Head of Collections

About Marshmallow

We started Marshmallow when we found out how unfair insurance prices are for people who move to the UK. All because the industry hasn’t given this huge cohort of people a second’s thought, and isn’t set up to price them properly. 

We saw an opportunity to do things differently, so we made it our mission to back the ones who step outside the norm. Since we started, we’ve helped 100,000s of people get a fairer deal on their car insurance. Using technology, we serve people that are often overlooked by financial services companies, solving important problems for people who need it most. 

We know there are millions of marginalised customers out there. And we know that they face unique problems that most companies aren’t even aware of. We believe that our future is helping these people by learning about their experiences, and building our company around their needs. And there are strong signs that there’s a need for a company like us. Earlier this year we hit profitability, which is a huge milestone, but the most exciting thing is that we’re only just getting started.

How we work

We’re really proud of the culture we’ve created. We push for progress every day, because we know that we’ll only hit big milestones by taking lots of smaller steps. We’re always open to helping our team mates, sharing our ideas, experience and knowledge to solve problems together. We take risks, think creatively and experiment relentlessly to meet our customer’s needs, and never pass blame when things go wrong. We encourage people at all levels to take ownership of their work, and to be bold in challenging how we do things. Everyone has a voice and the opportunity to make an impact. 

And autonomy and ownership are only possible with clear direction. That’s why we collaborate to do in-depth planning twice a year, and make sure we leave with clear goals and objectives that flow from top to bottom. To make sure we’re as aligned as possible across functions, most of our work rolls up into four tribes; Acquisition, Retention, Claims and Pricing, Underwriting & Fraud. Each tribe has multiple teams embedded in it, working cross-functionally to do great work.

We’re so excited for all of the challenges up ahead, and we need more people to help us tackle them! If life at Marshmallow sounds like it could be for you, explore our culture handbook or read our blog to find out more.

Role Summary 

This role will be responsible for leading our rapidly scaling collections function, supporting Marshmallow’s growth in the car insurance sector and our exciting plans going forward. This role focuses on developing a best-in-class collections strategy, ensuring regulatory compliance, and optimising processes to enhance customer satisfaction and financial performance. The successful candidate will demonstrate experience in high-growth environments, exceptional leadership skills, and a strong understanding of financial and regulatory requirements specific to car insurance and finance.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Develop and implement a strategic vision for the collections department that aligns with company objectives, ensuring the effective and scalable management of collections processes.

• Optimise workflows, technology, and automation within the collections function to increase efficiency and reduce manual interventions.

  • Analyze and enhance the process for supporting customers who have missed payments (around 25k customers monthly).

  • Review and refine the approach for reminding customers with outstanding balances.

  • Assess and improve the operational approach for managing aged debt, including follow-up and other resolution strategies.

• Assess the skills, culture and seniority of the teams and recommend org changes

• Support data led initiatives to improve the reporting of debt and collections performance.

• Ensure collections processes adhere to all regulatory obligations, proactively managing risks and addressing compliance issues.

• Collaborate with senior leadership to establish collections goals and performance metrics, driving initiatives to reduce delinquency rates, minimise losses, and optimise recovery

• Work closely with Product, Customer Service, and Finance teams to ensure an integrated approach to collections.

What we're looking for from you

• 7+ years of operational experience supporting arrears or collections in an FCA regulated environment

• Led the development and implementation of 'best in class' collections processes within a high-growth, scale-up environment, ensuring full regulatory compliance and alignment with industry standards to drive operational excellence and scalability.

• You have a proven ability to work strategically but are also able to get deep into the detail

• Innovative and bold; you’re excited by Marshmallow’s plans to disrupt the insurance industry for the better

• Solutions driven; you have high expectations and hold yourself accountable for delivering a world-class customer experience

• Outcome-focused; you want to maximise impact through implementing a tech-driven approach

• You enjoy problem-solving and creating innovative solutions to complex problems

• You empower your direct and indirect reports to work autonomously, promoting an environment of progression and inclusive change

Our Process

We break it up into 3 stages:

• Initial call with our Talent Acquisition team (30 mins)

• A skill-based interview where you will discuss your previous experience and how you would approach the responsibilities of this role, (1 hour)

• A culture interview to check that your work style fits our processes and values (1 hour)

• A final interview with a senior leader at Marshmallow discussing the long term view of the role and cultural alignment (1 hour)

We’ll let you know if you’re invited to an interview or not. But, as a small team with a lot of applications to consider, we can’t give personal feedback on each application.

Perks of the job

• Flexible working - Spend 1-2 days a week in our new collaborative London office, and own your own working hours. The rest is up to you  *If this arrangement doesn’t work, don’t let it hold you back. We’re always open to making reasonable adjustments if this is a barrier to you in any way. Let us know and we’ll talk about our options

• Competitive bonus scheme - designed to reward and recognise high performance 🌟

• Flexible benefits budget - £50 per month to spend on a Ben Mastercard meaning you get your own benefits budget to spend on things you want. Whether that’s subscriptions, night classes (puppy yoga, anyone?), the big shop or a forest of houseplants. Pretty much anything goes 💰

• Mental wellbeing support – Access therapy and mental health sessions through Oliva 💚

• Learning and development – Personal budgets for books and training courses to help you grow in your role. Plus 2 days a year - on us! - to further your skillset 🤓

• Private health care - Enjoy all the benefits Vitality has to offer, including reduced gym memberships and discounts on smartwatches 🏥

• Medical cash plan - To help you with the costs of dental, optical and physio (plus more!)

• Tech scheme - Get the latest tech for less 🖥

Plus all the rest; 33 days holiday (including bank holidays), pension, cycle-to-work scheme, monthly team socials and company-wide socials every month!

Background checks

To meet our regulatory obligations as an FCA-authorised financial services company, we need to do some background checks on all new hires. That means carrying out a DBS check and making sure you don't have any live criminal proceedings. Feel free to ask our Talent Acquisition team if you have any questions about this!

Everyone belongs at Marshmallow

At Marshmallow, we want to hire people from all walks of life with the passion and skills needed to help us achieve our company mission. To do that, we're committed to hiring without judgement, prejudice or bias.

We encourage everyone to apply for our open roles. Gender identity, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age or background does not affect how we process job applications.

We're working hard to build an inclusive culture that empowers our people to do their best work, have fun and feel that they belong.

Recruitment privacy policy

We take privacy seriously here at Marshmallow. Our Recruitment privacy notice explains how we process and handle your personal data. To find out more please view it here.