Debt Recovery Squad Lead - Commercial Energy

Job Description

As Debt Recovery Squad Lead, you will lead and develop a team of Debt Recovery Specialists responsible for managing arrears across our commercial energy customer base. You will ensure the delivery of fair, compliant and effective collections activity, balancing customer outcomes with business risk and revenue protection.

You will be accountable for team performance, quality, regulatory compliance and colleague development, embedding a culture of Treating Customers Fairly, early arrears intervention and continuous improvement. This role plays a critical part in safeguarding customer relationships while ensuring robust credit and debt management outcomes.

Customer & Industry Context

The team supports microbusinesses, SMEs and commercial customers within the UK energy market. Customers may be experiencing cashflow challenges, billing disputes, contract complexity or financial difficulty. You will operate within a highly regulated environment, ensuring adherence to Ofgem principles, internal policy and best practice collections pathways across a range of meter types, billing structures and supply configurations.

Responsibilities

Leadership & People Management

• Lead, coach and develop a team of Debt Recovery Specialists
• Set clear expectations around performance, quality and compliance
• Conduct regular one-to-ones, reviews and coaching sessions
• Foster a supportive and inclusive team culture
• Support talent development and succession planning

Performance & Delivery

• Manage team performance against KPIs including collections, quality and customer outcomes
• Use MI and insight to identify trends and improvement opportunities
• Balance cash recovery with customer retention and fair outcomes
• Promote early intervention to prevent debt escalation

Quality, Risk & Compliance

• Support escalated cases involving disputes, vulnerability and financial risk
• Work with QA to maintain standards and drive continuous improvement
• Identify and mitigate operational and regulatory risks

Operational & Cross Functional Collaboration

• Collaborate with internal teams to deliver effective customer outcomes
• Support operational change, system improvements and policy updates
• Represent Debt Recovery in wider business discussions where required

What you'll need to succeed

You are a confident, values-driven leader who balances empathy, accountability and performance. You lead by example, make sound decisions in complex situations, and promote high standards of customer service, quality and professionalism through a collaborative and supportive approach.

You'll demonstrate a strong commitment to continuous improvement by driving efficiencies, enhancing customer experience, and developing team capability. You'll also take ownership of your professional development while staying up to date with regulatory changes, industry trends, and best practices.

Essentials

Skills & Behaviours

• Strong leadership and coaching skills
• Calm, confident communicator in complex and sensitive situations
• Strong commercial awareness and sound financial judgement
• Effective decision-making and problem-solving skills
• Resilient, emotionally intelligent and results-focused
• Able to manage performance, risk and change effectively

Experience & Attributes

• Experience leading a debt recovery, collections or credit control team
• Strong understanding of performance management and quality frameworks
• Experience working in a regulated environment
• Ability to interpret data and turn insight into action
• Highly organised, proactive and accountable leader
• Strong stakeholder management skills
• Experience within utilities, energy or financial services
• Experience managing commercial or business customer debt
• Knowledge of the UK energy market, including billing, metering, contract structures as well as working with Ofgem regulations
• Exposure to vulnerability, insolvency or complex dispute handling

As part of our assessment process, we will invite shortlisted candidates to attend an in-person competency interview. These are likely to take place on 1st, 2nd, or 3rd June.

Hybrid working explained: When and where you'll be in the office

Our office is based in Chippenham, Wiltshire. For this role, we're looking for candidates who can come in to our Chippenham office once a month.

We offer both formal and informal flexible working options. Full-time hours are 37.5 per week, Monday to Friday.

The office is fully accessible, allowing everyone to participate fully in their working lives regardless of any mobility challenges. We promote work-life balance and flexibility through hybrid working, which combines both remote and office work.

Benefits you can rely on

Great allowances for hybrid working:

🏡 £500 work from home allowance - an annual allowance paid monthly alongside your salary to support with working from home costs.

🚆 £500 travel allowance - an annual allowance paid monthly alongside your salary to support with travelling to work costs.

£500 annual development allowance:

to spend on your chosen development area, whether that's in your current role, or future roles.

8% annual bonus:

company-wide bonus scheme designed to reward collective teamwork and delivery of results across the whole business.

Holiday:

25 days annual leave, a day off for your birthday, additional days leave for long service, plus bank holidays. You'll also have the option to buy additional leave, allowing for a better work-life balance.

Ethical Pension with Aviva:

Good Energy offers an ethical pension plan provided by Aviva, with employer-matched contributions up to 7.5% of your base salary.