Director of Collections and Customer Operations

Summary

Join InDebted as the Director of Customer Operations and Collections - APAC/EMEA, leading customer-facing operations and ensuring exceptional performance. You will shape and lead the customer operations strategy, overseeing operational execution to meet targets while maintaining high customer experience standards. Manage key areas like workforce planning, resource allocation, and agent performance development. Serve as the top escalation point for complex customer issues and build relationships with senior leaders and clients. This role requires exceptional analytical skills, a deep understanding of agent performance drivers, and the ability to drive continuous improvement. You will collaborate with the Global Head of Excellence and play a critical role in integrating newly acquired businesses. InDebted offers a remote-first work environment with flexible schedules and paid leave.

Requirements

• Proven experience in customer operations or collections leadership, ideally in high-growth, fast-paced environments
• Deep knowledge of leading indicators of collections performance and their impact on revenue outcomes
• Experience scaling onshore and offshore workforces, including designing and implementing effective workforce planning strategies
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to define, design, and build custom reports and dashboards using data sets
• Proven experience using data insights to drive operational improvements and inform strategic decisions
• Experienced in financial management, operating within budget and resource optimisation
• Demonstrated ability to hire, lead and inspire high-performing teams, from agents to team leaders and operations managers
• Experience designing, rolling out and tracking performance improvement programs, incentive schemes, training initiatives, and agent incentive schemes, aligned to business objectives
• Strong focus on continuous improvement, with a track record of developing scalable systems and processes
• Demonstrated ability to leverage technology to improve operational efficiency, scalability, and performance outcomes
• Experience implementing or optimising systems and tools for customer operations
• Ability to manage relationships with multiple clients across diverse verticals, understanding and adapting to their unique needs
• Comfortable presenting to and building rapport with senior leaders, clients, and stakeholders
• Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to represent InDebted’s values and vision

Responsibilities

• Drive the overall strategy for customer operations and agent-led collections in Australia and New Zealand, ensuring alignment with InDebted’s performance goals and growth objectives
• Set the strategy in consultation with both the Chief Operating Officer and the Managing Director of ANZ
• Collaborate closely with the Global Head of Excellence to develop scalable, efficient processes to support a growing portfolio of clients and increasing customer volumes
• Partner with Directors of other markets to share learnings and drive best practice for Customer operations at InDebted globally
• Lead and oversee inbound and outbound customer contact operations across all channels (email, SMS, live chat, and voice)
• Drive the execution of strategies to achieve collections, revenue and margins targets while delivering outstanding customer experiences
• Efficiently manage omnichannel customer contact operations, implementing best practices for digital communications and voice teams based on the specific requirements of each channel
• Build and manage specialised teams tailored to skillsets, specialisation, and strategic needs, ensuring resources are optimally aligned with business goals
• Lead and develop high-performing teams, from Agents to Team Leaders and Operations Managers, fostering a culture of excellence and high performance
• Design and implement agent, team leader and operations manager performance programs and incentive schemes to maximise agent and leader effectiveness, engagement, efficiency, and results
• Set clear performance expectations, KPIs and targets for all levels, including Agents, Team Leaders and Operations Managers
• Monitor and report on key performance indicators (KPIs) for the operation, teams and individuals including productivity measures, first response time (FRT), average handle time (AHT), right-party contact (RPC) rates, payment conversion rates, payment conversion quality, first contact resolution rates (FCR), cure rates, agent ROI, CSAT, cost per contact, query backlog rate and establish benchmarks for success
• Interpret data, identify trends, and make actionable recommendations to improve collections performance to ensure we are the #1 performer
• Define and design reporting, and generate analysis to track and analyse operational performance and KPIs
• Use data-driven insights to identify trends, diagnose issues, and recommend strategies for performance and efficiency improvement
• Analyse and understand the leading indicators of performance and pinpoint the key opportunity areas, making recommendations to the leadership on strategy changes and opportunities
• Partner with internal stakeholders to continuously refine and optimise reporting tools and processes
• Leverage workforce planning expertise to optimise staffing levels, forecast demand, and ensure effective resource utilisation for maximised collection rates and optimal gross margins
• Manage and scale both onshore and offshore teams based on business, client and operational needs, ensuring seamless integration and alignment across locations
• Ensure the agent workforce is equipped to handle high volumes of inbound communications and volume fluctuations efficiently, inline with internal and client SLAs
• Continually optimise agent capacity thresholds to balance workloads and achieve operational efficiency
• Partner with our Data team to ensure outbound dialer campaigns are resourced effectively and run efficiently to drive the best outcomes for voice campaigns
• Act as the regional representative of InDebted’s customer leadership, building strong relationships with clients and representing the organisation in client meetings as needed
• Provide data-driven insights and updates to senior leaders and clients, ensuring transparency and trust
• Build relationships with financial counsellors and supporting bodies, engaging them directly to enhance InDebted’s reputation as a leading customer advocate in the debt collection space and ensure our processes support both financial counsellors and vulnerable customers
• Leverage technology and automation to enhance operational efficiency, effectiveness, and scalability
• Partner with cross-functional teams, including R&D to identify and implement tools that streamline workflows, improve agent performance, and drive results
• Develop, implement, and maintain effective Line 1 controls, including preventative, detective, and corrective measures, to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and operational standards while proactively identifying and addressing potential risks
• Continuously review and enhance control frameworks to adapt to evolving regulatory and business requirements
• Maintain clear documentation and reporting for all controls to ensure audit readiness and operational transparency
• Establish processes to maximise agent productivity across inbound and outbound operations, ensuring the team delivers efficient, effective, and compliant responses to customer queries
• Ensure all operations adhere to local regulatory requirements and InDebted’s internal compliance standards and policies
• Partner with cross-functional teams to ensure processes are optimised for operational efficiency and customer satisfaction
• Act as a key liaison between regional operations and global leadership, sharing best practices and driving process improvements
• Assist with due diligence on the operational aspects of acquisition targets, evaluating their processes, systems, and workforce capabilities
• Develop and execute integration plans to seamlessly onboard customer operations from acquired businesses into InDebted’s frameworks, integrating distinct customer teams into one unified customer organisation
• Ensure acquired teams are aligned with InDebted’s operational standards, compliance requirements, and performance goals
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to optimise processes and tools for a smooth integration experience

Preferred Qualifications

• Intimate understanding of the regulatory environment for collections and compliance standards in Australia
• Bonus points for knowledge around New Zealand, the UK or UAE
• Familiarity with omnichannel customer contact operations, including email, SMS, live chat, and voice
• Experience working with global teams in a matrixed organisational structure
• Ability to travel for client visits where necessary

Benefits

• Adaptive working - We’re a remote first team, with office hubs in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States - with hybrid options determined at team level to foster collaboration and flexibility
• Flexible schedules - As a global team working across timezones, we offer flexible working schedules to ensure you’re able to balance work and life
• Flexible paid leave - Our trust-based leave model isn’t capped by standard entitlements. This means you can choose how much leave you take and when you take it, while balancing business needs
• Remote work set-up - Budget of AUD $750 (or local equivalent) to help you create a working environment that supports your productivity
• Work from anywhere scheme - Work from anywhere on a short-term basis (overseas or otherwise away from your usual place of work) for a maximum period of 4 months, so long as there is a reasonable overlap (4-hours) with your team and/or leader in your home country
• Gender neutral parental leave - Our global offering for all new parents includes 16 weeks paid leave