Head of Collections, US

Department: Collections & Recoveries

Employment Type: Permanent

Location: Atlanta

Reporting To: Kasper Thomsen

Description

The mandateYouLend is hiring a Head of Collections, US to take ownership of collections performance across the US. The business is rapidly expanding in the market (+100% growth year on year) and as such it puts increasing emphasis on the Collections team's abilities.

This is a build role rather than a caretaker role. You will inherit a small, capable team of five agents, which has been through significant transformation over the past six months. Your job is to come in and supercharge the team, while enabling future scalability as the business grows. As such, the ideal candidate will first (1) come in and build strong hiring, onboarding, and training processes before (2) approaching advanced analytics, segmentation, contact strategy, and other tactical performance levers.

You will own the numbers outright. Cure rates, repayment speeds, cost-to-collect, and losses are yours - and you will be expected to move them. Once accounts hit collections, they are in your portfolio, and you own them.

The team

You will lead a small, agile team of five people:

• Tenure. Short. The team has mostly been replaced throughout 2026. At the same time, it has been, and will continue to, grow.
• Experience. Mixed. Some agents have years of experience, while others are working in Collections for the first time. We believe in hiring for talent and training for skill.
• Behaviours. Good. The team is dynamic and agile. They are able to adapt to changes quickly while getting the job done every day.

Where the role sits

You will report to the Global Head of Collections, who is operating out of London. Consequently, you will have a high level of autonomy to take actions, make changes, and build your own team. You will have direct contact with the General Manager of the US and be a central stakeholder in understanding and communicating credit performance.

You will work closely with Credit Risk, Finance, Capital Markets, and Technology, and you will be a significant voice in how we invest in collections tooling and automation.

What you will own:

• The metrics. Own the metrics which drive portfolio performance in the US. This includes, but is not limited to, cure rates, repayment speeds, cost-to-collect, and losses.
• The strategy. Design and continuously evolve segmentation, treatment paths, and contact strategies across the US.
• The people. Lead, develop, and upgrade your team. Maintain and develop a performance culture which attracts and retains top performers.
• The operating model. Define the structure, management layers, workflows, governance, and performance cadence the function needs to scale with the business.

What we are looking for:

Essential

• You have directly owned collections outcomes and KPIs, and can talk through the decisions behind the numbers.
• You have led a small team, where you hired and trained staff independently.
• You have a track record of developing your people and holding them accountable to high standards.
• You have been a part of a collections function which has undergone a significant transformation rather than operated in a mature machine.
• You have operated in the US market and had exposure to regulatory differences across the country.
• You are comfortable with ambiguity, rapid growth, imperfect infrastructure, and shifting priorities - ideally from a scale-up of a comparable size.
• You are proactive, act with urgency, and take extreme ownership.

Valuable

• You have had some exposure to the credit and lending domain: delinquency, defaults, recoveries, write-offs, roll rates, cure rates, and credit losses.
• You have had exposure to analytics, and are familiar with using data to make decisions.
• You have designed and evolved collections strategies, not just executed them.

Why join this role

• A real mandate. You are being hired to build and make your vision come true. The organisation and process is still rough. You have a real chance to make it your own.
• Scale ahead of you. The US is our biggest growth market and forecasted to continue growing at rapid pace. As the book grows bigger, so will the Collections team. You have a chance to be a central part of the journey.
• A serious team. You will be surrounded by high-quality people who push each other through direct feedback and aligned incentives.
• Speed over process. We have a data-driven culture with a low tolerance for red tape - only results and impact matter.

Job Benefits

• A market-competitive salary + annual bonus.
• Health Care Coverage. YouLend covers 80%; employee contribution is 20% of the premium
• Paid Time Off (PTO): 20 working days (4 weeks) + US public holidays.
• Medical Plan (medical insurance and prescription drug coverage)- Choice of 5 different plans through United Healthcare.
• Dental plan coverage.
• Vision plan coverage.
• Benefits can be for: Employee only; Employee & Spouse; Employee & Child; Employee & Family.
• Retirement - 401K match. Employee match $1 for $1 up to 5% of salary.
• Basic Life & AD&D Insurance.
• International travel insurance covered if traveling abroad for work purposes.
• An office in the heart of Atlanta.
• Paid Office Parking.