Overall Purpose of The Job                                    

The Manager, Finance Operations oversees the day-to-day financial transaction cycle of Aspire Lifestyles India — booking settlements, vendor payables, receivables, refunds, agent commissions, payment gateway operations, and the associated reconciliations. The role owns the operational close for the transaction cycle, ensures alignment of financial operations with corporate goals, safeguards controls and compliance, and partners with Operations, Sales, Technology and the wider Finance team (Reporting, Tax, Treasury) to enable accurate, timely and well-controlled financial outcomes. The role leads a team of Reconciliation Specialists and is a key contributor to process automation and continuous improvement across the Finance Operations function.

Key RESPONSIBILITIES

• Own the end-to-end booking-to-settlement cycle: airline Billing and Settlement Plan reconciliations, GDS feeds, hotel and DMC payouts, aggregator settlements and traveller refunds.
• Oversee high-volume accounts payable and accounts receivable operations, ensuring accurate matching against booking inventories and supplier statements before release.
• Manage global agent commissions, incentive payouts and B2B ledger positions; ensure timely and accurate settlement in line with contractual terms.
• Oversee payment gateway operations, including reconciliation and monitoring of Pass-through and Merchant of Record transactions, chargebacks and gateway fees.
• Own the month-end and year-end close for the Finance Operations sub-ledgers (AP, AR, gateway, agent commissions), including accruals, provisions and reconciliations to the general ledger.
• Prepare and review unit-level and product-level profitability analyses for leadership; explain movements, margins and variances against plan.
• Deliver operational MIS, payment forecasts, aging analyses, settlement dashboards, gateway performance to the Head of Finance and business leadership.
• Coordinate closely with the Manager, Financial Reporting and the Tax function to ensure timely statutory reporting, tax compliance and consolidation inputs
• Design, operate and continuously improve internal controls over the transaction cycle (segregation of duties, approval matrices, exception reviews, reconciliation signoffs).
• Ensure compliance with Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS), company policies and Standard Operating Procedures across the operations team.
• Support GST, TDS and other statutory workings for AP/AR transactions in coordination with the Tax function; oversee resolution of GSTR-2B mismatches with vendors.
• Serve as the primary Finance Operations interface for internal, statutory and tax auditors; own timely closure of audit observations.
• Monitor and forecast cash outflows and inflows arising from the transaction cycle; partner with Treasury on funding requirements and FX exposures on cross-border settlements.
• Optimise working capital through disciplined payment runs, refund cycles, dispute resolution and receivables collection.
• Drive automation and simplification across the transaction cycle (invoice capture, reconciliation, workflow approvals, payment file generation, gateway reconciliation
• Standardise SOPs and drive measurable improvement in turnaround time, accuracy and control effectiveness
• Lead, develop and mentor a team of Reconciliation Specialists responsible for BSP, GDS, gateway, vendor and agent-commission reconciliations across the transaction cycle

Key Metrics / Success Measures

• Timely and accurate operational close: sub-ledger close completed within 4-5 business days of month-end with zero material post-close adjustments.
• Payment discipline: on-time payment rate of [≥ 98%] and DPO within targeted range.
• BSP, gateway and agent-commission reconciliations completed monthly with all breaks investigated and cleared within the following month.
• Zero missed statutory due dates for AP/AR-related tax filings; clean statutory, internal and tax audits with no significant Finance Operations observations.
• Accurate and timely unit-level profitability reporting to leadership within agreed cadence.

Job Profile

Requirements

• 9 to 12 years of progressive experience in accounting and finance operations, including at least 3 years leading a team.
• Prior experience in the travel, hospitality or aviation sector strongly preferred, ideally with exposure to BSP settlements, GDS environments, DMC/aggregator payouts and payment gateway operations
• Strong working knowledge of SAP (FI/CO); comfort with finance systems integrations and reconciliation tools.
• Advanced MS Excel (pivot tables, XLOOKUP, SUMIFS, Power Query); familiarity with BI tools (Power BI / Tableau) an advantage.
• Sound knowledge of Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS) and Indian tax laws (GST, TDS, withholding on cross-border payments).
• Understanding of payment gateway mechanics, Pass-through vs Merchant of Record models, and card scheme / chargeback processes.
• Strong leadership presence with the ability to lead cross-functional and cross-regional teams.
• Excellent communication, interpersonal and presentation skills; able to engage confidently with leadership and external partners.
• Analytical and problem-solving mindset with strong attention to detail.
• Sound judgment in applying policy and controls while resolving exceptions pragmatically.
• High standards of confidentiality, integrity and ethics.
• Effective under time pressure and shifting priorities; comfortable managing multiple deadlines across close, audit and business cycles.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting/finance or equivalent experience.
• Chartered Accountant (Mandatory).

Required Languages:

• Good spoken and written English language skills

Travel Requirements:

•  Not applicable / minimal.