Credit Operations Manager

Credit Operations Manager

About ENGIE Energy Access

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 Credit Operations Manager provides proactive, informed, and results-oriented support to country Customer Finance departments (specifically Heads of Customer Finance and Credit Operations Managers) on all areas related to achievement of Customer Finance and Credit Operations targets, including 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.

Key Responsibilities

Operational Excellence in Credit Operations. The role is responsible for informing the operating practice and ensuring 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 Credit Operations workflow documents.
• Digital System & Tools. Materially support the translation of Credit Operations workflows and standards into Digital development specifications for internal mobile applications, call center tools, the loan management system, and back-end data management platforms.
• Localization & Configuration. Provide direct support to countries in the localization of strategies, processes, and standards related to credit operations.
• Standards Adoption. Provide direct support in change management and for the adoption of standards, tools, and practices related to credit operations workflows as they are rolled out.
• Training, Performance Management, and Incentives. Support the translation of credit operations processes and the escalation framework into global standards.
• Innovation. Where appropriate, lead or support in process design, piloting, and scaling of workflows, tools, and other credit cycle innovations.

Country Level Planning & Implementation

• Annual Planning. Contribute materially to the annual strategic CF planning process and at the country level regarding credit operations.
• Action Plans. Provide direct support to EEA markets on regular action plan development to drive achieving 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, especially for those markets with limited planning or execution capacity or where implementation depends on CF Global tools and systems.
• Day-to-Day Support & Troubleshooting. Provide material support, backstopping, and troubleshooting for day-to-day credit operations and change management.

Monitoring, Analysis & Insights

• Performance Reporting. Design credit operations reports and dashboards for real-time, accurate KPI tracking across the credit cycle.
• Performance Analysis. Conduct regular analysis of credit operations and drive insights for decision-makers. This includes root cause analysis for underperformance, identifying opportunities for improvement in team performance, analyzing process efficiency and effectiveness, or more generally evaluating opportunities in the customer journey.
• Best Practices and Insights. Regularly share information and work with country teams to capture and document better and best practices, case studies, or other insights.
• Compliance. Work with credit stakeholders to ensure compliance and quality assurance routines and reporting are in place for core activities.
• Cross-Functional Service Level Monitoring. Support monitoring of cross-functional processes or services and agree on service level standards and escalations. Work with stakeholders to close material operational or service gaps where identified.
• Ad Hoc Research & Analysis. Support ad-hoc or ongoing research and analysis related to credit operations across the credit cycle.

Fostering Credit Culture

• Credit Culture. Foster a strong credit culture and understanding of credit principles in the organization, particularly through training, facilitation, and capacity development.
• Leading Leaders. Recognize, empower, mentor, challenge, and encourage country leaders and managers in areas related to credit operations. Apply a growth mindset and cultivate the same in credit leaders and managers in-country.
• General Capacity Development. Directly support capacity development on credit operations topics, e.g., through recruitment, onboarding, and training.

Cross-Functional 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 Credit Operations Lead, represent CF’s credit operations perspective vis-à-vis other Group functions.

Qualifications and Skills

Experience:

• 5+ years of professional experience in credit operations, portfolio management, or 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 or 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 them into actionable guidance.
• High level of professional curiosity and interest in how to make processes and systems work to their best, 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 support your colleagues maintain high quality of their work.
• Empathy and stamina in collaboration with a broad range of stakeholders including customers, customer-facing teams, leaders, and managers 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; 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 is a plus
• Experience in financial product development and/or in the development of digital and mobile tools for usage by call centers or field-based teams is a plus
• Ability to develop SQL queries and/or experience with 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!