Arrears Team Leader

Job Title: Arrears Team Leader 
Working Pattern: Monday to Friday, 09.00 - 17.00, 36.25 hours per week
Salary: £40,000 - £45,000 dependent on experience and up to 20% bonus and benefits
Location: Embrace hybrid work from our Cardiff or Durham office.

💚 Shaping the future of sustainable digital banking

Launched in 2014 as one of the UK’s original challenger banks, Tandem is proudly headquartered in the Northwest, with over 500 people working across the UK. 

People join Tandem because they want to shape something meaningful. Here, you’ll use your skills to create products that empower people to make better financial choices and lower their environmental impact. We’re big enough to drive real change, small enough for every voice to be heard, and united by a shared purpose that inspires us to move forward - together. 

Recognised in The Sunday Times Best Places to Work for 2024 and 2025, Tandem has also been named in The Sunday Times 100 Tech list for two consecutive years in 2025 and 2026 – a list of the fastest growing tech companies in Britain, reflective of our growing industry presence. Tandem was also awarded Investor in Customers’ Gold Standard based on customer and employee feedback and is a Certified™ Great Place to Work®. 

Tandem is growing fast and helping to shape the future of sustainable banking.

Your team: Collaborators in change

Tandem is proud to offer a workplace with diverse experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds which leads to a unique company culture for our people and a better experience for our customers.

The Arrears Team Leader (Outbound) will be responsible for supporting the Operations Director in leading a team of up to 10 Arrears Executives across the full arrears lifecycle for the Bank's unsecured, motor and mortgage portfolios. The team is responsible for proactively engaging with customers experiencing financial difficulty or arrears, from early-stage arrears through to late-stage collections activity, helping customers understand their available options and reach sustainable repayment solutions.

The team operates as an outbound collections function, completing high volumes of customer contact through both automated dialler technology and manual outbound calling activity. In addition to telephony activity, the team is responsible for a range of arrears-related administration tasks, including the set up and maintenance of repayment arrangements and liaising liaison with Debt Management Companies (DMCs).

Our aim is to provide exceptional service to customers experiencing financial difficulty while ensuring fair customer outcomes, successful collections performance and adherence to all regulatory requirements.

Your Impact: Building a sustainable tomorrow 

As an Arrears Team Leader at Tandem your focus will be on:

• Lead and motivate a team of Arrears Executives responsible for managing customer accounts across the full arrears lifecycle.
• Manage the day-to-day performance of an outbound collections team, ensuring dialler and manual call activity is completed effectively and customer outcomes remain at the heart of every interaction.
• Successfully coordinate outbound collections strategies and campaigns across all arrears populations.
• Ensure arrears-related administration activities are completed accurately and within agreed service levels, including repayment arrangements, direct debit amendments, customer correspondence, DMP administration, insolvency notifications and third-party requests.
• Ensure team members robustly explore the causes of financial difficulty and identify appropriate, sustainable and customer-focused forbearance solutions.
• Work collaboratively with the Specialist Support Team (SST), Recoveries, Operations Administration, Legal and third-party debt advice organisations to support customers appropriately.
• Maintain oversight of vulnerable customer interactions and ensure colleagues identify, record and respond appropriately to vulnerability indicators.
• Support the planning and management of dialler strategies, resource allocation and operational capacity to maximise collections effectiveness and customer engagement.
• Continuously review and refine operational processes, dialler strategies, customer journeys and ways of working to improve performance and customer outcomes.
• Self-identify operational risks and support with the creation and completion of associated first line controls and instil a culture of risk identification within the team.
• Self-identify and own operational risk events, robustly documenting these in our risk management system. Also support any customer remediation that may be required due to the risk event
• Ambassador for our BEST values, ensuring that our customers are at the heart of Operations
• Provide leadership motivation and support to your team including completing monthly 121’s and coaching and support on an ongoing basis for each colleague
• Providing career progression support when requested by a colleague in your team
• Support workforce planning, dialler resource management and capacity forecasting to ensure sufficient coverage across all arrears activities.
• Adhere to FCA guidelines ensuring that all work is compliant and aligned to regulatory standards
• Responsible for supporting the Training & Competence Manager with training for new and existing Arrears Executives and ongoing leadership oversight to ensure adherence to the group Training & Competency Policy
• Support the Operations leadership team with relevant management information to demonstrate the support delivered to our customers in financial difficulty /arrears (for both internal and external use with our Regulator and third parties)
• Provide support to the wider Operations teams when required

We’d love to hear from you if you have:

• Demonstrable experience leading outbound collections, arrears or financial support teams within a regulated financial services environment.
• Demonstrable knowledge of FCA rules relating to unsecured loans, hire purchase agreements and mortgages (including CONC 7 and MCOB 13)
• Experience managing outbound dialler operations and performance metrics.
• Experience overseeing customer repayment arrangements, forbearance solutions and arrears administration processes.
• Good understanding of Debt Management Plans (DMPs), insolvency solutions, vulnerability requirements and customer support frameworks.
• Strong understanding of collections strategies across the full arrears lifecycle.
• Personally driven to enhance team and individual performance
• Demonstrable communication skills including ability to provide clear, constructive feedback to direct reports alongside experience in effective coaching and training
• Demonstrable attention to detail to ensure accuracy and quality in operational tasks

Rewards that reflect your value, what’s in it for you?
 
At Tandem, your hard work is rewarded in many ways, and we have an enhanced employee benefits package on offer from your very first day with us:

• 25 days annual leave plus 8 days Bank Holiday
• An additional day off for a ‘celebration day’ including, but not limited to, birthdays, weddings, religious holidays, graduations etc
• Buy or sell up to 5 days holiday a year
• Healthcare cash plan through Westfield Health
• Life Assurance at 3 x salary
• Electric Vehicle salary sacrifice scheme
• Cycle to Work salary sacrifice scheme and