Back Office Team Leader

Collinson; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 300,000 - 450,000; Full time

Job summary

A global travel experience company is seeking a Team Leader for the Back Office to ensure performance standards are met and manage team workloads effectively. The ideal candidate will be skilled in KPI management, resource allocation, and team coaching. A commitment to customer satisfaction and continuous improvement is essential. This role offers an opportunity to grow within a high-performing culture.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage Back Office teams using effective work management principles.
• Ensure performance standards and KPIs are consistently met.
• Allocate work based on customer priorities.
• Monitor and manage individual performance.
• Contribute to process improvements.

Skills

KPI management

Performance data analysis

Resource allocation

Team coaching

Problem-solving

Customer focus

Tools

CRM platforms

Job description

Overview

Collinson is a global, privately-owned company focused on enhancing travel experiences. It serves over 400 million consumers through services in airport experiences, loyalty and customer engagement, and insurance. It operates Priority Pass, the world’s leading airport lounge and travel experience program, offering access to 1,500+ experiences across 650+ airports in 148 countries. Collinson partners with major global brands including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, British Airways, HSBC, and more. The company is known for its innovative firsts, such as launching the first global VIP lounge program and direct travel insurance sales in the UK. With a team of 1,800+ employees, Collinson is committed to social responsibility, innovation, and delivering exceptional customer experiences.

Collinson Insurance Division

Strategic acquisitions, brand rationalisations and complete re-launches in the last 18 months have marked the start of an incredibly exciting period of growth and further investment within the Insurance capability for the group. A forward-thinking, customer-centric approach, coupled with innovative insurance and assistance solutions will deliver significant growth over the coming three years. Today, we have retail, wholesale, underwriting and operational interests in the UK, mainland Europe, Australia, South Africa, Hong Kong, Singapore and the USA.

We deliver white-label or co-branded solutions for Travel, International Health and Personal Accident as well as Ancillary Motor, Home Emergency and Dental cover. Our flexible approach means that we can provide solutions from capacity only to fully-supported and fulfilled partnerships. We work with the travel trade, financial services companies, affinity groups and internet businesses across the world and we believe our innovative approach helps businesses grow.

Purpose of the job

To lead and manage Back Office team/s using effective work management principles, ensuring that behaviours consistently reflect company values. The role is accountable for delivering key outcomes by keeping performance standards, KPIs, improvement activities, and one-to-one actions on track and up to date.

The Team Leader is responsible for allocating work, managing workloads, developing team members, and overseeing both individual and team performance. This includes resource management and ensuring quality and service standards are met through active performance routines and regular discussions. The role also involves contributing to process improvements, implementing solutions, and acting as a referral point.

Key responsibilities

• Produce plans that achieve targets and meet customer requirements.
• Communicate business and team objectives to motivate and gain commitment.
• Allocate work based on customer priorities and optimal team performance.
• Actively monitor and manage individual performance to ensure targets are met.
• Implement and maintain a comprehensive set of performance measures.
• Produce and analyse management information to assess performance.
• Continuously improve business processes and team capability to enhance service and manage costs.
• Maintain quality, regulatory, and procedural documentation and standards.
• Provide coaching and feedback to team members.
• Act as a referral point for technical issues and complaints.
• Identify and implement solutions for non-compliant or inefficient processes.

Knowledge, skills and experience required

• Proven track record in maintaining accurate KPIs and metrics to inform planning and decision-making.
• Strong understanding of how performance data influences client satisfaction, stakeholder engagement, and financial outcomes.
• Skilled in developing both daily and strategic plans aligned with business targets and service standards.
• Experienced in effectively matching resources to workloads, including proactive backlog management.
• Capable of aligning work allocation with individual strengths to maximise productivity and motivation.
• Adept at communicating plans, objectives, and progress clearly to drive team alignment.
• Utilises visual tools and concise updates to foster engagement and support collaboration across teams.
• Recognises and celebrates team successes while promoting a culture of shared learning.
• Applies structured performance management through regular feedback, coaching, and development.
• Uses quality and quantity metrics to ensure team compliance and competence.
• Identifies training needs and supports development initiatives to mitigate skill gaps.
• Interprets management information to assess and enhance team and individual performance.
• Monitors operational trends to anticipate changes in workload and staffing requirements.
• Identifies inefficiencies and non-compliant processes, implementing improvements where needed.
• Champions continuous improvement in service delivery, quality standards, and internal relationships.
• Brings hands-on experience in a team leader or supervisory role
• Demonstrates strong people management and coaching capabilities, leading by example.
• Communicates effectively and builds strong interpersonal relationships.
• Applies a data-driven approach to interpret metrics and drive performance outcomes.
• Maintains a calm, customer-focused mindset with strong problem-solving skills.
• Proficient in contact centre systems e.g. CRM platforms, and reporting tools.
• Comfortable operating in hybrid and regulated environments.
• Resilient and adaptable in fast-paced, dynamic settings.

Collinson is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes differences in all their forms including: colour, race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, neurodivergence, family status, age, individuals with disabilities and people from all backgrounds, cultures and experiences as we strongly believe this contributes to our on-going success.

We are focused on continually evolving our purpose driven, high performing culture, providing an environment where our people have the opportunity to achieve their full potential and do interesting and meaningful work. Our company values are: Take Action, Do the right thing, One team and Be insight led. These help guide everything we do internally in terms of how we think, act and interact, right through to how we deliver value to our customers and clients.

In your application, please feel free to note which pronouns you use (For example - she/her/hers, he/him/his, they/them/theirs, etc).