Cleantech, Energy Management, Industrial Automation, Sustainability

Account Receivable Operations Lead

Atlanta, GAHybridFull TimeLeadPosted 2 months ago

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Required skills

accounts receivable
collections
cash reconciliation
financial services recovery
credit decisioning
refunds
merchant collections
demand letters
legal requests
accrual process

Nice to have

Home Improvement Lending
B2B2C model
Dispute organization
Accounting
Sales
Legal

Role summary

Upgrade's Home Improvement Lending business seeks an Account Receivable Operations Lead to manage the Revenue & Recovery pillar of the Dispute organization. This role is responsible for reconciling incoming cash, making credit decisions on disputes, leading end-to-end merchant collections, and escalating unresolved financial exposure. The Lead will also own the merchant expense and loss accrual process, maintain AR reporting dashboards in Tableau, and ensure audit-ready documentation for all collections and credit actions. This high-judgment, regulated position requires strong investigative skills, proficiency in collections and reconciliation, and excellent communication for merchant and internal stakeholder interactions.

Upgrade helps customers move in the right direction with affordable and responsible financial products. Since 2017, we’ve helped over 7.5 million customers access over $42 billion in consumer credit. With a relentless focus on improving our customers' financial well-being, we build products that put more money in their pocket and support their journey toward a better financial future. We’re backed by some of the most prominent technology investors and were most recently valued at $7.3B.

We’re consistently recognized for our collaborative and inclusive culture. Most recently, we were named one of the World’s Top Fintech Companies by CNBC, Best Places to Work by Built In, Best Places to Work by the San Francisco Business Times, America’s Greatest Workplaces by Newsweek, Best Startup Employer by Forbes, and Healthiest Employers by Phoenix Business Journal.

We’re looking for new team members who get excited about designing and delivering new and better products. Come join us and help build a better financial future for millions of people.

Upgrade's Home Improvement Lending business operates a B2B2C model — homeowners access financing exclusively through approved contractor partners. When cash doesn't land where it should, or a merchant relationship turns into a collections or legal matter, the AR Ops Lead is the single point of accountability for getting the money right, resolving merchant financial exposure, and keeping Upgrade's receivables clean, reconciled, and defensible.

The AR Ops Lead owns the Revenue & Recovery pillar of the Dispute organization: reconciling incoming cash, applying credit decisions on disputes with financial impact, running merchant collections end to end, and escalating unresolved exposure through incident reports, demand letters, and formal legal requests. This is a high-judgment, regulated role sitting at the intersection of Disputes, Accounting, Sales, and Legal — the specialist has to move money accurately, hold merchants accountable for what they owe, and protect Upgrade's financials and legal position at the same time.

What you will do

Cash Reconciliation & Credit Decisions: Ensures the accuracy of incoming cash through daily reconciliation of transactions and timely identification of discrepancies. Reviews and applies credit decisions on disputes with financial impact including partial refunds, full refunds, and leadership-approved expenses, validating supporting agreements and prior refund history prior to approval.

Merchant Collections - End to End: Leads the weekly Merchant Collections Report process, including extraction, reconciliation, and maintenance of the Escalated Accounts tab, and facilitates the weekly Merchant Collections sync to align stakeholders on recovery actions. Reviews high-risk merchant accounts, directs required follow-up, and ensures adherence to the formal escalation path for accounts that remain unresolved.

Legal & Recovery Escalations: Partners with Management to prepare incident reports supporting demand letters or litigation once collections efforts have been exhausted and a merchant remains unresponsive. Processes formal legal requests in accordance with statutory deadlines.

Accrual Process Ownership: Maintains ongoing ownership of the merchant expense and loss accrual process, reconciling monthly expenses against actuals and ensuring accurate comment-code allocation to keep accrual balances current. Leads year-end close activities in partnership with Dispute leadership and Accounting — consolidating projected losses, reconciling accruals against actuals, and clearing outstanding balances — and serves as the primary point of contact for accrual and actuals-related inquiries throughout the year.

AR Analytics & Dashboard Ownership: Owns the AR reporting function, building and maintaining the Tableau dashboards the team relies on Designs and delivers the monthly AR metrics review, defining KPIs, validating underlying data, and translating findings into actionable insight for leadership on recovery trends, expense drivers, and unapplied credit exposure. Identifies and resolves data or logic issues within underlying reports to preserve reporting integrity.

Cross-Functional Response:Serves as the primary point of contact for Underwriting and Risk on merchant dispute-rate and expense-exposure inquiries, escalating to leadership when exposure levels warrant. Investigates and resolves root-cause issues affecting bill-file uploads to the Present & Pay (Direct Biller) system, partnering with Payments and Cancellations to resolve related reconciliation errors.

Procedure & SOP Maintenance: Owns documentation of AR procedures across core workflows, keeping existing SOPs current as processes evolve and formalizing documentation for workflows that have not yet been captured. Ensures procedures remain accurate, accessible, and audit-ready for the broader team and for compliance review.

Audit-Ready Documentation: Maintain a complete, factual record of every collections action, credit decision, and escalation across CRM, Tableau, and internal ticketing systems (Jira/HMD) so every dollar movement is traceable and defensible.

What We Look For

3+ years in accounts receivable, collections, cash reconciliation, or financial-services recovery operations, or a closely related role.

Working knowledge of credit/refund decisioning and the internal controls around applying financial adjustments.

Demonstrated ability to manage a recovery/collections caseload against firm weekly and monthly deadlines without sacrificing accuracy.

Strong written communication for merchant-facing collections correspondence, legal/accounting-facing documentation, and internal audit trails. Clear, neutral, fact-based tone.

Comfortable leading recurring cross-functional syncs (e.g., weekly Merchant Collections sync) and driving escalations with unresponsive or high-risk merchants.

Strong investigative judgment — able to trace a discrepancy to its root cause, distinguish a reconciliation error from a genuine loss, and know when a case needs to escalate to legal versus stay in collections.

Proficient with Tableau for dashboard-based reconciliation and reporting, plus standard case management/ticketing tools (Jira, HMD).

You'll thrive here if you:

Think Like an Owner: Bring a business mindset to the AR portfolio connecting the day-to-day reconciliation and collections work to its impact on recovery, merchant risk, and the bottom line.

Are a Self-Starter: Spot gaps or inefficiencies in the process, the reporting, product features or accruals and drive the changes.

Understand the Risk: Recognize that unresolved AR exposure is a direct financial and risk to Upgrade, not just an operational backlog.

Maintain Objectivity: Hold merchants strictly accountable for what they owe while staying fair and consistent across the portfolio.

Exercise Good Judgment: Know exactly when an account needs to move from collections to a formal legal escalation, and when it can still be resolved directly.

Value Rigorous Documentation: Treat the audit trail as the real work product — reconciliations, credit decisions, and escalations all need to hold up under review.

Stay Adaptable and Positive: Bring a flexible mindset and a collaborative approach to a role that touches Disputes, Accounting, Sales, and Legal every week.

What We Offer You

Competitive salary and stock option plan

Medical, dental and vision insurance with employer paid options

Flexible PTO

Competitive 401(k)

Opportunities for professional growth and development

Paid parental leave

Health & wellness initiatives

#LI-Hybrid

For California residents: Upgrade's California Notice at Collection and Privacy Policy describes our practices regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of the personal information of job applicants.

Environmental & Working Conditions

Work is performed indoors in a fast-paced environment that requires the ability to manage multiple priorities and meet established workflows, schedules, and service expectations.

Employees regularly input, retrieve, and exchange information accurately using digital systems and applications to support operational and customer service objectives.

The role requires the ability to receive and exchange information with customers, peers, supervisors, and cross-functional partners through available communication channels, which may include meetings, email, phone, and digital collaboration tools, and may involve real-time, verbal, or in-person exchanges depending on business need.

Job duties may involve managing a high volume of inbound and/or outbound customer interactions and work activities using telecommunications and computer systems. The role requires the ability to read, analyze, and interpret information displayed on computer screens and remain in a working posture for extended periods, consistent with the demands of the position.

Work may be performed in a contact center, office, or remote environment, depending on business needs and the nature of the role. Onsite work environments may include shared workspaces, standard office lighting, and moderate background noise typical of customer service or operational settings.

Employees working remotely are responsible for maintaining a secure and productive workspace with reliable internet connectivity that supports company systems and safeguards the confidentiality of company and customer information.

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the position in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and applicable state and local laws.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

Upgrade does not accept unsolicited resumes from staffing agencies, search firms, or any third parties. Any resume submitted to any employee of Upgrade without a prior written agreement in place will be considered the property of Upgrade, and Upgrade will not be obligated to pay any referral or placement fee. Agencies must obtain advance written approval from Upgrade's Talent Acquisition department to submit resumes and only in conjunction with a valid, fully executed agreement.

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