Chief Operating Officer
Fair Finance
Don’t send a generic resume — generate a resume and cover letter tailored to this exact role.
Benefits offered by this job
Job summary
Fair Finance, based in Dalston with flexibility to work from home, seeks a Chief Operating Officer to scale its lending operations and drive a digital transformation. You will lead an ambitious program to grow the loan book to £30M+, improve efficiency, and elevate customer experience while maintaining regulatory compliance.
You will build leadership, partner with the CEO and CRO, and deliver operational excellence across underwriting, servicing, and collections in a mission-driven, non-profit
Qualifications
- 10+ years in consumer lending operations with leadership experience.
- Experience scaling loan books 3x–5x and transforming operations.
- Deep knowledge of underwriting, servicing, collections and customer service.
- Proven ability to lead through digital transformation while serving vulnerable customers.
Responsibilities
- Develop and execute operational strategies aligned with growth targets.
- Lead operational budgeting and governance, ensuring compliance.
- Build and mentor Head of Operations and Head of Technology.
- Partner with CEO/CRO to deliver the digital transformation.
Skills
Tools
Job description
Location: Based in our Dalston office with flexibility to WFH
Reporting to: CEO
Contract: Permanent, full-time
Fair Finance's mission is to revolutionise financial services to make it more inclusive and fair for everyone. We design and deliver financial services to improve the financial wellbeing and have a positive impact on our clients.
For nearly 20 years we have worked with hundreds of thousands of accesses affordable credit, manage their finances and avoid high-cost lenders. Our work has influenced Government policy, credit legislation and shown how Purpose and Profit can work together to change the financial system for the better.
We are an established organisation with a proven track record, now undergoing an ambitious digital and scale up transformation that will allow us to achieve scale and impact across the country.
We're at a defining moment:
- Moving from a retail-based model to a digitally enabled national lender, we're building the operational infrastructure to double our loan book annually - from £6M today to £30M+within 30 months - while maintaining our commitment to financial inclusion and exceptional customer service.
- Working with national banks and key institutional stakeholders we will significantly increaseour reach into communities and address parts of the UK Government’s National Strategy for Financial Inclusion.
- This isn't just operational efficiency. It's about building the engine that will serve hundreds of thousands more people who are locked out of mainstream finance without losing the human touch.
We're seeking an exceptional Chief Operating Officer to build and scale the operational infrastructure for Fair Finance's next chapter. This is a rare opportunity to transform lending operations for a mission-driven organisation at a critical inflection point.
- Build the operational engine: You'll take committed but less experienced teams and provenbut under-optimized systems, and transform them into a scalable, efficient, customer centric operation capable of supporting £30M+ loan book.
- Dramatic impact targets: Cut loan processing time by 50%, reduce cost-per-loan by 50%,and scale volume 5x - all while improving customer satisfaction. These aren't incremental improvements, they're transformation.
- Develop future leaders: Coach and develop a Head of Operations and Head of Technology who are ready to step up. You're building capability, not just managing delivery.
- Mission-critical execution: Partner with CEO and CRO (Chief Risk Officer) to execute the digital transformation strategy. You're the person who makes strategy real through operational excellence.
- Own the customer experience: From application to final payment, you ensure every customer interaction reflects Fair Finance's commitment to treating people fairly and supporting their financial wellbeing.
This is a full-time operational leadership role for an experienced professional who wants to prove that inclusive lending can achieve both exceptional customer experience and operational efficiency at scale.
We are looking for a strategic, results-driven and personable leader with a strong consumer credit and operations background.
You will have a genuine desire to work for a changemaking organisation, and someone who is comfortable leading teams through business transformation and change.
You must have excellent communication and management skills, as well as the ability to provide challenge and solutions.
We are looking for someone who wants to grow with a company as it transitions in a key moment of scale and business transformation.
- Develop and execute operational strategies aligned with business objectives and growth targets.
- Develop and manage budgets and resource requirements to deliver the operational strategy effectively.
- Create and implement operational policies and frameworks focussed on process improvement, scalability and efficiency.
- Monitor KPI’s and metrics to track operational performance and identify areas for improvement.
- Provide strategic guidance and recommendations to senior management and the Board on operational matters.
- Ensure that all initiatives contribute to the organisation's long-term goals and growth objectives.
- Deliver regular reports and metrics on the performance of lending operations against budget, KPI’s and targets.
- Provide performance and progress updates to external committees and the Fair Finance Board.
- Ensure adherence to governance standards and compliance requirements across all operational areas.
- Identify and mitigate operational risks to safeguard the organisation’s reputation and assets.
- Embed robust governance and control frameworks to ensure effective oversight and accountability.
- 10+ years in consumer lending operations, with at least 5 years in leadership roles
- Led operations through significant growth (3x-5x loan book scaling)
- Deep expertise across the full lending lifecycle: underwriting, servicing, collections, customer service
- Experience with digital transformation of lending operations - moving from manual to automated
- Understands the unique challenges of serving vulnerable customers and regulatory requirements (Consumer Duty, fair treatment, affordability)
- Track record of achieving dramatic efficiency improvements (not just incremental gains)
- Experience implementing automation and optimizing lending platforms/decisioning engines
- Strong analytical capability - uses data and KPIs to drive performance
- Knows how to balance speed, cost, quality, and risk in operational decisions
- Experience with technology vendors and implementations (even if not a technologist yourself)
- Proven ability to coach and develop less experienced leaders to next level
- Built and led high-performing operations teams in growth environments
- Comfortable being hands-on when needed but delegates effectively
- Creates operational discipline without bureaucracy
- Builds capability sustainably, not just delivers short-term results
- Comfortable executing strategy others define while bringing operational expertise to shape it
- Works effectively in CEO/CRO partnership model - no ego about who gets credit
- Brings solutions and options, not just problems
- Knows when to elevate vs solve independently
- Thrives on making things happen more than being the visionary
- Genuinely cares about financial inclusion - this isn't just another operations role
- Understands how operational excellence enables social impact at scale
- Committed to treating vulnerable customers with dignity and fairness
- Comfortable with the operational complexity of serving excluded populations responsibly
This job description may be amended from time to time to reflect the changing needs of the business
Transformational Operational Impact This role will directly enable Fair Finance to serve 100,000+ people annually who are locked out of mainstream finance. Every efficiency you create, every customer experience you improve, every process you automate - it all translates to more people accessing fair financial services.
"Build It" Opportunity with Strategic Guardrails You're not inheriting chaos - there's a clear strategy, committed team, and proven systems. But you have full ownership to transform operations from functional to exceptional. It's the rare combination of "build it" freedom with strategic direction and support.
Develop Future Leaders Your Head of Operations and Head of Technology are ready to learn. You'll have the satisfaction of coaching them to become excellent leaders who can scale with the business, creating lasting impact beyond your direct work.
Mission That Matters We have created an environment where you can genuinely put clients before profits and make a difference to our clients’ lives. You'll go home each day knowing your operational excellence helped someone access credit when they needed it most, at a fair rate, with dignity. The operational KPIs matter because they enable social impact at scale.
Strong Executive Partnership You'll work alongside a CEO who's dedicating 25% of their time to partnership with you, and a Chief Risk Officer who sets clear strategy for you to execute. You're not alone in this transformation.
We're a non-profit social enterprise, which means we can't match commercial market rates for this level of responsibility. What we can offer is the opportunity to build something exceptional that serves people who need it most, with a committed team, clear strategy, and genuine support for your success.
If you're at a career stage where operational impact matters as much as compensation, and you want to prove that inclusive finance can achieve both scale and excellence, we'd love to hear from you.
- Annual holiday entitlement of 25 days in addition to UK public holidays.
- An additional paid day off for your birthday.
- Staff receive an additional 'WFH allowance' to allow even greater location flexibility.
- Private Health Insurance.
- Perkbox access for a wide range of discounts.
- Employee Assistance Programme (EAP).
- Staff Loan Scheme (currently interest free).
- 3% matching contribution towards a stakeholder pension
'/%3e%3cpath%20d='M101.744%2012.4726L102.894%2016.1947L99.0021%2013.2201L101.744%2012.4726ZM105.3%208.40937H100.488L99.0026%203.59473L97.5116%208.41047L92.7%208.40385L96.5965%2011.3834L95.1055%2016.1942L99.0021%2013.2196L101.408%2011.3834L105.3%208.40992V8.40937Z'%20fill='white'/%3e%3cdefs%3e%3clinearGradient%20id='paint0_linear_5593_1381'%20x1='90'%20y1='9.44471'%20x2='99'%20y2='9.44471'%20gradientUnits='userSpaceOnUse'%3e%3cstop%20stop-color='%2300AD70'/%3e%3cstop%20offset='0.998594'%20stop-color='%2300B67A'/%3e%3cstop%20offset='1'%20stop-color='%23DCDCE6'/%3e%3c/linearGradient%3e%3c/defs%3e%3c/svg%3e){kind=small}
