Accounts Payable Manager in Birmingham

Contract: Full-Time, Permanent (38.75 hours per week)

Location: Birmingham, Sutton Coldfield (Hybrid - 3 days in office)

Salary: Up to £36,000 per annum (+ £4,000 Car Allowance)

At Dignity, we are in the midst of a significant transformation programme, focused on strengthening performance, modernising our ways of working, and driving greater consistency across our nationwide operations. With a large, multi-site estate and a highly operational business, ensuring accuracy, efficiency, and control in our core finance processes is critical to supporting both our colleagues and the service we deliver to families. Within this context, we are seeking an experienced Accounts Payable Manager to lead and develop our end-to-end AP function. This is a key role within our finance team, responsible for driving process improvement, strengthening financial controls, and enhancing operational efficiency, while also building strong supplier relationships and leading a high‑performing team.

Role Overview

• Lead the end‑to‑end Accounts Payable function, ensuring accurate invoice/expense processing, clean ledgers, strong controls, and timely payments.
• Drive team performance, process improvement, and finance transformation while maintaining excellent stakeholder and supplier relationships.

Key Responsibilities

• AP Operations — Own invoice processing, approvals, payments, reconciliations, GRNI, debit balances, and cash‑flow‑aligned payment runs.
• Team Leadership — Recruit, coach, develop, and performance‑manage a high‑performing AP team.
• Controls & Audit — Maintain strong internal controls, support audits, and deliver accurate month‑end and year‑end outputs.
• Reporting & Improvement — Produce AP KPIs/MI, embed SOPs, drive automation, support P2P improvements and finance transformation projects.
• Stakeholder & Supplier Management — Resolve escalations, partner with finance/procurement, and ensure smooth end‑to‑end processes.

Experience & Skills

• Proven AP leadership in high‑volume environments.
• Strong controls, audit, reconciliation, and KPI reporting capability.
• ERP experience (SAP/Oracle/NetSuite).
• ACCA/AAT or equivalent experience.
• Deep understanding of AP best practice and core accounting principles.

What You Bring

• Strong AP expertise and passion for team development.
• Thrives in fast‑paced, high‑volume settings.
• High accuracy, ownership, and commitment to reliable service.
• Process‑improvement mindset with experience in finance transformation.
• Confident working with stakeholders across finance, procurement, and the wider business.
• Passionate about driving lasting AP improvements.

Why Join Dignity Funerals

This is a unique opportunity to play a central role in how a large, national organisation strengthens its financial controls and operational performance. At Dignity:

• What you do will directly improve the accuracy, efficiency, and reliability of our Accounts Payable function, supporting colleagues across the business and ensuring suppliers are paid correctly and on time.
• You’ll work closely with senior finance leadership to shape and enhance core processes, driving better controls, visibility, and performance.
• You’ll play a key role in modernising and improving how AP operates across a complex, multi‑site estate, delivering meaningful, lasting change.

What we provide to you

• Competitive annual salary.
• 25 Days Holiday + Bank Holidays.
• BUPA Private Healthcare.
• Pension Scheme (4% matched).
• Life Assurance X2 Annual Salary.
• Access to our internal apprentice & personal development schemes.

FCA Statement

We’re regulated by the FCA, so some roles may be subject to background checks.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Statement

We know that diverse teams make better decisions, build better products, and create a better place to work. Whoever you are, wherever you’re from, and whatever your life looks like, we’d love to hear from you. And if there’s anything you need to make the process more accessible, please let us know.