Collections Strategy Manager

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About Jaja

Our Mission: 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!

** This role requires being in our London office 2 days a week, so please only apply if you're comfortably able to meet this requirement (47-51 Great Suffolk St, London SE1 0BS)

Collections Strategy Manager

We're looking for someone who thoroughly understands the end-to-end credit card Collections & Recoveries lifecycle to join us as aCollections Strategy Manager. You'll combine deep operational knowledge (from early delinquency through charge-off, debt sale/placement and post-charge-off recoveries) 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 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-focuse
• 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