Accounts Payable Manager (15 Month Term)

Your Opportunity Stantec has an exciting opportunity for an Accounts Payable Manager within its North American Accounts Payable team located in Edmonton, Alberta. Reporting to the Senior Manager, Accounts Payable North America, the Accounts Payable Manager is responsible for the overall leadership, performance, and strategic direction of a team of Accounts Payable professionals supporting North American operations. The Manager provides leadership and oversight for Accounts Payable operations, ensuring the delivery of high-quality, efficient, and compliant services that support organizational objectives. This role is accountable for employee engagement, talent development, operational excellence, process optimization, risk management, and stakeholder satisfaction. The Manager serves as a key partner to Finance, Procurement, Business Center leaders, and other corporate functions to drive continuous improvement, enhance service delivery, and support business growth. The Manager fosters a high-performance culture focused on accountability, customer service excellence, innovation, continuous improvement, and employee development. Your Key Responsibilities Lead, coach, and manage Accounts Payable technicians and Team Leads, including performance expectations, objectives, development plans, feedback, and timely resolution of performance concerns. Lead recruitment, onboarding, succession planning, mentoring, career development, engagement, change management, staffing, and resource allocation to build an inclusive, high-performing team. Oversee timely, accurate, efficient, and compliant processing of invoices, expense reports, payments, and vendor transactions across North American operations. Establish and monitor key performance indicators, service metrics, workloads, operational trends, and risk indicators to strengthen service quality, accountability, and resource utilization. Ensure operational continuity through workforce planning, cross-training, business continuity strategies, and oversight of month-end and year-end activities and reporting deadlines. Serve as the primary escalation point for complex operational, stakeholder, vendor, and high-risk payment matters. Maintain a strong control environment, including vendor master data governance and payment controls, to reduce financial, operational, compliance, and fraud-related risk. Partner with Internal Audit, External Audit, Tax, Finance, and Compliance on audits and regulatory requirements; assess controls and implement corrective actions for identified deficiencies. Lead Accounts Payable transformation and continuous improvement initiatives, including automation, system enhancements, digital solutions, workflow optimization, process documentation, policies, procedures, and governance standards. Partner with Finance, Procurement, and Information Technology on process and system improvements, and lead Accounts Payable integration activities related to acquisitions, growth, and business expansion. Build trusted relationships with business leaders, Finance, Procurement, vendors, and senior management; represent Accounts Payable in cross-functional projects, strategic initiatives, and organizational planning. Support budgeting, forecasting, workforce planning, and operational cost management; recommend organizational or resource changes and contribute to business cases for technology and operational investment.