Head of Recoveries & Collections Full Time Job

Head of Recoveries & Collections job vacancy in Johannesburg.

If you’ve spent your career proving that recoveries doesn’t have to mean chasing people, it means building smarter systems that get money back without burning trust, this one’s worth a proper look.

Our client is a technology-led financial services business with a serious loan book and an even more serious appetite for doing collections differently. They’re not looking for someone to manage a call centre. They’re looking for someone to own the entire recoveries strategy, from the data models that predict who’ll pay and when, right through to the WhatsApp bots, diallers and payment journeys that make paying easy instead of painful.

You’ll sit at executive level, reporting into the Chief Data and Optimisation Officer, with a team of leaders and an Ops Manager built around you. This is a build-and-lead mandate. You’ll shape the strategy, own the numbers, and turn recoveries into a genuine commercial engine rather than a cost centre.

The tech and tools you’ll be working with: DebiCheck, NAEDO and payment-channel optimisation, dialler and CRM-enabled collections platforms, BI tools such as Power BI or Tableau, predictive modelling and champion-challenger testing, and omnichannel digital engagement across SMS, WhatsApp, email, AVM and self-service platforms.

What You’ll Be Doing:

• Setting and driving the collections, tracing and recoveries strategy, and owning the recovery, revenue and portfolio-health targets that come with it
• Running internal and outsourced recovery operations, keeping a close eye on recovery rates, cure rates, right-party contact and cost-to-collect
• Using segmentation, predictive analytics and testing to keep finding better ways to recover debt, not just more aggressive ones
• Leading the design of digital-first collection journeys across SMS, WhatsApp, chatbots, diallers and self-service payment tools
• Optimising DebiCheck, NAEDO and strike-date strategies to reduce failed debits and improve payment success
• Owning budgets, vendor contracts and commercial performance across the recoveries function
• Acting as the senior point of contact for clients, leading reviews and representing recoveries in governance forums
• Keeping the function compliant, ethical and audit-ready across every channel and process
• Building a recoveries team that’s genuinely good at this, then giving them the tools, targets and trust to prove it

What You’ll Bring:

• A degree in Commerce, Finance, Business Management, Credit Management or similar (postgrad in Business Admin, Finance or Risk is a strong plus)
• At least 10 years in collections, recoveries, credit risk or portfolio management, with 5 to 7 of those in senior leadership over large-scale operations
• A track record of building recovery strategies that actually moved the numbers, not just reports that said they should
• Real experience with digital-first collections, dialler and CRM campaign management, and payment optimisation tools like DebiCheck and NAEDO
• Strong analytics instincts: comfortable with segmentation, predictive modelling and BI dashboards, and confident translating that into decisions
• Experience managing budgets, vendor relationships and senior client stakeholders
• A solid grip on the regulatory and compliance landscape around collections, payments and customer data
• Fintech, digital lending or credit bureau experience is a bonus, not a requirement