Accounts Payable VMD Payments Specialist Full Time NEW

PFI Innovation Centre India is an exciting new innovation center. We’re building a future that helps people live better lives longer— and we’re looking for bold thinkers and team players to help us do it.

Here, you’ll tackle complex challenges, collaborate with brilliant minds across the globe, and grow your career while helping millions achieve financial security.

a Purpose Driven Company – 150 Years

While the PFI Innovation Centre India brand is new to India, you’ll be a part of the Prudential Financial, Inc. family. Founded in 1875 in Newark, New Jersey, we serve 50 million customers across more than 50 countries. With $1.334 trillion in assets, we’re a global leader in institutional asset management. The 2nd largest life insurer in the US and the 9th largest institutional global asset manager.

At PFI Innovation Centre India, you’ll find a high-performance culture that’s flexible, collaborative, and grounded in respect. We engage with candor, take calibrated risks, and hold ourselves accountable — always focused on delivering for our customers. It’s the standard we choose every day as we grow, perform, and win as one team.

We offer valuable leadership, mentoring and learning opportunities, paired with the flexibility and support to help you thrive.

Whether you’re just starting out or ready to take your next step, we’ll help you grow with purpose and do the best work of your career.

The Procure to Pay Lead is a senior operational and process leader within the Global Sourcing & Procurement (GSP) organization, responsible for overseeing and guiding day-to-day P2P activities across Procurement and Accounts Payable Operations.

This role provides subject matter expertise, coordinating workload execution, resolving complex operational issues, and ensuring compliance with controls, policy standards, and service level expectations. The Lead partners extensively with suppliers, business requestors, Category Managers, and P2P team members to enhance transaction quality, reduce defects, strengthen governance, and deliver a seamless end-to-end P2P experience.

The P2P Lead also contributes to process transformation, system optimization, and continuous improvement initiatives that elevate operational efficiency, accuracy, and customer satisfaction across the Procure-to-Pay lifecycle.

Key Responsibilities

• Operational Leadership & Workflow Coordination
• Oversee daily P2P activities, ensuring timely and accurate execution of Procurement and AP transactions.
• Provide direction, guidance, and task prioritization for Procurement and AP Analysts.
• Monitor workflow queues, resolve processing bottlenecks, and ensure SLA and KPI adherence.
• Act as a senior escalation point for complex discrepancies, blocked invoices, supplier issues, and system roadblocks.
• Issue Resolution & Stakeholder Management
• Lead resolution of priority issues across requisitioning, PO management, vendor setup, invoice exceptions, payment delays, and reconciliations.
• Serve as a liaison between Procurement, AP, Category Managers, suppliers, and business stakeholders.
• Ensure escalations are resolved promptly, root causes are identified, and corrective actions are implemented.
• Compliance, Controls & Audit Readiness
• Ensure compliance with company policies, SOX controls, tax regulations, fraud prevention procedures, and approval workflows.
• Oversee accuracy of documentation and audit trails; support internal/external audit requests.
• Identify control gaps, duplicate payment risks, and process exceptions; recommend mitigation actions.
• Systems Expertise & Process Optimization
• Act as an advanced SME for procurement and AP systems (e.g., SAP, Oracle, Ariba, Coupa or similar).
• Lead system issue triage, enhancement testing, and user acceptance validations.
• Identify workflow improvements and support automation initiatives to improve cycle times and reduce defects.
• Partner with technology and operations teams to stabilize integrations and optimize system functionality.
• Reporting, Insights & Data Integrity Oversight
• Produce and validate P2P reporting, including invoice aging, processing exceptions, compliance trends, and operational KPIs.
• Analyze upstream and downstream defect patterns to drive improvements in purchasing and AP processes.
• Support month-end and quarter-end close activities by ensuring accuracy in reconciliations and financial documentation.
• Continuous Improvement & Governance Support
• Recommend and help implement updates to policies, procedures, and process documentation.
• Support change management efforts, including communications, training, and rollout of new processes and tools.
• Contribute to enterprise P2P standardization initiatives and cross-functional optimization projects.

Qualifications

Education & Experience

• Degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, Supply Chain, or related field preferred.
• 4–7+ years of experience in Accounts Payable, Procurement, or end-to-end Procure to Pay operations.
• Experience supporting or leading activities within largescale, controlled financial or shared service environments.
• Prior informal leadership, mentoring, or workflow coordination experience strongly preferred.

Technical & Functional Knowledge

• Strong working knowledge of Procurement and AP processes (requisitioning, PO management, supplier management invoice processing, vendor maintenance, payments, reconciliations).
• Proficiency with P2P enterprise systems (SAP, Oracle, Ariba, Coupa, or similar).
• Advanced Excel capabilities (lookups, pivots, data validation, trend analysis).
• Familiarity with internal controls, compliance frameworks, and audit expectations.

Skills and Competencies

Analytical & Problem Solving

• Strong ability to analyze transactional data, identify anomalies, and perform root-cause analysis.
• Ability to diagnose complex operational issues and drive sustainable solutions.

Communication & Collaboration

• Clear, professional written and verbal communication skills for interacting with suppliers, internal customers, and leadership.
• Ability to coordinate work across functions and support a high service, customer-focused culture.

Professional Attributes

• Demonstrates accountability, initiative, and sound judgment in a fast-moving operations environment.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and guide others through shifting operational demands.
• Continuous improvement mindset with a strong focus on enhancing process stability and service delivery.