Collections Strategy Manager

Location: Manchester office (2 days a week) – please ensure you can meet this requirement (XYZ Building 2, Floor 1, Suite 5, Hardman Boulevard, M3 3AQ). This is a permanent role.

Key responsibilities

• Design, challenge and optimise end‑to‑end credit card Collections; define success metrics and ensure statistically sound evaluation.
• Own strategy requirements end‑to‑end: document decision logic, write clear tickets/user stories, align stakeholders, and drive delivery through to implementation and measured outcomes.
• Support the Collections Operations team when needed (clarifying strategy intent, handling ad‑hoc data/MI requests, triaging issues, supporting UAT and go‑live, and monitoring early performance).
• Ensure all Collections activity is compliant with relevant regulation and internal policies (including fair customer outcomes and vulnerability considerations), with robust controls, MI and audit trails for strategy changes.
• Partner with Product and Engineering to shape and leverage Collections technology (decisioning, workflow/case management, comms tooling, dialler strategies, self‑serve journeys), proactively identifying automation opportunities and implementation risks.
• Be a hands‑on data practitioner: use SQL and a scripting language (e.g., Python) to extract, transform and analyse large datasets, validate strategy performance, and create repeatable analysis pipelines.
• Define and communicate performance KPIs across the Collections funnel (roll rates, cure rates, contact/response, promise‑to‑pay kept, net loss, recoveries, cost‑to‑collect), producing clear performance packs and actionable insights.
• Undertake portfolio monitoring and analytical deep dives (segmentation, vintage/cohort views, behavioural score performance, line management impacts, payment hierarchy effects), translating findings into prioritised strategy changes and delivered improvements.

Essential skills and experience

• Proven extensive experience in consumer finance Collections; pragmatic, resilient and outcome‑oriented.
• Strong coding skills in SQL and at least one programming language used for data work (e.g., Python), including writing maintainable code for repeatable analysis and automation.
• Demonstrated ability to work with large and complex datasets (joins, window functions, cohorting), and to build robust data definitions/metrics for MI and strategy monitoring.
• Experience working in a fintech or digitally‑led lender operating credit cards, ideally with in‑house decisioning and fast release cycles.
• Strong collaboration skills with a pragmatic, low‑ego approach; able to challenge constructively and align teams on outcomes.
• Experience working autonomously in an agile environment, managing priorities and delivering iteratively.
• Comfort operating across multiple workstreams (strategy changes, MI, governance, and delivery) without losing attention to detail.

Desired

• Experience building dashboards and operational MI in tools such as Power BI, Tableau (or similar), including metric definitions and automated refresh.
• Experience with cloud data platforms and analytics tooling (e.g., Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks) and/or experimentation frameworks; start‑up/scale‑up experience advantageous.

You should apply if

• Strong technical and analytical mindset.
• Able to work at pace without sacrificing quality.
• Tenacious and resilient approach.
• Highly organised with strong attention to detail.
• Methodical, thorough, and solution‑focused.
• A natural “completer finisher” who sees tasks through.
• Reliable and structured, thriving in a flat, trust‑led team environment.
• Collaborative problem‑solver, comfortable working across teams and with external partners.
• Communicates clearly and directly, with respect and efficiency.
• Hands‑on mindset – willing to roll up sleeves and get things done.

What's in it for you?

• The chance to make a real impact in a growing business on a mission to change the face of the consumer finance industry forever.
• Competitive salary.
• Pension contributions, including Salary Exchange facility.
• Annual bonus potential.
• Private medical cover provided by Vitality (optional benefit).
• 25 days annual leave (FTE) plus UK bank holidays (with an additional day added for each full calendar year worked, up to a maximum of 30 days).
• Your birthday off each year as an additional day’s holiday.
• 4x life insurance cover.
• Access to our confidential Employee Assistance Programme.