Manager Transportation (Senior Finance Analyst)

Overview

Lead end-to-end Freight Payables operations as process owner for the Freight Payables Center of Excellence across APAC and India, driving governance, controls compliance, transformation and service delivery.

What you'll do

• Lead end-to-end Freight Payables operations across multiple regions and business units.
• Ensure timely processing, validation, approval, and payment of freight invoices.
• Drive service level achievement, backlog reduction, aging management, and productivity targets.
• Manage daily operational reviews and governance routines.
• Act as process owner for Freight Payables processes.
• Establish and maintain SOPs, control frameworks, process maps, and governance standards.
• Drive standardization across regions and operating units.
• Ensure compliance with Caterpillar financial policies and procedures.
• Lead a team of Freight Payables professionals and outsourced service providers.
• Develop employee capability, succession plans, and cross-skilling programs.
• Conduct performance coaching and career development discussions.
• Foster accountability, engagement, and continuous improvement culture.
• Partner with regional finance teams, transportation teams, carriers, procurement, logistics, and business partners.
• Represent Freight Payables in leadership reviews and governance forums.
• Manage escalations impacting supplier payments, transportation providers, and business operations.
• Ensure compliance with SOX requirements, approval matrix controls, audit requirements, and policy governance.
• Drive remediation plans, root cause analysis, and corrective actions.
• Partner with Internal Audit, Controllers, and Compliance organizations.
• Lead transformation initiatives including Blue Yonder implementation, freight process automation, OCR and smart invoice processing, workflow optimization, and reporting and analytics enhancement.
• Identify opportunities for cost reduction and process simplification.
• Establish quality-control framework and operational scorecards.
• Monitor processing accuracy and service quality.
• Implement preventive and corrective actions for recurring defects.
• Own operational KPI dashboards and management reporting.
• Analyze volume trends, backlog performance, aging, productivity, quality, and compliance metrics.
• Present business insights and recommendations to leadership.
• Manage carrier payment escalations and supplier concerns.
• Ensure timely resolution of payment disputes and invoice exceptions.
• Partner with transportation teams to drive carrier satisfaction.
• Lead transitions, migrations, stabilization activities, and organizational change initiatives.
• Coordinate training, knowledge transfer, UAT, and process rollout activities.

What you'll need

• Bachelor's Degree in Finance, Accounting, Supply Chain, Business, or related field.
• 10+ years of Accounts Payable / Freight Payables / ITP experience.
• 5+ years managing global operational teams.
• Experience leading shared services or COE organizations.
• Experience working with freight, logistics, transportation, or supply chain processes.
• ERP Systems (SAP preferred).
• Blue Yonder / TMS exposure.
• Power BI.
• Microsoft Excel Advanced.
• Workflow & Automation tools.
• Financial controls and audit processes.

Nice to have

• MBA or professional certification.

Details

• Based in Whitefield, Bangalore-KA, India.
• 5-day-a-week schedule in the office.