Senior Customer Support & Operations Manager

My client is an award-winning SME lender with two competitive unsecured lending products in the market. After trading successfully for five years in the UK, they have hit profitability and doubled their lending book in the last 18 months, creating a vibrant and exciting time to join the business. They have a brilliant team of 20, continually investing in technology to enhance lending ability and are set to announce some exciting large strategic partnerships which will accelerate their lending book. Still being early in their growth journey, they are always looking to expand the team and improve their offering for customers. This role is focused on streamlining and scaling the end-to-end customer journey to support continued growth and customer experience.

Key Responsibilities:

• Team Management: Line-manage the Customer Support & Operations Executive (to be hired in early 2027), setting objectives, conducting regular 1-2-1s, and supporting professional development.
• Customer Onboarding: Oversee end-to-end onboarding: DocuSign agreements (SLA 1 hour, max 4 hours at peak), KYC (ApplyID), account and facility setup. Ensure onboarding is completed without delay post-approval and monitor onboarding quality and customer satisfaction.
• Customer Utilisation Management: Review the first 30 days post-onboarding to confirm customer utilisation and flag non-utilising or low-utilising accounts, including broker-sourced customers ahead of expiry of the funding period.
• Customer Service & Query Resolution: Ensure timely resolution of customer queries and deal with any escalated or complex issues amongst the deal cycle. Look to enhance policies, find areas for process improvement, and continue to build the journey for customers.
• Arrears & Collections Management: Oversee the arrears collection process (Day 1 / Day 3 / Day 5 escalation framework) before it is passed over to the collections team if problems cannot be resolved. Monitor arrears daily, review trends weekly, and drive reduction strategies.
• Operational Support & Transaction Management: Oversee pending transaction monitoring: Open Banking consent, pending approvals, payee management, and account suspension checks. Track suspension rates, transaction errors, and operational metrics for reporting.
• Customer Retention & Satisfaction: Drive retention strategy, proactively intervening with at-risk customers to maintain churn below 2.5% quarterly. Ensure regular customer engagement, including quarterly business reviews for top-tier accounts.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration & Reporting: Act as the primary operations liaison with Sales, Credit, Compliance, Finance, Product, and Broker/Partner Managers. Provide operational and customer feedback to inform product, credit policy, and partnership strategy. Prepare monthly operations performance reports covering utilisation, arrears, satisfaction, churn, onboarding, and query metrics.

What we are looking for?

• Proven experience working within Fintech SME Unsecured lending – MCA, Loans, Revolving credit.
• Background in customer support, operations, or management of an SME lending deal cycle.
• Previous success in managing, scaling, and improving efficiencies within a small team.
• Enjoys being proactive in creating new processes, procedures, and more efficient ways of working.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment and enjoy seeing the influence of your work on business growth.