Head of Credit Operations

Job Title: Head of Credit Operations 

Department: Global Customer Finance 

Reporting Line: Head of Customer Finance 

Location: Any EEA country of operation or Berlin (Germany) 

This position involves an estimated 30% to 40% business travel to other EEA countries of operation as well as occasional travel for department or functional workshops or representation of ENGIE Energy Access 

About ENGIE Energy Access (EEA) 

ENGIE Energy Access is a leading Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGo) and mini-grid solutions provider in Africa. The company develops innovative, off-grid solar solutions for homes, public services, and businesses, enabling customers and distribution partners access to clean, affordable energy. The PAYGO solar home systems are financed through affordable instalments from $0.19 per day and the mini grids foster economic development by enabling electrical productive use and triggering business opportunities for entrepreneurs in rural communities. With over 1,800 employees, operations in nine countries across Africa (Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia), over 2.5 million customers and more than 12 million lives impacted so far, ENGIE Energy Access aims to impact 30 million lives across Africa by 2030. 

Job Overview 

With EEA selling 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 function supports EEA’s operating entities on credit product design, workflow enhancement guidance, portfolio management tools and capacity building. 

Within the Credit Operations Team of the Global Customer Finance function, we work on operational standards, workflows, systems and tools for EEA’s dedicated call centers, field teams and back-office teams to help support customer repayment. 

The Head of Credit Operations is a senior manager in EEA’s Global Customer Finance department. She/ he has an integral role in advancing EEA’s CF function through her/ his responsibility for EEA's financial services strategy and the development and management of related credit operations as well as for motivating and managing a team of dedicated professionals. Beyond, and in close co-operation with the Country Directors, senior managers of the Commercial and Digital functions and the Head of Customer Finance, she/ he is responsible for providing leadership, spirit and skills necessary for EEA’s CF operations teams in general, and Country Heads of CF in particular, to achieve their respective targets across the business.

The Head of Credit Operations and her/ his team focus on achieving both effectiveness (in terms of management of timely repayment) and efficiency (in terms of overall ROI of credit operations activities) of EEA’s credit operations across markets. The role is responsible for the deployment of adequate credit operations policies, procedures, guidelines, monitoring and reporting as well as general operational practice, case-specific action plans, team capability and capacity development within and bordering the Customer Finance function, to deliver results. 

Key Responsibilities

Credit Operations: Framework, Strategy and Standards. In alignment with the Head of Customer Finance enhance EEA's business case through an innovative, effective, robust, and customer-centric best-practice Credit Operations Framework and drive its implementation to deliver results:

Credit Operations Framework. Develop and continuously refine EEA's Credit Operations Framework along the principles of commercial viability, subsidiarity, customer centricity, rule-based decision-making, and data-smart digitized workflows.

Credit Operations Ownership. Own EEA’s Credit Operations Framework for implementation across the business. Financial Services Strategy. Drive the process of designing, implementing, scaling, managing and continuously innovating EEA's Financial Services Strategy (PAYGo plans, arrears-type loans, education loans, cash loans, insurance, etc.) Credit Operations Strategy. Drive the process of designing, implementing, and managing cohesive multi-stage Credit Operations strategies to be applied across the business. Policies, Standards & Procedures. As process owner conceptualize, document & maintain EEA-wide Credit Operations Policies, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and other core materials in the form of a Credit Operations Handbook. Analytical Foundation. Substantiate EEA's Financial Services Strategy and its Credit Operations Strategy implementation through appropriate analytical foundation. -Credit Operations: Operational Excellence & Cross-Functional Agenda. In alignment with the Head of CF drive credit operations practice along the steps of the credit cycle:

Credit Operations Practice & Execution Support. Build, manage and iterate industry-leading credit operations across all markets guided by the credit cycle, including the structure, framework, policies, systems, routines, and tools which enable Country teams to execute on agreed objectives, as well as related on-the-ground execution support. 

Cross-Functional Agenda:

Financial Product Specs. Provide material support to Country teams in areas such as financial product design, pilot and commercial launch, policy and process, partnership management, performance review as well as customer-facing and back-end operations. Digital System Specs & Tools. Lead the CF team in translating credit operations workflow and standards into Digital infrastructure specs.

Service Level Monitoring. Identify cross-functional dependencies and agree on internal service level standards and escalation paths.

Commission Systems. Translate credit operations results into global guidance on training materials, performance targets, and commission systems. 

Localization & Configuration. Provide oversight and strategic guidance to countries in their localization strategies, processes and standards related to credit operations. 

Adoption of Standards. Provide leadership and direction for change management and adoption of standards, tools, and practices on credit operations as they are rolled out.

Performance Reporting. Guide the framework of credit operations analysis and dashboards for real-time, accurate views of activities and their results across the credit cycle. 

Deliver Against Targets. Take responsibility for and manage EEA’s Credit Operations on a commercial basis against agreed budget and targets including comprehensive, specific, and timely KPI reporting. 

Country Level Engagement 

Annual Planning. Contribute materially to the annual strategic CF planning process.

Action Plans. Provide direct support and guidance to EEA markets on regular action plan development to drive achievement of credit targets of the business.

Turnaround Scenarios. Where needed, provide focused attention and support to underperforming countries in turnaround scenarios related to credit performance. 

General Implementation & Support. Provide direct support and coordination of Global Customer Finance resources for implementation of action plans and day-to-day support.

One Team Development 

Manage Direct Reports. Directly manage, coach, and develop a high-performing, motivated Credit Operations team (currently comprising six FTE). 

Country Capacity, Roles & Organizational Structure. Work closely with country teams to define the organizational structure, roles, responsibilities, and capacity needed for their Credit Operations function. 

Credit Culture. Foster a strong, customer-centric credit culture across the operation built on credit risk awareness and understanding of credit principles. 

Capability Development & Training. Directly support capability development areas for global and country teams on credit operations topics. 

Active Participation in Cross-Functional Global Strategy & Governance, including: 

Monthly & quarterly business performance review 

Annual planning & budgeting & target setting for CF country operations 

Product strategy, Customer Journey, Go to Market Strategy, Digital Roadmap 

Internal & External Stakeholder Management 

Internal Stakeholder & Relationship Management. Create and maintain positive working relationships with internal stakeholders within country and global teams, effective lines of communication, and strong empathy for our internal customers.

Internal Advocacy. In alignment with the Head of Customer Finance, represent CF’s credit operations perspective vis-à-vis other Group functions and/ or third parties and partners. 

Industry Engagement & Partnerships. Represent EEA’s credit operations and financial services expertise within the industry, including our partnerships in research. 

At EEA, we have high expectations for our managers. Each manager plays a key role in creating an exceptional experience not only for our customers but for every person on our team. Our managers help EEA realize our ambitious goals while developing their own leadership skills and facilitating growth for their direct reports. 

We believe that great managers: 

Deliver ambitious results: as a high-performing and accountable leader, you create an enabling environment for effective action and bold decisions which contribute to successful delivery of results. 

Act with integrity: as an ethical leader you are honest, respectful, objective, and transparent. You create and build upon a foundation of trust and openness. 

Inspire and mentor the team: as an inspirational leader you walk the talk. You empower and coach your team with trust and humility. 

Are accessible: as an accessible leader, you develop and maintain deep connections with stakeholders through approachability and active listening.

Ensure diversity and inclusion: as an inclusive leader, you ensure diversity and foster a sense of belonging. 

Qualifications and skills 

Experience: 

12+ years of professional experience in credit operations and portfolio management; work experience in Sub-Saharan Africa in the off-grid energy sector is a plus 

8+ years of domain experience in credit or consumer finance operations or other data-smart lending operations based on commercial principles; exposure to individual micro lending technology and experience in data-driven and digital financial services is a plus 

Relevant experience in leading multi-cultural, decentral teams 

Proven ability and agility to perform in a VUCA environment 

Senior profile with commercial acumen and a can-do-attitude combining output orientation, number orientation, process orientation, customer orientation and team orientation 

High level of professional curiosity; elevated level of interest in how to make processes work to their best and an aptitude to investigate and crosscheck information before acting on it 

Strong analytical and presentation skills; ability to combine hard data and observations on operational realities and translate into actionable guidance 

Strong and confident communicator who is adept at cross-functional collaboration, sharing feedback, information, and knowledge with others when joint solutions are required 

Empathy and stamina in collaboration with a broad range of stakeholders including customers and customer-facing teams across the business and its cultural contexts 

Familiarity with the characteristics of our customer base and the challenges faced by our customer-facing teams 

Qualifications: 

University degree required; master's degree in economics, agricultural economics, development economics, business, finance, microfinance, or a related subject is desired 

Certification in a relevant topic (e.g. project management; process mapping; Six Sigma; microfinance or portfolio management) is a plus. 

Language(s): 

English written and spoken fluency required 

French, Swahili, or Portuguese is a plus 

Technology: 

Proficiency with standard Microsoft Office software packages is required 

Experience with Tableau or other data visualization tools and approaches are a plus 

Ability to develop SQL queries and/ or experience with other statistics packages is a plus 

ENGIE is an equal opportunity employer, promoting diversity and committed to creating an inclusive environment for all. All applications are screened based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without any regard to origin, age, name, sexual identity, orientation or preference, religion, marital status, health, disability, political opinions, union involvement or citizenship. Our differences are our strengths 

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