Interim Global Director of Cash Optimisation

Accounts Payable

• Review existing payment practices and identify opportunities to optimise payment timing.
• Challenge unnecessary early payments and ensure payments are appropriately timed.
• Identify opportunities to increase AP balances while maintaining appropriate supplier relationships and meeting contractual obligations.
• Challenge payment exceptions and non-standard payment practices.
• Ensure that cash outflows are actively managed rather than passively processed.

Global Leadership and Execution

• Operate across the Group globally, mobilising existing finance, AP, AR and operational resources as required.
• Work directly with country finance teams and senior stakeholders to drive action.
• Establish clear ownership, deadlines and accountability for cash initiatives.
• Use the authority and sponsorship of the Group CFO to remove barriers and escalate issues rapidly.
• Challenge established practices constructively but firmly where they unnecessarily consume cash or delay collections.
• Focus resources on the largest and fastest opportunities for cash delivery.

Performance Management

• Establish clear reporting on AR and AP performance against agreed baselines.
• Maintain detailed visibility over major cash opportunities, actions, owners and expected delivery dates.
• Provide regular, concise reporting to the Group CFO on:
  • AR balance reduction
  • AP balance optimisation and increase
  • Cash opportunities identified and delivered
  • Key risks and barriers
  • Required executive interventions
• Ensure accountability remains focused on actual delivery rather than activity or process improvement.

Key Success Measures

The primary measure of success will be measurable improvement in working capital and cash generation over the assignment, including:

• Reduction in Group Accounts Receivable balances against an agreed baseline.
• Increase in optimised Group Accounts Payable balances against an agreed baseline.
• Delivery of material cash improvement by the end of the assignment.
• Identification and execution of the highest-value and fastest cash opportunities.
• Improved accountability and urgency around collection and payment management across the Group.

Performance measures will be adjusted as appropriate for significant FX movements, acquisitions, disposals and other agreed structural changes.

Candidate Profile

The successful candidate will be a highly experienced finance or working-capital operator with a proven track record of delivering rapid and material cash improvements in complex businesses.

They will be comfortable operating in an environment where information and systems may not be perfect and where success depends on personal drive, judgement, influence and persistence.

We are particularly interested in candidates with experience in:

• Private equity-backed businesses.
• Distressed, turnaround or restructuring environments.
• Newly acquired businesses requiring rapid cash and liquidity intervention.
• Complex multinational businesses with de-centralised finance operations.
• Intensive working-capital or cash acceleration programmes.
• Interim finance leadership roles with direct accountability for cash delivery.

Essential Experience

• Proven experience personally delivering significant improvements in Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable balances.
• Experience leading intensive cash or working-capital interventions.
• Strong understanding of AR, AP, cash conversion and working-capital dynamics.
• Experience operating in large, complex and international organisations.
• Demonstrable experience influencing senior stakeholders and driving action without relying on a large direct team.
• Comfortable challenging existing practices and escalating issues when required.
• Strong commercial judgement and understanding of the trade-offs between liquidity, customer relationships, supplier relationships and operational requirements.
• Highly analytical, action-oriented and results-driven.

Personal Characteristics

The successful candidate is likely to be:

• Highly driven and energetic.
• Relentlessly focused on outcomes.
• Comfortable operating with urgency.
• Direct and confident in challenging senior stakeholders.
• Pragmatic and commercially minded.
• Highly organised and capable of managing multiple large opportunities simultaneously.
• Comfortable operating independently.
• Persistent in following through until cash outcomes are delivered.
• Able to distinguish quickly between activity and genuine cash impact.

They will be hired to find opportunities, mobilise existing resources, challenge the organisation, remove obstacles and deliver measurable improvements in AR and AP balances over a six-month period.

The Opportunity

This is a high-profile assignment reporting directly to the Group CFO with significant visibility and clear accountability.

The successful candidate will have the opportunity to make a material financial impact on a large global organisation by delivering tangible cash outcomes over a concentrated six-month period.

The mandate is simple: find the cash, drive the actions required to release it, and deliver measurable results.

Recruitment process

Our recruitment process is transparent and objective, because we care about your experience with us. We will respond to you within a few days to let you know if you are moving to the interview stage. This usually starts with a 30-minute conversation with our Global Recruitment Team, giving you the chance to learn more about us and the job. If we both feel there’s a good fit and connection, you will progress through one or two further stages, depending on the level of the position. IWG is proud to be recognised as a Leading Employer, every year since 2022.