Sr Manager, Credit and Collections

GENERAL PURPOSE OF JOB

The Senior Manager – Credit and Collections is responsible for the overall leadership, management, and performance of the company's U.S. credit and collection’s function. This position serves as a hands-on leader, directly managing a portfolio of significant customer accounts while providing oversight, guidance, and support to the Credit and Collections team.

Responsibilities include evaluating customer creditworthiness, establishing and approving credit limits within authorized levels, monitoring customer credit exposure, managing complex collection situations, and negotiating payment arrangements. The Senior Manager is accountable for optimizing cash collections, minimizing bad debt exposure, maintaining effective credit controls, and supporting profitable business growth.

This position is responsible for establishing departmental priorities, monitoring accounts receivable performance, developing employees, and ensuring adherence to company credit policies and financial controls. The Senior Manager works closely with Sales, Finance, Billing, Operations, and Legal to resolve customer issues, manage financial risk, and improve cash flow.

As a hands-on department leader, the Senior Manager balances direct customer account responsibilities with departmental leadership, performance management, and continuous process improvement.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Provide strategic and operational leadership for the Credit and Collections department, ensuring effective management of accounts receivable, credit exposure, collections performance, and customer relationships.

• Establish departmental objectives, performance standards, and priorities aligned with company financial goals.

• Directly manage an assigned portfolio of significant customer accounts, including credit risk evaluation, collection activities, customer negotiations, and resolution of complex payment issues, while maintaining accountability for overall departmental performance.

• Develop and execute strategies to improve collections effectiveness, reduce delinquent balances, minimize bad debt exposure, and optimize working capital.

• Maintain overall accountability for departmental results, including the performance of credit analysts, senior analysts, and collections management.

• Assess credit worthiness and approve client credit limits through financial analysis, credit underwriting and company and industry research while recommending authorization for limits above their approval level.

• Monitor changes in economic, industry, and customer conditions and maintain communication with various business units to evaluate potential changes to Client’s credit worthiness (risk tolerance) and credit limits.

• Analyze accounts receivable aging trends, customer payment behavior, and delinquency patterns to develop targeted collection strategies.

• Conduct periodic portfolio reviews with team members to ensure appropriate collection activity, escalation, risk mitigation, and recommendations for bad debt reserves and potential write offs.

• Prepare and communicate regular reports to senior financial leadership regarding accounts receivable performance, collection trends, significant credit exposures, potential bad debt, and emerging customer risks, including recommended corrective actions.

• Lead, coach, and develop Credit and Collections personnel, including hiring, training, performance management, workload prioritization, and ongoing professional development to ensure departmental objectives are achieved.

• Participate in customer contract negotiations, including requests for extended payment terms and exceptions to established credit policies.

• Direct strategies for financially distressed customers, including bankruptcy, insolvency, significant delinquency, and other elevated credit risks.
• Coordinate with Legal, collection agencies and other appropriate departments regarding collection remedies, security interests, payment arrangements, and recovery strategies.

• Implement best practices and process improvement through the use of automation, where appropriate.

• Customer service – internal and external.  Working with Sales Executives and Contracts/BAM Groups of our portfolios to ensure we are taking prudent risks while increasing profitable sales.  Making recommendations to the Vice President & Chief Accounting Officer for exceptions to standard policy for both risk and payment terms.

JOB REQUIREMENTS

Education:

• BS degree in Accounting/Finance or business field preferred.

Experience:

• 10 – 15 years of progressive experience, including significant commercial B2B credit risk responsibility.

• Minimum of 5 years of supervisory experience.

Certificates, Licenses, Registrations:

• NACM - CBA, CBF or CCE – Certified Credit Executive (preferred but not required)

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

• Strong analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills with a keen attention to detail.

• Strong financial statement analysis, cash flow analysis and credit risk assessment.

• Strong negotiation skills balanced with strong customer service skills.

• Judgment and decision making capability.

• Solid understanding of legal/compliance aspects of credit both domestic and international.

• Solid leadership skills to include: setting objectives, monitoring performance and communicating feedback on a regular basis.

• Strong computer literacy, to include MS office Suite but the ability to pick up new systems quickly.

• Deals well with change with ability to handle multiple shifting priorities.

• Strong verbal and written communication skills

• Must be adaptable to a changing environment

• Business Acumen (Economics, Accounting)

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