Director of Financial Operations

Location: Orange County, CA

Department: Finance

Compensation: $150,000–$185,000 base + performance bonus

Tax Relief Advocates is seeking an experienced Director of Financial Operations to lead and strengthen the operational side of our finance organization.

This is not a traditional accounting or FP&A position. We are looking for a highly operational financial leader with experience in industries such as mortgage lending, auto lending, consumer finance, loan servicing, fintech, payment processing, or other high-volume financial services environments.

The ideal candidate understands how money moves through a complex organization and has experience overseeing billing, payments, merchant processing, reconciliations, financial vendors, offshore teams, service-level agreements, reporting, controls, and operational performance.

This individual will work closely with executive leadership and oversee the Finance Manager while helping build scalable systems, processes, controls, and accountability across the organization.

Key Responsibilities

Financial Operations

• Oversee day-to-day financial operations, including billing, payment processing, reconciliations, refunds, chargebacks, merchant processing, and related workflows
• Ensure accurate and timely movement and reconciliation of funds across multiple systems and accounts
• Establish controls to identify discrepancies, payment failures, billing errors, duplicate transactions, and other financial exceptions
• Develop reporting and dashboards to provide leadership with visibility into financial operations and key performance indicators
• Identify manual processes and implement automation and scalable solutions

Payments & Merchant Operations

• Manage relationships with merchant processors, payment providers, banking partners, and other financial vendors
• Monitor processing costs, merchant fees, chargebacks, declines, reserves, and payment performance
• Review merchant statements and pricing structures and identify opportunities to reduce processing costs
• Manage escalations involving payment processing and financial vendors
• Support implementation and integration of new payment platforms and financial technologies

Billing & Client Financial Operations

• Oversee billing processes and ensure client accounts are billed accurately and consistently
• Develop controls around payment plans, failed payments, refunds, cancellations, credits, and account adjustments
• Monitor payment performance and identify trends affecting collections and cash flow
• Work cross-functionally with Sales, Operations, Compliance, Technology, and Client Services to resolve systemic billing and payment issues

Vendor & Offshore Operations

• Manage financial operations performed by offshore and third-party teams
• Establish clear expectations, workflows, KPIs, and SLAs for internal and outsourced teams
• Monitor SLA performance, accuracy, productivity, turnaround times, and quality
• Conduct regular vendor performance reviews and hold partners accountable for contractual obligations
• Identify opportunities to improve cost, quality, efficiency, or staffing models

Process Improvement & Controls

• Document and continuously improve financial workflows, SOPs, controls, and approval processes
• Identify operational bottlenecks, financial leakage, unnecessary costs, and control weaknesses
• Partner with Technology to automate repetitive processes and improve system integrations
• Build scalable processes capable of supporting continued company growth
• Establish clear ownership and escalation procedures for financial exceptions

Leadership

• Provide leadership and oversight to the Finance Manager and financial operations team
• Establish measurable KPIs and performance expectations
• Develop team members and create clear accountability across the department
• Serve as the primary escalation point for complex financial operational issues
• Provide executive leadership with clear analysis, recommendations, and solutions rather than simply reporting problems

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in financial operations, lending operations, payment operations, loan servicing, consumer finance, or a related field
• 3+ years in a Director, Senior Manager, VP, or comparable leadership position
• Strong preference for experience in mortgage lending, auto lending, consumer lending, fintech, payment processing, or loan servicing
• Experience managing high-volume payment or billing operations
• Strong understanding of merchant processing, ACH, credit card payments, chargebacks, refunds, reconciliations, and payment exceptions
• Experience managing offshore, outsourced, or BPO teams
• Demonstrated experience creating and managing SLAs and operational KPIs
• Experience negotiating and managing financial vendors and service providers
• Strong process-improvement and operational problem-solving skills
• Experience working with CRM, ERP, payment, banking, or financial management systems
• Advanced reporting and analytical capabilities
• Demonstrated ability to build scalable processes in a fast-growing organization

Ideal Candidate

The right person has spent years inside a high-volume financial services organization and understands the operational details behind thousands of financial transactions.

They know how to look at a billing or payment operation and quickly determine where money is being lost, where controls are weak, where vendors are underperforming, and where processes can be automated.

They are comfortable managing both internal and offshore teams, holding vendors accountable to SLAs, negotiating with payment providers, reviewing operational data, and working directly with executives.

Most importantly, this person is a builder and problem solver who can take ownership of financial operations and continuously make them more accurate, efficient, scalable, and accountable.