Manager, Freight Payables - Canadian Tire, Oakville

AI Summary

This Manager, Finance Operations - Freight Payables role at Canadian Tire in Oakville, ON, involves leading the end-to-end freight audit and payment function. Key duties include ensuring accurate freight cost validation, driving recoveries, and strengthening financial controls across the enterprise transportation network. Candidates should possess 5+ years of progressive experience in freight audit or transportation finance and 7+ years of people leadership experience, alongside post-secondary education in a related field.

Leading Freight Audit and Payment Operations

As the Manager, Finance Operations - Freight Payables, you will lead the critical end-to-end freight audit and payment function for Canadian Tire's extensive enterprise transportation network. This pivotal role is accountable for ensuring precise freight cost validation, actively driving recoveries from carriers, and bolstering financial controls to enhance transparency and operational efficiency at scale. You will be instrumental in modernizing processes and leveraging data to continuously improve outcomes, partnering closely with Transportation, Finance, and Supply Chain teams, as well as external carriers and audit vendors. Your leadership will encompass the full freight audit lifecycle, from invoice validation and approval to discrepancy management and payment across all inbound and outbound transportation modes, including TL, LTL, parcel, and intermodal. Ensuring freight invoices are accurately audited against contracted rates, accessorial charges, fuel surcharges, and service-level agreements is paramount, alongside overseeing exception resolution and root cause analysis to recover overcharges.

Financial Stewardship and People Leadership

This role demands strong financial stewardship, requiring you to establish and maintain robust audit controls, governance, and documentation to support both internal and external audits. You will ensure strict compliance with transportation contracts, SOX requirements, and Canadian Tire's financial policies, collaborating with the broader Finance team to support accrual accuracy, month-end close processes, and variance analysis related to freight spend. Beyond compliance, you will analyze freight spend trends and audit findings to identify significant cost-saving and optimization opportunities, developing key performance indicators and reporting for senior leadership. A crucial aspect of this position is people leadership, where you will lead, coach, and develop a dedicated team of freight audit professionals. Setting clear performance expectations, providing regular feedback, and fostering a culture of accountability and continuous improvement are central to your success in this role at Canadian Tire.

Qualifications and Career Growth at Canadian Tire

To excel in this Manager, Finance Operations role, candidates should bring post-secondary education in Business, Finance, Supply Chain, or a related field, with a CPA, CMA, or supply chain designation considered a valuable asset. A minimum of 5 years of progressive experience in freight audit, transportation finance, logistics, or supply chain analytics is required, complemented by at least 7 years of proven people leadership experience. Strong working knowledge of transportation rate structures, accessorial charges, and carrier contracts is essential, along with experience using TMS and freight audit/payment platforms. Advanced proficiency in data analysis and reporting tools like Excel or Power BI is also expected. Canadian Tire offers a competitive salary range, comprehensive benefits, performance incentives, and robust career growth opportunities. Joining Canadian Tire means becoming part of a company committed to diversity, inclusion, and belonging, where employees are supported with continuous learning and well-being programs.