Senior Accountant - Payment Operations & Projects

Company: Marsh Corporate Description: We are seeking a talented individual to join our Regional Accounting team at Marsh. This role will be based in Kuala Lumpur . This is a hybrid role that has a requirement of working at least three days a week in the office. Senior Accountant – Payment Operations & Projects The Senior Accountant – Payment Operations & Projects is responsible for ensuring accurate, timely, and compliant payment authorization while supporting payment-related projects, process improvements, system enhancements, and control initiatives. The role requires strong payment operations knowledge, attention to detail, stakeholder-management skills, and the ability to independently coordinate activities across internal teams and external parties. In addition to business-as-usual payment responsibilities, the incumbent will play an active role in projects relating to payment processes, banking systems, payee bank-detail validation, automation, process optimization, and operational improvements. This is an individual contributor position . People-management experience is not required. The successful candidate, however, must be comfortable independently managing stakeholders, project activities, timelines, outstanding items, and deliverables . We will count on you to: Payment Request Review & Validation • Review payment requests submitted by various departments to ensure completeness, accuracy, and appropriate supporting documentation. • Ensure all requests comply with company policies, procedures, delegated authority, and internal control requirements. • Identify discrepancies or documentation gaps and work with relevant stakeholders to resolve them promptly. Payment Authorization • Review and authorize payments through designated e-banking platforms • Ensure payments are processed accurately, securely, and within agreed timelines. • Ensure appropriate segregation of duties and compliance with payment-control procedures. Sanctions & Compliance Checks • Perform sanctions screening and verification of payees in accordance with company requirements and applicable sanctions-listing procedures. • Escalate potential sanctions, compliance, or control issues to the appropriate stakeholders. • Ensure adherence to internal financial controls and regulatory requirements. Project Coordination & Implementation • Participate in and support payment-related and finance-operation projects. • Coordinate activities relating to: • Payment-process improvements • Banking-platform enhancements • Payee and bank-detail validation • System implementations or upgrades • Automation and digitalization initiatives • UAT and system testing • Process migration and transition • Workflow optimization • Control enhancements • Maintain project trackers, action logs, timelines, issue logs, and status updates. • Coordinate with internal and external stakeholders to obtain required information and complete agreed deliverables. • Monitor outstanding activities and proactively follow up to ensure timely completion. • Identify project risks, dependencies, and operational issues and escalate where appropriate Stakeholder Management • Work closely with Finance, Treasury, Accounts Payable, business teams, banks, vendors, auditors, and other relevant stakeholders. • Gather, consolidate, and organize information from multiple parties. • Communicate requirements, issues, action items, and timelines clearly and effectively. • Drive outstanding items toward resolution and ensure appropriate follow-up. • Provide guidance and advice to colleagues on payment processes, documentation requirements, controls, and operational issues. Process Improvement • Identify opportunities to improve payment processes, controls, workflows, and operational efficiency. • Recommend practical improvements to enhance accuracy, reduce manual effort, strengthen controls, and improve turnaround time. • Participate in the design, testing, implementation, and stabilization of new or enhanced processes and systems. • Support process standardization and documentation of operating procedures Reporting & Outstanding Management • Prepare and maintain weekly operational and project status reports. • Track outstanding payment issues, project activities, action items, and deliverables. • Coordinate with relevant stakeholders to ensure timely closure of outstanding matters. • Provide clear updates on progress, risks, issues, and pending actions. Audit & Control Support • Support internal and external audit requests by retrieving, organizing, and providing relevant payment-related documentation. • Respond to audit inquiries and support the resolution of audit findings. • Assist with quarterly control testing, documentation, and reporting requirements. • Maintain appropriate documentation and audit trails. Ad-hoc Projects & Initiatives • Support additional projects relating to payment operations, banking, finance transformation, process improvement, compliance, or operational efficiency. • Contribute to initiatives aimed at improving the effectiveness and efficiency of payment and cash-management processes. What you need to have: • Bachelor’s Degree in Accountancy or equivalent • Minimum 7 years of experience preferably in Accounts Payable transactions. • Those working in a Shared Service environment are encouraged to apply. • Good command of English in both spoken and written • Relevant experience in payment operations, finance operations, treasury operations, cash management, accounts payable, banking operations, or a related finance environment . • Strong hands-on experience in payment processing and/or payment authorization. • Experience using e-banking or banking platforms. • Good understanding of financial controls, compliance, audit requirements, and payment-related risks. • Demonstrated involvement in projects, system enhancements, implementations, process improvements, automation, UAT, migra…