Director, Lead-to-Cash Transformation & Billing Operations

About this role

Overview
At Wipfli, people count.
At Wipfli, our people are core to everything we do—the catalyst behind our ability to create exceptional impact and extraordinary results.
We believe in flexibility. We focus on relationships. We encourage each individual to follow their own path.
People truly matter and they feel it. For those looking to make a difference and find a professional home, Wipfli offers a career-defining opportunity.
Job Summary: Under the direction of Finance leadership, the Director, Billing & Collections provides enterprise leadership for billing operations, accounts receivable collections and the Finance components of the Lead-to-Cash value stream. The Director is accountable for creating a scalable operating model that improves realization, billing quality, cash conversion, transparency and the partner and client experience. This role leads day-to-day operating performance while partnering across Growth, Practice, Operations, ED&T, ERP and Finance to redesign processes, strengthen controls, establish decision rights, improve data and reporting, and deliver workflow and automation capabilities. The Director leads onshore and offshore teams, develops talent and service standards, and serves as the senior Finance owner for billing and collections transformation.
Responsibilities
Essential Responsibilities:

• Provides enterprise leadership for billing and collections operations, establishing clear ownership, service standards, calendars, escalation paths and performance expectations across the full operating cycle.

• Leads the Finance workstreams within the Lead-to-Cash program and partners with executive sponsors, business owners, technology owners and program leaders to align scope, priorities, milestones, dependencies and measurable outcomes.

• Designs and implements a scalable billing operating model with a standard control core and configurable workflows appropriate for recurring, fixed-fee, milestone, time-and-materials, subscription/product and transaction-based revenue.

• Owns strategies to reduce aged WIP and AR, accelerate invoicing and collections, improve DSO and cash conversion, and increase accountability for unresolved balances, disputes and promised payments.

• Establishes governance for WIP adjustments, transfers, write-offs, write-downs, out-of-scope work, invoice approvals, holds, project closure and third-party collection referrals.

• Partners with Practice and engagement leaders to clarify billing roles and decision rights among REs, PBSs, analysts, billers, collections and Finance, with emphasis on billing quality and client experience.

• Defines the minimum commercial, engagement and project data required for effective billing, including scope, fee, rate, milestone, cadence, contact, purchase-order and exception information.

• Partners with ED&T, ERP, data and architecture teams to establish business requirements for workflow, dashboards, structured data, client/project identity, integrations, automation and AI-enabled capabilities.

• Provides business leadership for vendor discovery and implementation, ensuring that solution selection follows approved process design, architecture, controls, data requirements and measurable benefit expectations.

• Builds and governs a billing and collections scorecard covering WIP aging, WIP addressed, billing cycle time, realization, write-offs, AR aging, disputes, DSO, cash conversion and other measures.

• Ensures reliable management reporting, data definitions, monthly tie-outs, exception reporting and action-oriented review cadences for Finance and executive leadership.

• Leads root-cause analysis of billing delays, rework, leakage, write-offs, collection failures and recurring exceptions, translating findings into process, policy, data, training and system improvements.

• Develops the onshore/offshore operating model, capacity plan, role design, training curriculum, quality-review approach and succession plan for billing and collections teams.

• Recruits, leads, coaches and develops managers, analysts and operational professionals; creates an environment of accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement and respect for Wipfli culture.

• Partners with Accounting, FP&A and Treasury to align WIP, billing, AR, reserves, cash application, forecasting and management reporting, and supports audit and compliance requirements.

• Maintains policies, procedures, controls and documentation for billing and collections and ensures changes are communicated, adopted and sustained.

• Provides executive-level updates on operating performance, transformation progress, decisions, risks, capacity, vendor activity and financial outcomes.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, Operations, Information Systems or a related field.

• 10 or more years of progressive experience in billing, accounts receivable, collections, revenue operations, finance operations or related Lead-to-Cash functions.

• 5 or more years of people leadership experience, including leading managers or complex multi-location teams.

• Demonstrated experience leading enterprise process redesign, operating-model change, workflow implementation or finance transformation across multiple business functions.

• Experience in professional services, consulting, accounting, legal, engineering or another project-based and relationship-led services environment strongly preferred.

• Working knowledge of WIP, realization, write-offs, billing methods, AR aging, DSO, disputes, cash application, reserves and financial controls.

• Experience translating business processes into technology, data, dashboard, integration and automation requirements; Workday Financial Management experience preferred.

• Experience leading onshore and offshore teams and managing change across diverse stakeholder groups.

• MBA, CPA, CMA, Lean/Six Sigma, PMP or comparable process, finance or…