Collections Team Manager - Milton Keynes

Volkswagen Group; Lower Heyford; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Employer pension contribution 9%

Private medical insurance

Car schemes

LinkedIn Learning

Mentoring schemes

Job summary

VWFS UK is seeking a Collections Team Manager to lead a team responsible for the fact-finding, negotiation and resolution of customer accounts in arrears, ensuring fair and compliant outcomes while protecting long-term relationships.

You will coach Advisors to deliver on performance, quality and service targets, and collaborate with senior leaders to optimise workloads and drive continuous improvement across telephony and administration channels.

Qualifications

• Proven people management experience and coaching skills.
• Strong knowledge of FCA regulations and TCF principles.
• Excellent communication, negotiation and stakeholder management.
• Experience with quality assurance and performance management.
• Analytical skills to interpret data and management information.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach and develop a team to meet performance, quality and service targets.
• Ensure fair customer outcomes and FCA/compliance adherence.
• Set up and manage recruitment, onboarding and capability development.
• Collaborate with operational leaders to balance workloads and service levels across channels.
• Deliver process improvements to enhance efficiency and customer experience.
• Act as escalation point for complex cases and vulnerable customer situations.

Skills

People management

Regulatory compliance

FCA regulations

Stakeholder management

Negotiation

Quality assurance

Coaching

Data interpretation

Education

GCSE Maths and English

Tools

CRM

SAP

Telephony systems

Microsoft Office

Job description

We're looking for a Collections Team Manager to lead a team responsible for the fact-finding, negotiation and resolution of customer accounts in arrears, ensuring fair and appropriate outcomes while protecting long-term customer relationships. This role will be instrumental in delivering consistent customer outcomes, maintaining regulatory and policy adherence, and driving operational excellence across the Collections & Recoveries function. As a role model for your team, you'll ensure internal policies and procedures are applied consistently, while acting as the voice of the business to support positive customer experiences across all VWFS brands.

What youll be doing:

Lead, coach and develop a team of Collections & Recoveries Advisors to deliver performance, quality and service targets. Drive fair, consistent customer outcomes, ensuring all decisions align with FCA regulations and internal policies. Act as the escalation point for complex cases, including vulnerable customer situations and forbearance solutions. Manage team performance, attendance and development through regular coaching, feedback and succession planning. Monitor quality standards through audits, call listening and compliance reviews to ensure regulatory adherence. Support recruitment, onboarding and capability development to build a high-performing team. Identify and implement process improvements that enhance efficiency and customer experience. Collaborate with operational leaders to manage workloads, resources and service levels across telephony and administration channels. Build strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders, including senior leaders, solicitors and recovery partners. Deputise for the Collections Operations Manager when required.

Youll be a confident and people-focused leader with a strong understanding of collections, regulatory compliance and customer outcomes, capable of developing high-performing teams in a fast-paced operational environment. Youll have a passion for delivering fair customer outcomes, coaching and developing others, and driving continuous improvement while maintaining the highest standards of quality, compliance and performance.

Essential experience & skills

Proven people management experience, with the ability to coach, develop and motivate high-performing teams. Strong knowledge of FCA regulations, Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) principles and customer-focused collections practices. Excellent communication, negotiation and stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to influence at all levels. Experience of quality assurance, performance management and driving continuous improvement initiatives. Strong analytical skills, with the ability to interpret data and management information to support decision-making. Experience managing workloads and resources to successfully deliver operational service levels and KPIs. Highly organised, resilient and able to prioritise effectively in a fast-paced, target-driven environment. Strong systems knowledge, including Microsoft Office and customer management platforms such as CRM, SAP and telephony systems. Experience supporting recruitment, talent development and succession planning activities. GCSEs (or equivalent) in Maths and English.

Why join VWFS UK?

Youll have the opportunity to make a difference by helping us to achieve our mission. Our mission is straight forward; we want to be 'The Key to Mobility'. That means we make getting from A-to-B as easy and simple for as many people as possible. To truly meet the mobility needs of people in a changing world, our offering goes beyond traditional vehicle financing. We do this by providing a range of finance and aftersales products on Volkswagen Group vehicles, as well as developing innovative mobility products designed to solve real problems and support our customers. No candidate will meet every single desired qualification. If your experience looks a little different from what we've identified and you think you can bring value to the role, we'd love to learn more about you! VWFS is proud to be an inclusive employer and encourages applications from a diverse range of candidates. Diversity, Equity & Inclusion isnt just a statement for us, we encourage and aspire for all our colleagues to be their 100% self. If you need any reasonable adjustments to assist you with the application and/or recruitment processes, please contact our Resourcing Team. This role does not meet the UKVIs criteria for the skilled worker sponsorship route, therefore we are unable to accept candidates requiring sponsorship for this role.

Pension: Employer pension contribution of 9% (based on employee contribution of 3%). VWFS will pay 6% if employee chooses a 2% employee contribution. Car schemes

• : Choice of Employee Car Ownership (ECO) scheme for petrol/diesel and hybrid vehicles plus car insurance.
• OR Company Car scheme for Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) plus car insurance cover for you and a partner/eligible family member.
• Other benefits: From day 1 we provide income protection, life assurance (4x salary), retail discount vouchers , access to Care Concierge (a service to support carers of adults), along with other salary sacrifice options including a will writing service and cycle to work (subject to scheme restrictions). Following successful completion of probation, you will have access to private medical insurance for you (with the option to buy additional family cover), access to our loan car scheme for up to 2 cars for your partner or eligible family members (subject to scheme restrictions) and during our annual benefit window you can purchase critical illness cover and dental cover , so you can select the benefits that matter to you.
• We invest in our people and are passionate about driving development. Youll have access to LinkedIn Learning via our Degreed platform as well as a host of professional development programmes and opportunities to build your technical and soft skills so you can further develop your career. We also offer mentoring schemes and reciprocal partnerships recognising that we can all learn from each other in the flow of work.