Collections Strategy Manager in Manchester

About Jaja

Empowering our customers to buy, borrow, and build—driven by tech, fuelled by data, and built for the future. Our Company Values: Care Deeply, Adapt & Thrive, Challenge everything, Go for it! Own it, Make it Simple. Jaja is an innovative UK based consumer finance business, leading initially with a digital credit card launched in 2018, and a pipeline of consumer finance solutions in the making. We are on a mission to redefine the consumer finance experience and liberate customers from needless complexity, wasted time and frustration. Or as we say it, Make Simple. We will delight our customers – making the customer experience simpler, more enjoyable, more intelligent – treating customers fairly and giving them more control of their money.

Why Join Us?

This is a chance to make a real impact in a growing business on a mission to change the face of the consumer finance industry forever. We have a collaborative team structure fueled by an exciting mix of people, welcoming experienced people from the industry with both feet on the ground and tech‑savvy dreamers who pave way for the new stuff. Come as you are and be yourself!

Location: This role requires being in our Manchester office 2 days a week, so please only apply if you're comfortably able to meet this requirement (XYZ Building 2, Floor 1, Suite 5, Hardman Boulevard, M3 3AQ).

We’re looking for someone who thoroughly understands the end‑to‑end credit card Collections & Recoveries lifecycle to join us as a Collections Strategy Manager. You’ll combine deep operational knowledge with strong technical and analytical capability to build, test, and optimise strategies that support customers in financial difficulty while delivering sustainable outcomes. The successful candidate will be hands‑on and delivery‑focused, designing and executing the development of our Collections and Recoveries strategies using a test‑and‑learn, data‑driven approach. You will work closely with Operations, Credit Risk, Product and Data to translate strategy into execution (policies, treatments, decision rules, customer journeys and tooling). This is a permanent role.

Key responsibilities:

• Design, challenge and optimise end‑to‑end credit card Collections & Recoveries strategies across all delinquency stages (pre‑delinquency, 1‑30, 31‑60, 61‑90 etc, charge‑off and post charge‑off), using segmentation, affordability/forbearance considerations and treatment paths to continuously improve performance.
• Build a structured test‑and‑learn programme (champion/challenger, A/B tests) for letters/SMS/email, contact strategies, digital journeys, repayment options, agent scripting and strategy rules; 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 (e.g. 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 & 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 & Recoveries, with credit card knowledge a must.
• Experience leveraging modern Collections technology (decisioning, workflow/case management, diallers/comms orchestration, digital self‑serve) and translating strategy into build‑ready requirements.
• Strong understanding of key UK regulatory and industry requirements for Collections, including fair customer outcomes and appropriate treatment of vulnerable customers.
• A strong bias to action: able to navigate ambiguity, remove blockers, and “get stuff done” from idea through to implemented change and measurable impact.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, able to influence across Operations, Risk, Product and Engineering.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, with ability to present complex analysis simply and clearly to senior audiences.
• Comfortable working at pace in a fast‑changing environment; 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’ll need to be:

• 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.
• Motivated by and excited about Jaja’s mission and growth.

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.