Payment Specialist

Payment Specialist, Bucuresti

What you will do:

The company brings together nearly 2,000 employees across several countries and entities, working in a coordinated manner to provide top-tier efficient and compliant business support to Business Units and Corporate functions.

Amongst others, the GBS includes an Invoice-to-Pay (I2P) department, which mainly covers invoice processing, T&E processing, payment handling, dispute resolution, and queries management activities.

As a Payment Specialist, you will be responsible for controlling & executing payment runs to ensure timely and compliant vendor payments for a large panel of entities and business partners. You will ensure services are delivered in line with policies, regulatory requirements, internal controls, and Service Level Agreements (SLAs), contributing to operational excellence and overall compliance.

Responsibilities:

Payment Execution:

· Execute payment proposals according to calendars and review payment proposals to ensure accuracy. Identify incorrect payment proposals and ensure corrections are applied as per the defined procedure.

· Check automated payment runs, including launch of validation workflows for Treasury and execution of payment runs for both external suppliers’ invoices, intercompany invoices and T&Es.

· Supervise and review accounting entries booking for approved payments. Perform manual clearing of payment documents when required, including posting FX differences.

· Process, review and perform special payments requests as per defined procedures, including urgent payment requests and payments without invoices.

· Investigate payment rejection cases, identify root causes, and coordinate remediation actions with relevant stakeholders.

· Exception & Issue Management:

· Analyze the aged payables reports. Identify and investigate root causes of payment exceptions, including payment blocks, failure or returned payments, debit balance, missing invoices, etc.

· Undertake resolution actions for payment exceptions, including aligning with payment requestors, aligning with dispute management team, removing ERP blocks, etc.

· On a frequent basis, ensure that the payment run is ready – doing the needful preparation work inclusive of careful checks, follow-ups and confirmations – before issuing.

· Support the Dispute and Queries Management team for queries related to payments.

· Escalate unresolved or complex cases to the relevant team and/or management.

Compliance & Controls:

· Apply the defined payment process and ensure all payments comply with policies, tax regulations, and internal control requirements.

· Support fraud prevention measures, monitor suspicious transactions, and escalate identified risks/issues.

· Maintain proper documentation and audit trail for all payment transactions.

· Performance and Continuous Improvement:

· Ensure high levels of service quality in line with agreed KPIs and SLAs.

· Identify and propose process improvement opportunities for payment execution and bank interface management.

· Contribute to standardization, automation, and knowledge-sharing initiatives across the GBS network.

· Support the implementation of improvements in I2P ways of working.

Communication and Relationship:

· Act as a team player with your colleagues.

· Receive instructions and guidance from the Team Lead on priorities and activities, as well as coaching and performance feedback.

· Coordinate with Treasury on payment run timing when required.

· Collaborate with other I2P specialists and Business units to secure accurate and timely execution of payments.

Desired education, expertise, and skills:

Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or related field

2–3 years of experience in I2P / Accounts Payable, Treasury, or payment processing functions, ideally in a multinational environment and/or in the context of shared services

Technical Skills

· Good understanding of end-to-end Invoice-to-Pay (I2P) / Accounts Payable (AP) processes, and the impact of payment management in the Finance department.

· Familiarity with compliance standards related to payments and fraud prevention, and typical internal control frameworks.

· Ability to conduct root cause analysis for payment discrepancies or failures.

· Experience with ERP systems (SAP S4/Hana preferred) and payment processing / treasury systems.

· Experience with invoice management systems (e.g. Basware), and ticketing systems / workflow tools (e.g., ServiceNow) is an advantage.

Soft Skills

· Analytical and detail-oriented attitude

· Proactive, problem-solver and solution-oriented mindset

· Fast-learner and able to adapt in a fast-paced environment

· Driven and respectful team-player

· Escalation handling and process improvement mindset

· Ability to prioritize tasks and manage time effectively

Languages

English – advanced (both written and spoken)

French – and other European languages – is a nice-to-have