AP & T&E Manager — Bangalore Finance Operations

About Stripe

Stripe is a financial infrastructure platform for businesses. Millions of companies — from the world's largest enterprises to the most ambitious startups — use Stripe to accept payments, grow their revenue, and accelerate new business opportunities. Our mission is to increase the GDP of the internet, and we have a staggering amount of work ahead. That means you have an outsized opportunity to shape how the global economy operates.

About Finance Operations

Stripe's Bangalore Finance Operations (BFin) centre is a hub for high-quality financial operations execution. The BFin team partners closely with Stripe's global functional finance leaders — including the global heads of Accounts Payable, Payroll, Monetization Operations, Accounts Receivable, and FinOps Strategic Enablement — to deliver reliable, scalable, and controlled finance operations. BFin is the execution engine: we process at volume, maintain quality, surface defects, and partner with global teams to continuously improve.

The Role

As the AP & T&E Manager in Bangalore, you will own day-to-day operational delivery across two core FinOps workstreams: Accounts Payable and Travel & Expense. You will directly manage a team of AP and T&E specialists, ensuring consistent SLA performance, high processing quality, and strong controls compliance across both functions.

This is a hands-on people management role. You'll set daily priorities, manage team capacity, and resolve escalations — while maintaining close partnership with Stripe's global AP functional team. You own local execution quality and serve as the Bangalore execution interface for both workstreams. When you identify process defects or systemic issues, you escalate clearly and partner with global functional leads on the fix — but the day-to-day delivery belongs to you and your team.

What You'll Do

Lead and Develop a High-Performing Team

• Directly manage a team of AP and T&E specialists; set clear expectations, run structured 1:1s, and build individual development plans aligned to BFin performance standards
• Hire for open roles within your function; assess candidates rigorously against the operational and behavioural standards required for high-volume finance operations
• Create a culture of accountability, accuracy, and continuous learning within the team — model the attention to detail you expect from others
• Manage team capacity and coverage across AP and T&E workstreams, anticipating volume fluctuations and planning headcount and scheduling accordingly

Own AP Execution

• Oversee end-to-end accounts payable processing: invoice receipt, PO matching, approval routing, payment run execution, and multi-currency, multi-entity reconciliation
• Maintain payment accuracy and timeliness; manage exception handling queues and ensure aged items are resolved promptly within agreed SLAs
• Own vendor communication for payment status, dispute resolution, and statement reconciliation; maintain professional and accurate vendor relationships
• Ensure AP processing consistently meets quality thresholds and SLA commitments defined in partnership with the global AP functional lead

Own T&E Execution

• Manage end-to-end T&E operations: expense report review and processing, corporate card administration, out-of-policy item handling, and reimbursement cycle management
• Enforce Stripe's T&E policy consistently in day-to-day processing decisions; handle employee escalations with good judgement and clear policy grounding
• Partner with Payroll where T&E reimbursement intersects with payroll processing cycles; ensure your team's outputs are clean and timely to avoid downstream rework
• Monitor T&E processing metrics and flag recurring policy violations, system errors, or volume anomalies to the global AP functional team for investigation and remediation

Drive Quality and SLA Performance

• Own and report on team performance metrics: processing cycle time, error rate, SLA adherence, exception volume, and aging buckets across both AP and T&E
• Conduct root cause analysis on recurring processing errors; distinguish one-off mistakes from systemic defects, and escalate patterns to the global AP functional lead for process or system remediation
• Participate in continuous improvement initiatives led by the FinOps Strategic Enablement team; contribute operational insight to automation and AI-assisted processing projects that affect your workstreams
• Maintain a clear picture of team quality week-over-week and communicate status proactively to the Head of BFin before issues become surprises

Partner with Global Functional Teams

• Serve as the primary Bangalore execution point of contact for Stripe's global AP functional organisation; communicate volume, performance data, defect patterns, and capacity needs regularly
• Translate process direction and policy updates from global functional leads into clear, documented operating procedures for your team; ensure adoption is real, not just acknowledged
• Escalate process defects and system issues promptly and with precision — you own identifying the problem and its operational impact; the global functional team owns the remediation design
• Represent the Bangalore AP and T&E workstreams in global FinOps operating cadences and cross-functional planning discussions as needed

Steward Controls and Compliance

• Ensure all AP and T&E processes operate within Stripe's SOX control framework; maintain procedure documentation at the level of detail required for internal and external audit
• Perform and sign off on periodic control attestations within your scope; support Internal Audit and the global AP team during audit fieldwork as needed
• Proactively identify control gaps in day-to-day operations and escalate to the global AP functional lead and Head of BFin for remediation planning

Who You Are

We're looking for someone who meets the minimum requirements to be considered for the role. If you meet these requirements, you are encouraged to apply. The preferred qualifications are a bonus, not a requirement.

Minimum Requirements

• 12–14 years of experience in accounts payable, T&E, or broader finance operations in a high-volume environment; you understand the full AP lifecycle from receipt to payment
• 8+ years of direct people management; you know how to set expectations clearly, develop individuals, and hold a team accountable without micromanaging
• Deep end-to-end AP process knowledge: invoice lifecycle, PO matching, exception handling, payment run execution, and controls
• Hands-on experience with enterprise ERP platforms (SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, or Workday) and T&E tools (Concur, Expensify, or similar)
• Direct experience operating in a SOX-controlled finance environment; solid understanding of AP controls and what "audit-ready" looks like in practice
• Working experience with AI tools in a finance operations context — using AI-assisted processing, automation tooling, or AI productivity tools as part of day-to-day operations

Preferred Qualifications

• Metrics-driven: a track record of building and owning operational dashboards; you use data to surface problems and communicate team performance, not just report status
• Experience at a high-growth technology company or fintech
• Experience contributing to automation or AI implementation projects within Finance Operations (beyond personal usage — you helped design, test, or roll out the improvement)
• Clear and proactive communicator: able to work effectively across time zones with global functional teams; you surface problems early, write clearly, and do not need to be chased for status

What Makes This Role Exciting

• You'll manage two of the most operationally dense workstreams in BFin — AP and T&E together touch nearly every corner of Stripe's vendor and employee spend, and your team's accuracy and consistency directly supports Stripe's financial integrity
• You'll be embedded in a global FinOps organisation that is actively investing in process quality, automation, and AI-assisted operations — there is real, near-term scope to improve how work gets done in your workstreams
• You'll have close proximity to Stripe's global AP functional leadership and a direct line to the Head of BFin — your defect escalations get heard and acted on, and you'll see the improvements land
• You'll build a team and establish the operating standards for AP and T&E execution within BFin — this is a chance to define what great looks like, not inherit it
• Stripe is at a scale and growth stage where operational excellence in AP and T&E has real consequence — audit readiness, payment accuracy, and expense compliance all depend on you getting this right