Accounts Payable Manager

Join Our Team:
Accounts Payable Manager Opportunity

Navigate your future and lock in your career as we keep our canals open and alive.

Join a team that keeps the Canal & River Trust running smoothly. Our Accounts Payable team plays a crucial role in ensuring suppliers, staff and volunteers are paid accurately and on time — from processing invoices and expenses to managing travel bookings and purchase cards.

You’ll help maintain strong relationships with suppliers and colleagues by resolving queries quickly, supporting month‑end deadlines, and ensuring all financial data is accurate, compliant, and processed to high standards.

Working with systems like SAP and Medius, the team also contributes to continuous improvement, testing new processes and helping colleagues follow best practice across the Trust.

As a senior leader within our Finance Shared Services team, the Accounts Payable Manager plays a vital role in overseeing the smooth, accurate and timely delivery of all payment processes across the Trust and its subsidiaries. You’ll lead the day‑to‑day operation of our Accounts Payable function — ensuring supplier invoices, staff expenses and key financial transactions are managed efficiently and to the highest standards.

This role follows 37 hours, Monday to Friday working pattern. This role is based working from home, with a requirement to attend our main hub spaces from time to time for team working and collaborative meetings, often held in Leeds. It is important that you can reasonably commute to one of our main hubs below.

Relevant Hubs:
Leeds, Newark, Ellesmere Port, Burnley, Birmingham, Milton Keynes, Gloucester.

The regularity & flexibility of travel will be discussed further at interview stage.

• Ensure full compliance across all Accounts Payable activity, delivering accurate financial transactions in line with Trust policies, statutory regulations and best practice.
• Contribute to reviewing, shaping and improving AP processes to meet business and customer needs.
• Oversee the efficient, high‑quality delivery of all AP processes, ensuring SLAs are met, QMS standards are followed, and strong relationships are maintained with internal and external stakeholders. Identify issues early and drive continuous improvement.
• Lead, motivate and develop the Accounts Payable team, fostering high performance, strong engagement and a positive team culture. Introduce initiatives that support wellbeing, productivity and service excellence.
• Act as the Trust’s AP subject matter expert, providing clear guidance, training and support to colleagues. Apply procedures with sound judgement, ensuring the right approach is used for each situation.
• Produce, analyse and present financial and business reports, ensuring senior leaders receive accurate, timely information to support effective decision‑making.
• Manage month‑end and year‑end requirements, ensuring all transactions are posted correctly, outstanding items are investigated, and internal audits are completed in line with the Quality Management System (QMS) audit plan.
• Carry out user acceptance testing across financial systems, ensuring changes and updates are robust, accurate and fit for purpose.
• Champion Trust values, diversity and inclusion by embedding inclusive practices and challenging behaviour or decisions that do not align with Trust policies.

You’re a driven AP leader with hands‑on experience running high‑performing finance teams. Confident with quality management systems, strong on controls, and always pushing for better ways of working, you bring clear communication, smart decision‑making and a continuous‑improvement mindset to every aspect of the role.

Technical skills:

• Strong academic foundation, ideally educated to A‑Level (or equivalent) including Maths and English, with additional professional development welcomed.
• Experience leading an Accounts Payable function, with responsibility for process ownership, service delivery and continuous improvement.
• Proven line management and team‑leadership experience, supporting high performance, capability development and engagement.
• Working knowledge of SAP (or…