Hardship Officer

Avanti Finance Group; Sydney; Hybrid; AUD 65,000 - 85,000; Full time

Job summary

Branded Financial Services is seeking an empathetic Hardship Officer to support customers facing financial difficulties. You will manage hardship accounts, tailor practical support, and guide customers through challenging life events while balancing fairness and business needs.

You will work in a fast-paced environment, using emotional intelligence to navigate conversations, assess risks, and implement sustainable solutions for both customers and BFS.

Qualifications

• Experience in hardship or vulnerability, financial assistance, or customer support environments.
• Alternatively, senior collections, recoveries, or customer resolutions experience.

Responsibilities

• Manage a portfolio of high-risk and hardship accounts (secured and unsecured).
• Develop practical and sustainable support arrangements tailored to individual situations.
• Identify early signs of loss and apply mitigation strategies.
• Escalate deteriorating accounts for asset recovery, legal action, or write-off.
• Maintain complete, compliant, and audit-ready case files.
• Proactively engage with customers in arrears to understand financial situations.
• Communicate hardship decisions clearly and empathetically.
• Handle sensitive conversations, complaints, and disputes professionally.
• Balance empathetic service with effective recovery strategies.
• Liaise with customers, guarantors, and third parties to facilitate outcomes.
• Apply a risk and compliance lens, ensure legal adherence, and manage all day-to-day risks through the appropriate channels.

Skills

Empathy

Active listening

Communication

Emotional intelligence

Calm under pressure

Judgement

Customer focus

Resilience

Case management

Job description

We’re on a mission to become the best specialist lending company in Australia and New Zealand, and we’re looking for ambitious, driven people to help get us there.

We’ve got bold goals and a clear vision for the future. That means exciting opportunities for those ready to champion new ideas, challenge the status quo, and grow alongside us.

If you’re hungry to make an impact, thrive in a fast-paced environment, and love turning ideas into action – you’ll feel right at home here.

We're looking for an empathetic, solutions focused professional to join Branded Financial Services as a Hardship Officer. You'll support customers facing some of life's most challenging circumstances, from serious illness and family hardship through to financial distress and unexpected life events.

This is a role where emotional intelligence matters just as much as commercial judgement. You will need to be able to listen, understand and guide customers through their circumstances while also being able to make balanced decisions that work for both the customer and the business.

The role

As a Hardship Officer, you'll play an important role with supporting customers experiencing financial difficulty, helping them find practical and sustainable solutions during challenging periods. You will need to take the time to understand their individual circumstances and help identify practical and sustainable solutions that work for the customer and the business.

No two days are the same as you may be helping someone navigate a job loss, illness, a relationship breakdown or another significant life event that has affected them. You will be managing your own portfolio of hardship accounts, you'll combine empathy, strong communication, and sound judgement to make a genuine difference in customers' lives while ensuring they're treated with fairness, respect, and care every step of the way.

What you'll do

• Manage a portfolio of high-risk and hardship accounts (secured and unsecured).
  
• Develop practical and sustainable support arrangements tailored to individual situations
  
• Identify early signs of loss and apply mitigation strategies.
  
• Escalate deteriorating accounts for asset recovery, legal action, or write-off.
  
• Maintain complete, compliant, and audit-ready case files.
  
• Proactively engage with customers in arrears to understand financial situations.
  
• Communicate hardship decisions clearly and empathetically.
  
• Handle sensitive conversations, complaints, and disputes professionally.
  
• Balance empathetic service with effective recovery strategies.
  
• Liaise with customers, guarantors, and third parties to facilitate outcomes.
• Apply a risk and compliance lens, ensure legal adherence, and manage all day-to-day risks through the appropriate channels.
  

What we're looking for

We're looking for someone who genuinely cares about helping people and can remain calm, professional, and objective during difficult conversations.

Ideally, you'll bring:

• Experience within hardship and vulnerability, financial assistance, or customer support environments
  
• Alternatively, strong senior collections, recoveries, or customer resolutions experience
  
• Exceptional listening and communication skills
  
• High levels of emotional intelligence and empathy
  
• The ability to navigate challenging and emotionally charged conversations
  
• The ability to build trust with a wide range of customers
  
• Strong judgement and decision making skills
  
• A customer focused mindset with an understanding of commercial realities
  
• Resilience, professionalism, and attention to detail
  

Our values are the fabric of what makes BFS, BFS

They guide our decisions, shape how we work, set the standards we hold ourselves and each other to, and build the trust that brings us together.

Champion the Customer:We put people at the heart of every decision

Win Together:We achieve more when we work as one

Do What's Right:We act with integrity and take responsibility

Be Curious:We keep an open mind to new possibilities

Together, these values help create a workplace where people can grow, contribute and do their best work.