JOB SUMMARY:
The role has four key areas of focus:
✅ Establish the optimal operating model for accounts receivable and service charge in Continental Europe and UK.
✅ Provide leadership, direction, oversight, and monitoring of third party property managers in Continental Europe and UK as it relates to accounts receivable and service charge.
✅ Work closely with the US and European teams to manage the key metrics of importance for productivity and quality.
✅ Building and managing a team that scales with the business.
The candidate must be located in the UK or Netherlands and fluent in spoken and written English. Additional European languages preferred.
In addition to these areas of focus, successful candidates will help shape the overall strategy and capabilities to grow the business in the Continental Europe and UK.
Being successful will require working closely with the European leadership team, Finance Operations, Property Management, Accounting, Treasury, Asset Management, Corporate Finance, Legal, Tax, Strategy, and the Board of Directors periodically.
ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS (Duties, Responsibilities, Activities):
✅ Leadership.
✅ Instils the highest standards of integrity and professionalism.
✅ Operates with and inspires an entrepreneurial mindset.
✅ Exceed targets and drive accountability for goals.
✅ Builds relationships across functional groups; works as “One Team.”
✅ Advises on policies, procedures, and operational best practices with the local team.
✅ Cultivates a collegial and high-performing culture.
✅ Pushes to decisions/conclusions amidst ambiguity.
✅ Prioritizes and achieves competing demands.
✅ Establishes effective organizational structure and communication protocols.
✅ Presents well verbally and in writing.
✅ Supervises, coaches, and mentors a diverse team.
✅ Provide timely feedback to leadership, Asset Management, Property Management, and other departments regarding the portfolio and third-party property management partners financial operations performance.
✅ Manage and report on key operational processes and performance indicators.
European Operating Model
✅ Lead cross-departmental initiatives and interactions, including the onboarding, systems setup, and process implementation to support expansion into new countries, which includes working with third-party implementation partners, property managers, and information technology.
✅ Develop policies and procedures to support Finance Operations in Continental Europe and the UK.
✅ Develop workflows to use as a reference for general acquisitions as well as country-specific.
✅ Develop workflows for country and entity-specific.
✅ Develop checklists at various points in multiple processes.
✅ Engage and meet with other departments regularly (Legal, Strategy, Research, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Treasury, Accounting, Property Management, Information Technology) to identify their documented processes and identify challenges and areas for improved efficiencies.
✅ Understand Yardi’s setup and reports used (property lists, entity lists) in order to facilitate onboarding additional Yardi features relating to new countries and creating efficiencies in existing processes.
Third-Party Property Management Oversight and Monitoring
✅ Provide leadership, direction, oversight, and monitoring of third-party property managers as it relates to accounts receivable and service charge responsibilities, including:
• Collection and billing of rents and other income from the applicable property.
• Insurance and property tax payments, accruals, recoveries, and forecasting.
• Collection of service charge contributions recoverable from clients.
• Collection of service charge expenses, insurance premiums, and tax expenses from clients and performing annual reconciliations.
* Calculating, estimating and apportioning service costs and insurance premiums and applying to clients for payments on an interim basis and on a final basis after the end of each accounting year, or in accordance with the client’s lease requirements. Reconciliations are to be made within a target period of three months (but not later than six months) after the end of the service charge year and balancing charges or credits to be demanded or allowed with the next quarter’s demand.
* Crediting clients with accrued interest where appropriate.
* Demanding arrears of rent, service charges, insurance contributions and other payments from clients, assisting solicitors and counsel and issuing instructions to solicitors or other collecting agencies for the recovery of arrears where appropriate.
✅ Ensure third-party property managers are maintaining published company policies and procedures as they relate to all aspects of Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and Service Charge Reconciliations.
Property Tax, Insurance, and Service Charge
✅ Oversight of insurance and property tax payments, accruals, recoveries, and forecasting.
✅ Responsibility for the service charge cycle.
✅ Oversight of service charge reconciliations.
✅ Lead the implementation of Yardi service charge including related process reengineering.
✅ Working with internal and third-party property managers to monitor and calculate service charge costs.
✅ Ensuring that changes are calculated correctly and are relevant.
✅ Ensuring information to customers in clear and accurate.
✅ Ensure the prompt collection of service charges.
✅ Periodically review financial position with property managers and leadership where necessary.
✅ Liaise with auditors to track progress of and review service charge accounts.
✅ Liaise with internal and third-party property managers on budgeting/billing to ensure accuracy and transparency.
✅ Resolving any queries with customers.
Accounts Receivable
✅ Review and oversight of accounts receivable balances for Continental Europe and UK.
✅ Proactively follow-up on past due amounts and address any client disputes with regards to billing activities.
✅ Coordinate with the European leadership team and third party property managers on serving of any notice of default.
✅ Assist in collectability analysis of month-end receivables balances.
✅ Oversight of cash application for portfolio tenant ledger charges.
✅ Recording charges to the tenant ledger for debtor balances in connection with entity acquisitions.
✅ Lead e-invoicing projects including the creation, transmission, and management of electronic invoices in compliance with European standards and regulations.
Portfolio Data Operations
✅ Process and data requirements as well as protocols to assist with country-specific policies and procedures for Continental Europe and the UK.
✅ Point of contact for third-party property managers as it relates to Yardi input: invoicing, contacts, VAT, and translation.
✅ New acquisition DAS imports and portfolio activity updates with review/activation oversight according to country-specific policies and procedures.
✅ International lease expiration tracking and vacancy reporting.
Acquisition Onboarding
✅ Collaborate with sellers, attorneys, and other related stakeholders to ensure an efficient and transparent property close.
✅ Audit financial statements alongside lease and ownership documents and provide analysis of operating expense leakage on potential acquisitions.
✅ Propose language for releasing, new development and post-closing agreements in order to maximize operating expense recoveries.
✅ Negotiate transaction language to minimize post-closing risk.
✅ Work closely with Acquisitions, the Legal Department and Asset Management to assimilate property acquisitions into the existing portfolio.
✅ Analyze debtor balances in accordance with the SPA and coordinate with Accounting on final NAV balances for entity acquisitions.
ORGANIZATION RELATIONSHIPS:
✅ Reports to the European Finance Operations Controller.
✅ Works closely with Legal, Tax, Treasury, and Yardi Systems Admins on transaction structure, bank account structure, Yardi configuration and setup, and related topics.
✅ Works closely with third party property managers, transitioning property files, records, and post-closing matters.
✅ Works closely with the Senior Management, providing property performance analysis, variance analytics and historical costs accounting.
✅ Works directly with Asset Management & Property Management teams on various ad-hoc and data analytics projects.
✅ Works closely with Property Managers, providing support and visibility on operating efficiencies, budgets, and variances.
✅ Assists Asset Management teams on operating budgets, in support of releasing efforts.
✅ Frequently works with Corporate FP&A teams on budget and cash flow modeling.
✅ Works closely with Legal Acquisitions, providing document review and risk analysis.
✅ Works closely with Legal PM on dispute resolution and client communications.
Partners with other departments on key initiatives
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
✅ Experience of working in a commercial property and accounting environment with particular emphasis on service charge in Continental Europe and UK.
✅ Thorough understanding of landlord and tenant legislation and best practices for setting of fixed and variable service charges in Continental Europe and UK.
✅ Functional financial acumen (e.g., ability to understand financial statements, interpret key financial performance metrics, and conduct strategic financial analysis).
✅ Working knowledge of REIT industry-specific financial and operating metrics used to gauge and compare performance preferred, such as FFO, AFFO, and occupancy.
✅ Established leadership skills including mentorship, daily training, and reviewing direct-reports’ work product for accuracy.
✅ Must be detail-oriented and possess problem solving/analytical abilities, time management skills, and critical-thinking ability.
✅ Ability to execute in ambiguous situations and take the lead without explicit instructions.
✅ Ability to read, analyze, and interpret common financial reports, and legal documents.
✅ Ability to respond to common inquiries or complaints from tenants, regulatory agencies, or members of the business community.
✅ Advanced proficiency in Yardi commercial setup and configuration design.
✅ Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel; proficiency in Microsoft Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and SharePoint.
✅ Ability to effectively present information to Executive Management.
✅ Willingness to travel (up to 15%) domestically or internationally.
Language Skills:
✅ ADVANCED skills – Bilingual with English required. Ability to read, analyze, and interpret common technical documents, financial reports, and legal documents. Ability to respond to common inquiries or complaints from tenants, regulatory agencies, or members of the business community. Ability to effectively present information to top management and public groups.
Mathematical Skills:
✅ HIGH skills - Ability to use formulas to extract and analyze data. Ability to interpret accounting standards and apply prescribed formulas to determine the appropriate accounting. Ability to write/comprehend formulas in various financial and valuation models.
Reasoning Ability:
✅ ADVANCED skills - Ability to apply principles of logical or scientific thinking to a wide range of intellectual and practical problems. Ability to deal with nonverbal symbolism (formulas, scientific equations, graphs, etc.) in its most difficult phases. Ability to deal with a variety of abstract and concrete variables.
Education and Experience:
✅ Bachelor’s degree in Accounting/Finance; MBA preferred.
✅ 10+ years of relevant work experience, preferably with REIT or real estate industry experience, including managing teams.
✅ 5 years of experience in the management of employees preferable.
✅ Bilingual - Fluent in spoken and written English (Spanish preferred).
