking portals preferred

Business

• Strong business ethics
• Ability to work well under pressure with little or no supervision and juggle multiple priorities
• Ability to analyze and come up with effective business solutions
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, and ability to work well in a fast paced and high volume environment
• Superior communication and personal skills; commitment to customer service
• Proven ability to Lead teams
• Strong problem solving and organizational skills

Complexity in accounting due to multi-dimensional financial reporting requirements – data needs to be analyzed by cost centre, account, product, country, projects, services as well in various currencies.  In addition, accounting records need to comply with US GAAP and local statutory financial and tax laws, and need to consider impact of tax issues in each country.  The financial reporting systems are highly integrated with statistical and operational databases.