Head of Retail Credit

Lesley Snyman and associates CC; Centurion; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Job summary

Lesley Snyman and associates CC, located in Centurion, South Africa, seeks a leader for the credit and collections function. This role focuses on ensuring profitable lending growth, disciplined risk management, and protecting loan quality while enhancing operational efficiency.

The candidate must have at least 8 years of experience in senior leadership roles within retail banking, with a strong background in consumer credit management and compliance with South African legislation.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of senior leadership experience within retail banking or financial services.
• Proven experience in retail credit management.
• Strong understanding of consumer credit risk and lending controls.

Responsibilities

• Lead the credit granting and approval processes for member lending.
• Own and review credit policy and lending controls.
• Manage and improve loan book quality and credit loss ratios.
• Drive portfolio performance and oversee collections.
• Ensure NCR compliance and manage relationships with credit bureaus.

Skills

Credit risk management

Retail banking experience

Team management

Credit policy development

NCA compliance knowledge

Education

CA(SA) registered with SAICA

Job description

Lead the full credit and collections function across the business, ensuring profitable lending growth, disciplined risk management and strong recovery performance. This role is responsible for protecting loan quality while improving operational efficiency and customer outcomes.

Minimum Requirements and Qualifications:

• CA(SA) registered with SAICA
• 8+ years senior leadership experience within retail banking, consumer finance or financial services
• Proven experience in retail credit management: vehicle finance, personal loans, unsecured and secured lending to individuals (not corporate or commercial banking)
• Strong understanding of consumer credit risk, credit scoring, affordability frameworks and lending controls
• Demonstrated experience in credit policy development and delegation of authority frameworks
• Knowledge of the National Credit Act (NCA), NCR compliance and South African consumer credit legislation
• Proven track record of managing and developing teams

Key Performance Areas:

• Lead end-to-end credit granting and approval processes for individual member lending
• Own credit policy, scorecards, affordability models and lending controls — including regular review and governance sign-off
• Manage and improve loan book quality: monitor credit loss ratios, NPL levels, bad debt exposure and provisioning
• Drive portfolio performance: balance growth targets with risk appetite and credit quality outcomes
• Oversee arrears management and collections performance (supporting function)
• Manage outsourced credit bureau relationships and scoring model vendors
• Ensure NCR regulatory compliance and sound governance practices across all lending activity
• Oversee divisional budgets, forecasts and cost control
• Improve credit processes through systems, automation and workflow optimisation
• Build and maintain strong relationships with employer partners and internal stakeholders
• Lead, develop and performance-manage a team