Procure to Pay (P2P) Department Manager in Bracknell

Join to apply for the Procure to Pay (P2P) Department Manager role at Honda Motor Europe Ltd. At Honda we embrace inclusion in our various policies, so whilst our contracts state that the hours are as required to fulfil the role with a minimum of 35 hours per week, we offer flexibility for when you work. The regular office hours are 08:00 – 16:00 Monday to Thursday with a half hour lunch break and 08:00 – 13:00 on a Friday. However, we provide daily flex‑time that starts between 07:00 and 11:00 providing that there is no business requirement to attend the office. While there is no contractual right to work from home, you can request to work from home two days per week, again providing there is no business requirement to attend the office.

The role is an integral member of the Finance Operations team. We are looking for a dynamic, action‑orientated leader who can drive process efficiency, standardisation and effectiveness across the end‑to‑end Procure to Pay (P2P) processes for Honda in Europe. Responsible for providing strategic and operational direction, working across functional silos, geographical and business boundaries to ensure end to end processes are consistent, efficient and aligned with the Company’s strategic goals. As the accountable owner for the P2P processes in Europe the role is responsible for creating smoothly functioning end to end processes, leveraging both local Honda teams and the outsourced Shared Services organization to drive process standardisation and optimisation throughout the region. Leading initiatives to drive best practice and being the key representative for the P2P stream in all business lead system projects impacting finance processes. This role will play a major part in the design and implementation of the Honda Finance operating model alongside daily operational responsibility for delivery of the P2P services. As part of the ongoing transformation towards a standardised and simplified finance operations model, this role also includes ownership of the end-to-end Payments Operations. This encompasses both supplier payments and the operational oversight of day-to-day cash disbursements and collections, ensuring liquidity optimisation, risk mitigation, and process efficiency across functional and divisional streams.

Main Responsibilities

• Lead the team responsible for the day-to-day operations of the P2P processes.
• Manage relationships with outsourced shared service providers to ensure effective performance.
• Ensure processes are managed and completed within deadlines and to a high standard.
• Define and maintain the P2P strategic roadmap, aligned to finance transformation objectives.
• Lead initiatives to evolve policy, system capability, automation, and service delivery – ensuring cross‑functional buy‑in and measurable outcomes.
• Develop and implement key reports to support the business.
• Translate business challenges into clear, prioritised process improvement plans.
• Partner with Procurement, Finance & Systems teams to move from tactical fixes to strategic evolution.

Procure to Invoice (P2I)

• Lead the full requisition‑to‑invoice cycle, ensuring POs are raised compliantly, matched accurately, and support invoice readiness.
• Ensure effective catalogues, guided buying, and user‑friendly requisition processes aligned to sourcing policies and delegated authority.
• Oversee 2‑way and 3‑way matching compliance across business units, improving first‑time processing rates and reducing exceptions.
• Champion supplier onboarding ensuring first‑time‑right data for invoice flow.
• Ensure efficient processes for blocked invoice handling, price/quantity mismatches, GRNI monitoring and collaboration with Procurement, Finance, Business stakeholders and Suppliers.
• Partner with Master Data teams to ensure vendor records and material/service master data enable accurate, automated invoice posting.
• Maintain policy adherence around spend, purchase thresholds, and system controls, reducing off‑PO spend.
• Drive digitisation of P2I processes including touchless invoice processing, intelligent document recognition (OCR/AI), and integration with ERP systems.
• Monitor and report on P2I KPIs including PO compliance, payment on time, invoice cycle time and exception/query management.

Payment Operations

• Oversee the full lifecycle of outgoing payments – from invoice approval to execution – ensuring accuracy, timeliness, compliance and alignment with internal controls and working capital strategy.
• Collaborate with OTC and Treasury to manage incoming cash streams, including reconciliation and forecasting support for cash positioning.
• Manage relationships with banking platforms and ensure proper execution of payments, including ACH, wires, SEPA, BACS, Faster Payments, and other methods.
• Lead on payment rejections, fraud prevention, duplicate payments and root‑cause analysis to ensure continuous improvement.
• Ensure SOX, audit readiness and compliance across all payment processes, including adherence to approval hierarchies and segregation of duties.
• Champion the automation of payment processes, integration of ERP workflows.
• Develop KPIs and dashboards to monitor efficiency – e.g. % of automated payments, on‑time payments, exception rate.
• Act as the bridge between Treasury, P2P, OTC, Master Data and IT, aligning daily operations with broader finance strategy.

Data Quality

• Develop quality controls to ensure processes meet data quality guidelines.

Training / Knowledge Sharing

• Provide regular and timely training on all finance systems to all relevant stakeholders.
• Develop training materials that can be utilized effectively, utilising both self‑serve and delivered methodologies.

Strategic Projects

• Provide process expertise and guidance to support project development.

Governance and Compliance

• Provide governance and oversight, establish/enhance existing process controls to ensure all governance requirements are met.
• Coordinate preparation of required materials to meet SOX and Internal Audit requirements.

Relationship Management

• Work closely with Finance, IS, BPO and other business stakeholders to ensure functional requirements are understood and meet business needs.
• Lead in the development of systems best practices across functional and geographical areas ensuring successful end user adoption of new technologies and processes.

Change Management

• Work closely with IT, Projects, Business stakeholders and other Process Owners to manage the demand for changes and ensure that the impact of change requests are fully understood.
• Act as key stakeholder to assess the impact of business change on the P2P processes.
• Provide guidance and insight to business and project teams to ensure change is smoothly implemented.
• Own the benefit realisation and measurement for project improvements within the P2P processes.
• Influence operational stakeholders and key leaders to drive P2P process improvements throughout the business.

Team Management

• Lead the Pan E P2P team and direct the work of the P2P offshore Shared Services teams.
• Create a culture of continuous improvement within both teams.

Qualifications Required

• Experience working as a P2P Process owner within a large multinational business.
• Strong leadership and management skills coupled with full commitment to results achievement & accountability.
• Experience of Shared Services Center or related contact center operations.
• Leadership responsibility managing teams and influencing senior‑level management and key stakeholders.
• Strong stakeholder focus with highly consultative approach.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills and ability to speak to technical teams.
• Problem‑solving, negotiation and decision‑making skills to influence management as well as internal and external partners.
• Control minded – operational management of control frameworks (e.g. SOX audit).
• Experience of project and continuous improvement delivery.

Desirable

• Systems knowledge (SAP S/4 Hana, Coupa, Concur, VIM).
• Additional European Language beneficial.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Honda is committed to the principle of equal opportunity in the workplace for all employees, temporary workers, contractors, applicants and visitors. Honda also encourages respect for the individual differences and talents of others while making full use of one's own abilities, based on Honda's philosophy of respect for the individual. At Honda, we value and celebrate diversity and are committed to being a fair, non‑discriminatory company that promotes and welcomes the uniqueness and differences of people around the world. We recognise that a diverse workforce allows for different ideas and perspectives, and we encourage everyone to share them. We strive to foster a culture of belonging that is consistent with Honda's core values and lived out in the way we work and respect each other. For us at Honda, diversifying our workforce means increasing its overall strength by providing people with equal opportunities – regardless of personal characteristics or previous careers. Honda recruits, hires, trains and promotes the most qualified/experienced individuals at all levels without regard to race, origin, religion or belief, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability or any other protected characteristic.