Job Overview

• With EEA selling its products on credit to hundreds of thousands of individual customers every year, EEA’s Customer Finance function plays a key role in the success of the business.
• The Global Customer Finance function supports EEA’s operating entities on credit product design, workflow enhancement guidance, portfolio management tools and capacity building.
• Within the Credit Operations Team of the Global Customer Finance function, we work on operational standards, workflows, systems and tools for EEA’s dedicated call centers, field teams and back-office teams to help support customer repayment.
• The Credit Operations Lead is a senior manager role in EEA’s Global Customer Finance department. As a people manager, the Credit Operations Lead motivates and manages a team of dedicated professionals. The role is responsible for the deployment of adequate credit operations policies, procedures, guidelines, monitoring and reporting as well as general operational practice, case-specific action plans, team capability and capacity development within and bordering the Customer Finance function, to deliver results. The role provides proactive, informed and results-oriented support to country Customer Finance departments (especially Heads of Customer Finance and Credit Operations Managers) on all areas related to achievement of targets, particularly strategic planning, performance monitoring and analysis, action plan development and implementation, adoption of EEA standard tools and processes, day to day workflow management and monitoring, operational excellence, and capacity planning and development.

Responsibilities:

• Operational Excellence in Credit Operations. Responsible for driving the operating practice and for ensuring the adequacy of processes, systems, tools and team capacity in EEA markets to execute across the credit cycle:
• Standards, Policies & Procedures. Conceptualize, document & maintain EEA-wide Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and other Credit Operations workflow documents.
• Digital System & Tools. Translate Credit Operations workflows and standards into Digital development specifications for internal mobile applications, call center tools, the loan management system as well as back-end data management platforms.
• Localization & Configuration. Provide oversight and strategic guidance to countries in the localization of strategies, processes and standards related to credit operations.
• Standards Adoption. Provide oversight and clarity in project structure for the adoption of standards, tools and practices related to credit operations workflows as they are rolled out.
• Training, Performance Management and Incentives. Translate credit operations processes and the escalation framework into global standards.
• Innovation. Design, pilot and scale workflows, tools, and other credit cycle innovations.
• Financial Products & Services. Work closely with the Head of Credit Risk Management to support design and operationalization of EEA’s financial products.

Country Level Planning & Implementation

• Annual Planning. Contribute materially to the annual strategic CF planning process.
• Action Plans. Provide direct support and guidance to EEA markets on regular action plan development to drive achieving credit targets of the business.
• Turnaround Scenarios. Where needed, provide focused attention and support to underperforming countries in turnaround scenarios related to credit performance.
• General Implementation & Support. Provide direct support and coordination of Global Customer Finance resources for implementation of action plans and day-to-day support.

Monitoring, Analysis & Insights

• Performance Reporting. Design credit operations reports and dashboards for real-time, accurate KPI tracking across the credit cycle.
• Performance Analysis. Conduct regular analysis of credit operations and drive insights for decision makers. This includes root cause analysis for underperformance, identifying opportunities for improvement in team performance, analyzing process efficiency and effectiveness, or more generally evaluating opportunities in the customer journey.
• Best Practices and Insights. Regularly share information and work with country teams to capture and document better and best practices, case studies or other insights.
• Compliance. Work with credit stakeholders to ensure compliance and quality assurance routines and reporting are in place for core activities.
• Cross-Functional Service Level Monitoring. Work with adjacent departments to define cross-functional dependencies and agree on service level standards and escalations. Work with stakeholders to close operational or service gaps where identified.
• Ad Hoc Research & Analysis. Support and in some cases lead ad-hoc or ongoing research & analysis related to credit operations across the credit cycle.

One Team Development

• Manage Direct Reports. Directly manage, coach and develop a small team of high-performing, motivated Credit Operations Manager(s) or other colleagues.
• Country Capacity, Roles & Organizational Structure. Work closely with country teams to define the organizational structure, roles, and responsibilities for their Credit Operations function.
• Credit Culture. Foster a strong credit culture across the operation built on credit risk awareness and understanding of credit principles.
• Capability Development & Training. Directly support capability development areas for global and country teams on credit operations topics.

Active Participation in Cross-Functional Global Strategy & Governance, including

• Monthly & quarterly business performance review
• Annual planning & budgeting & target setting for CF country operations
• Product launches, Customer Journey, Go to Market Strategy; Digital Roadmap

Internal & External Stakeholder Management

• Create and maintain positive working relationships with internal stakeholders within country and global teams, effective lines of communication, and strong empathy for our internal customers.
• Internal Advocacy. In alignment with the Head of Credit Operations, represent CF’s credit operations perspective vis-à-vis other Group functions.
• Industry Engagement. Represent EEA’s credit operations at industry events including our partnerships in research.

At EEA, we have high expectations for our managers. Each manager plays a key role in creating an exceptional experience not only for our customers but for every person on our team. Our managers help EEA realize our ambitious goals while developing their own leadership skills and facilitating growth for their direct reports.

We believe that great managers:

• Deliver ambitious results: as a high-performing and accountable leader, you create an enabling environment for effective action and bold decisions which contribute to successful delivery of results.
• Act with integrity: as an ethical leader you are honest, respectful, objective, and transparent. You create and build upon a foundation of trust and openness.
• Inspire and mentor the team: as an inspirational leader you walk the talk. You empower and coach your team with trust and humility.
• Are accessible: as an accessible leader, you develop and maintain deep connections with stakeholders through approachability and active listening.
• Ensure diversity and inclusion: as an inclusive leader, you ensure diversity and foster a sense of belonging.

Qualifications and Skills:

Experience:

• 7+ years of professional experience in credit operations, portfolio management or a related field; work experience in Sub-Saharan Africa in the off-grid energy sector is a plus.
• 5+ years of domain experience in credit-related project management or other data-smart lending operations based on commercial principles; exposure to individual micro lending technology and experience in data-driven and digital financial services is a plus.
• Relevant experience in leading multi-cultural, decentral teams.
• Senior profile with commercial acumen and a can-do-attitude combining output orientation, number orientation, process orientation, customer orientation and team orientation.
• High level of professional curiosity and interest in how to make processes and systems work to their best and an aptitude to investigate and crosscheck information before acting on it.
• Strong analytical and presentation skills; ability to combine hard data and observations on operational realities and translate into actionable guidance.
• Strong and confident communicator who is adept at cross-functional collaboration, sharing feedback, information and knowledge with others when joint solutions are required.
• Detail-oriented with an ability to support your colleagues maintain high quality of their work.
• Empathy and stamina in collaboration with a broad range of stakeholders including customers, customer-facing teams, leaders and managers across the business and its cultural contexts.
• Familiarity with the characteristics of our customer base and the challenges faced by our customer-facing teams.

Qualifications:

• University degree required; master’s degree in economics, agricultural economics, development economics, business, finance, microfinance or a related subject is desired.
• Certification in a relevant topic (e.g. project management; process mapping; Six Sigma, microfinance or portfolio management) is a plus.