Credit Operations Manager at Engie Africa

Job Purpose/Mission

• With EEA selling the lion’s share of its products on credit to hundreds of thousands of individual customers every year, EEA’s Customer Finance function plays a key role in the success of the business.
• The Global Customer Finance team supports all markets to manage the customer’s financial services journey and the credit cycle to deliver positive commercial outcomes and a positive customer experience. Within the Credit Operations Team of Global CF, we work on the standards, systems, tools and workflows used by our call centers, field teams and back-office teams to help support customer repayment.
• Credit Operations Managers within the Global Customer Finance department provide proactive, informed and results-oriented support to country Customer Finance departments (especially Heads of Customer Finance and Credit Operations Managers) on all areas related to achievement of targets, especially: strategic planning, performance monitoring & analysis, action plan development and implementation, adoption of EEA standard tools and processes, day to day workflow management and monitoring, operational excellence, and capacity planning and development.

Main Responsibilities:

• Operational Excellence. The role is responsible to help inform the operating practice and ensure the adequacy of processes, systems, tools and team capacity in each EEA market to execute across the credit cycle.
  • Standards, Policies & Procedures. Conceptualize, document & maintain EEA-wide Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and other core materials related to how our markets should manage credit operations routines and workflows within your area of subject matter expertise. Give material input to SOPs and standards developed by others within Global Customer Finance, or within other departments which relate to the customer journey and credit cycle.
  • Digital System & Tools. Materially support in translating Credit Operations workflows and standards to our Digital infrastructure including defining and prioritizing the business requirements for rules, features and workflows for internal mobile applications, call center tools, the account loan management system, and back-end data management platforms.
  • Training, Performance Management and Incentives. Support the translation of credit operations processes and the escalation framework into global guidelines or standards on training materials, performance benchmarks and targets, and incentive and commission structures.
  • Localization & Configuration: Provide direct support to countries to localize strategies, processes and standards related to credit operations and the escalation framework, and support in documentation of configuration requirements for technical teams.
  • Standards Adoption. Provide support in change management and adoption of new standards, tools and practices being rolled out for credit operations workflows. Support country Credit teams to act in accordance with EEA’s credit operations policies, standards and best practices.
  • Innovation. Where appropriate, lead or support in process design, piloting and scaling of new operations or workflow standards, tools, and other innovations in the credit cycle.
• Country Level Planning & Implementation
  • Action Plans: Provide direct support to EEA markets on regular action plan development, including identification and prioritization of improvement areas, evaluation of current and future capacity requirements, and planning for adoption of global standards and tools.
  • Turnaround Scenarios: Where needed, provide focused attention and support to underperforming countries in turnaround scenarios, including situation analysis, prioritization of interventions, alignment on key milestone dates and performance improvement indicators, and general implementation and tracking of progress.
  • Annual Planning: Contribute materially to the annual strategic planning process for the EEA Customer Finance department and at the country level regarding credit operations.
  • General Implementation: and implementation, especially for those markets with limited planning or execution capacity or where implementation is dependent on Global tools and systems. Ad hoc analysis or generation of tools, etc.
  • Day-to-Day Support & Troubleshooting: Provide material support, backstopping and troubleshooting both for day-to-day credit operations and change management.
• Monitoring, Analysis & Insights
  • Performance Reporting. Support the design and implementation of reporting which provides real-time, accurate views of activities across the credit cycle, and which supports credit workflow monitoring and team or individual performance management.
  • Performance Analysis. Conduct regular analysis of credit operations, driving insights for decision makers. This includes root cause analysis for underperformance, identifying opportunities for improvement in team performance and capacity, analyzing process efficiency and effectiveness, or more generally evaluating pain points and opportunities in workflows and the customer journey.
  • Compliance Monitoring
  • Best Practices and Insights. Regularly share information on better and best practices, case studies or other insights which can inform strategies.
  • Cross-Functional Service Level Monitoring. Support monitoring of cross-functional processes or services (such as the sales process, resolution of technical product issues, etc.) which impact repayment or credit operations effectiveness. Work with stakeholders to close material and persistent operational or service gaps, where identified.
  • Ad Hoc Research & Analysis. In partnership with Country teams and global departments, support and in some cases lead ad-hoc or ongoing research & analysis related to credit operations, the customer journey in the credit cycle, and team member performance and or user experience. Analyze or incorporate broader market and industry data, insights and benchmarks as appropriate.
• Fostering Credit Leadership & Culture
  • Credit Culture. Foster a strong credit culture and understanding of credit principles in the organization, particularly through training and capacity development, use of case studies, and facilitation of Credit Circles, workshops and other forums.
  • Leading Leaders. Recognize, empower, mentor, challenge and encourage country leaders and managers in areas related to credit strategy and credit operations. Share your knowledge, encourage innovation, and give meaningful feedback. Apply a growth mindset and cultivate the same in credit leaders and managers in country.
  • General Capacity Development. Directly support capacity development areas for global and country teams on credit operations topics, including (where requested) direct support on recruitment & onboarding and general support on development of training standards for specific Credit Operations standards and in general for credit topics covered within MySol Academy
• Cross-Functional Stakeholder Management
  • Stakeholder & Relationship Management. Create and maintain positive working relationships with internal stakeholders within country and global teams, with open and effective lines of communication, and strong empathy for our internal customers. Support our regular forums of country support calls, workshops and the Credit Circle, regular forums with global departments as needed.
  • Internal Advocacy. Represent the Customer Finance’s credit operations perspective vis-à-vis Digital, Data, Finance, Sales and/or other Group functions and/or third parties and partners. Advocate for support of Credit Operations priorities across global departments as needed.

Skills

Experience :

• 5+ years of professional experience in a related field; work experience in Sub-Saharan Africa in the off-grid energy sector is a plus.
• 3+ years of domain experience in credit-related project management, credit operations, other data-smart lending operations based on commercial principles; exposure to individual micro lending technology is a plus.
• Can-do attitude, with a knack for problem solving and tackling big challenges that require both team collaboration and individual perseverance.
• Strong analytical and presentation skills; ability to combine hard data and observations on operational realities and translate into actionable insights.
• High level of professional curiosity; high level of interest in how to make processes and systems work to their best level and an aptitude to investigate and crosscheck information before acting on it.
• Strong and confident communicator who is equally capable of asking for support and guidance as well as sharing feedback, information, and knowledge with others.
• Detail-oriented, with an ability to help others check their work and maintain a high level of quality.
• Empathy and stamina in collaboration with a broad range of stakeholders including customers, customer-facing teams, leaders and managers across various business functions and units, and across a variety of cultural contexts.
• Familiarity with the nature of our customer base and the challenges faced by our customer-facing teams.

Qualifications :

• University degree required. Degree in business, engineering, economics, finance, microfinance or a related subject is desired.
• Certification in a relevant topic (e.g. project management; process mapping/ optimization; Six Sigma, microfinance or credit management, SQL, data visualization) is a plus.