Collections Specialist

Are you someone who enjoys helping people find practical solutions while delivering a great customer experience?

As a Collections Specialist, you'll play a key role in supporting customers who may be experiencing financial difficulties. Through meaningful conversations, active listening, and a tailored approach, you'll help customers understand their options and agree realistic repayment solutions. Working in a supportive, collaborative environment, you'll balance customer needs, client requirements, and regulatory standards to achieve fair outcomes.

This is a hybrid role based from our Newcastle office at Quorum Business Park two days per week with the rest working from home. Working patterns operate between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday, and 8am to 4pm on Saturdays, with time off in lieu for weekend working.

What you'll be doing

• Managing inbound and outbound customer communications relating to outstanding debt across phone, email and digital channels.
• Taking ownership of customer accounts, progressing cases through to resolution and ensuring accurate record keeping.
• Understanding customers' financial circumstances through effective questioning, active listening and affordability assessments.
• Identifying vulnerability, providing appropriate support and applying suitable forbearance options where required.
• Agreeing realistic and sustainable repayment arrangements that deliver positive customer outcomes.
• Maintaining compliance with regulatory requirements, company policies, quality standards and complaint handling procedures.

What you'll bring

• Strong listening, questioning and negotiation skills with the ability to manage sensitive conversations professionally.
• Experience building rapport with customers and delivering excellent customer service.
• Ability to understand individual customer circumstances and make informed decisions to support positive outcomes.
• Strong problem-solving skills, attention to detail and accurate data entry abilities.
• Good organisational skills with the ability to manage workloads and customer accounts effectively.
• Confidence using multiple systems, including customer account, contact centre and CRM platforms.

It would be great if you had

• Experience within a debt collection or customer care environment.
• Experience within mortgage or utility collections.
• Awareness of data protection, customer confidentiality and regulated customer treatment.

If you’re interested in this role but not sure if your skills and experience are exactly what we’re looking for, please do apply, we’d love to hear from you!

Employment Type: Full-time, Permanent.

Location: Hybrid, Newcastle (Quorum Business Park) with 2 days per week in the office.

Security Clearance Level: SC.

Internal Recruiter: Becky.

Salary: Up to £27,000 per annum depending on experience.

Benefits: 25 days annual leave with the choice to buy additional days, health cash plan, life assurance, and pension.

Loved reading about this job and want to know more about the sector?

Founded in 2021, Sopra Steria Financial Services is redefining what’s possible for public and private sector organisations across the UK. Our team delivers cutting-edge IT support and consultancy to leading banks, energises customer experiences for the nation’s largest savings bank through advanced contact centre services, and empowers organisations to recover outstanding debt with smart, data-driven strategies. Every solution we create is driven by a spirit of innovation and a commitment to putting our clients and their customers at the centre of every decision. We’re not just supporting businesses, we’re shaping the future of financial services with integrity, creativity and a relentless focus on doing what’s right.

We embrace difference as a source of creativity, innovation and competitive advantage and are striving to become a more diverse organisation. We welcome applications from people with a diverse variety of backgrounds and identities. We are committed to equality of opportunity for all and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation or marital status. We have partnered with Vercida, the UK's largest diversity and inclusion focused careers site, where all our vacancies are available in an accessible format.

If you require any adjustments to the recruitment process, to enable you to perform to the best of your ability, please let us know when completing your application. We participate in the Disability Confident scheme and are committed to offering an interview to any candidate with a disability, who meets the minimum criteria for the role. If you believe this could apply to you, please let us know when completing your application.