Head - Collection Strategy

Key Responsibilities:

Strategy and policy:

- Define and own the collection strategy and policy for every product, bucket (pre-due, 1 - 30, 31 - 60, 61 - 90, 90+ DPD) and customer segment.

- Design treatment paths by risk segment: who gets a digital nudge, a call, a field visit, a restructure offer or legal action, and when.

- Set settlement, waiver and restructuring frameworks with clear delegation of authority and loss limits.

- Work with Credit and Product to feed collection learnings back into underwriting, limits, pricing, and repayment design.

Analytics and decisioning:

- Build and maintain collection scorecards, propensity-to-pay and roll-rate models with the data science team.

- Run champion - challenger tests on channels, scripts, timing and offers; scale what lifts cure rates.

- Set up early-warning signals from bureau, bank-statement, and app-behavior data to act before a customer misses a payment.

- Forecast collections, roll rates, and credit losses for the business plan and monthly reviews.

Digital and channel operations:

- Own the digital-first stack: SMS, WhatsApp, IVR, email, push, payment links, UPI Autopay and e-NACH re-presentation.

- Drive adoption of AI voice bots, conversational agents, and dialer optimization to cut cost per rupee collected.

- Oversee in-house tele-calling and field teams, plus onboarding, allocation, pay-outs, and audits of external collection agencies.

- Manage capacity planning, allocation logic and productivity standards across channels.

Compliance and customer conduct:

- Keep all collection activity compliant with RBI digital lending rules, the Fair Practices Code, and recovery-agent guidelines (calling hours, no harassment, disclosure of agent details to borrowers).

- Enforce agent training and certification, call recording and quality audits, and a zero-tolerance policy on abusive practices.

- Ensure accurate and timely credit bureau reporting and correct handling of disputes and grievances.

- Coordinate with partner banks and NBFCs on co-lending and default-loss-guarantee portfolios, including their reporting needs.

Legal and late-stage recovery:

- Run the legal recovery strategy: notices, arbitration, conciliation, Lok Adalat and Section 138 cases where applicable.

- Own write-off, post-write-off recovery, and portfolio-sale decisions with Finance.

Leadership:

- Build and lead a high-performing team across strategy, analytics, and operations; hire, coach and set goals.

- Present portfolio health and collection performance to the leadership team, board risk committee and lending partners.

Qualifications and experience:

- 12 - 15 years in retail lending, with at least 5 years leading collection strategy or operations at a fintech, NBFC or bank.

- Hands-on experience with high-volume, small-ticket unsecured portfolios (personal loans, BNPL, credit cards or consumer durables).

- Proven record of reducing roll rates and credit losses through segmented, data-led strategies.

- Experience running agency networks and in-house tele and field teams at scale.

- Strong working knowledge of RBI regulations on digital lending, fair practices, and recovery agents.

- Graduate degree; MBA, CA or a postgraduate degree in statistics, economics or engineering preferred.