Collections & Recoveries Strategy Manager

ABOUT KOHO We’re on a mission to make financial services better for every Canadian. That means no hidden fees, no predatory interest rates - just financial products designed to help our users spend smart, save more, and build real wealth. We’re a performance organization with a strong heart: we care deeply about outcomes, and everything ties back to our mission - to financially empower a generation of Canadians. At KOHO, we’re not your average 9-5. We believe real impact comes from people who are trusted, empowered, and supported to do their best work - without sacrificing their lives to do it. We prioritize work-life integration, not just work-life balance. That means asynchronous collaboration, flexible hours, and a remote-first setup built around autonomy and high trust. KOHO is entering its next chapter - leaner, smarter, more AI-integrated. We’re building for impact, not bureaucracy. If you thrive in environments that value clarity, ownership, and bold thinking, you’ll fit right in. ABOUT THE ROLE KOHO is looking for a Collections & Recoveries Strategy Manager to build and own our collections function from the ground up. This is a rare opportunity to design a collections program at a company transitioning to a full-service bank — one where you'll set the strategy, define the operating model, and directly influence how we treat customers at their most financially vulnerable moments. You will be responsible for the end-to-end collections and recoveries strategy across KOHO's lending portfolio: from early-stage delinquency intervention through to post-charge-off recovery and customer rehabilitation. You'll work closely with Operations, Product, and our BPO partners to design contact strategies, payment programs, and customer-first recovery experiences that reduce losses while treating customers with dignity and respect. You'll also own the strategy for bringing customers back to KOHO after a default — turning what could be a permanent exit into a pathway back to financial health. This role sits at the intersection of analytics, operations, and strategy. The right person is comfortable in the data, decisive under ambiguity, and motivated by the idea that collections done well is a form of customer care.     WHAT YOU'LL BE DOING Delinquency & Loss Analytics - Own the monitoring and analysis of KOHO's delinquency and loss trends across all lending products — roll rates, cure rates, vintage performance, and charge-off trajectories - Build and maintain dashboards and reporting frameworks that give leadership real-time visibility into portfolio health and collections performance - Identify early warning signals of credit deterioration and propose proactive intervention strategies - Define and track the KPIs that matter: right-party contact rate, promise-to-pay rate, promise-to-pay kept rate, gross collections rate by delinquency stage, cost-per-dollar-collected, and post-charge-off recovery rates Contact Strategy & Customer Engagement - Design and continuously optimize KOHO's contact strategy across the full delinquency lifecycle — including when to reach out, through which channels (chat, email, push, SMS, voice), with what messaging, and at what frequency - Develop customer segmentation models to tailor treatment strategies based on delinquency stage, customer risk profile, payment behaviour history, and responsiveness - Partner with Product and Engineering to build or enhance in-app and digital nudges that encourage repayment before accounts reach critical delinquency stages - Ensure all contact strategies comply with applicable regulations, including FCAC guidelines on debt collection conduct and OSFI expectations for a federally regulated lender Payment Programs & Settlement Design - Design payment arrangement programs — including hardship plans, instalment options, fee suppression, and settlement / partial forgiveness offers — that balance loss reduction with customer relief - Define eligibility criteria, discount waterfall frameworks, and authorization protocols for settlement offers - Evaluate and test the financial trade-offs of different recovery programs against a modelled "do nothing" baseline - Build and refine financial models to assess the value of collections treatments, cure probability by segment, and expected recovery rates at each delinquency stage BPO & Operations Partnership - Lead the strategy of KOHO's third-party collections partners (BPOs), including defining scope of engagement by delinquency stage, channel coverage (chat, dialling), performance standards, and escalation frameworks - Work with Operations to develop performance scorecards for BPO partners and participate in regular reviews to assess quality, compliance, and outcomes - Work with Operations to design the internal vs. external collections model — determining which segments to manage in-house and when/how to place accounts with external agencies Post-Charge-Off Recovery & Customer Rehabilitation - Develop the strategy for post-charge-off debt recovery, including internal recovery, third-party debt placement, and debt sale decisions - Design the customer rehabilitation (win-back) program — defining the criteria and pathway for customers who have previously defaulted to re-engage with KOHO's products, and the risk controls required to manage that re-entry - Build models to assess the long-term value of rehabilitated customers relative to the cost and risk of re-onboarding them - Collaborate with Credit Strategy on the policy framework for re-qualifying defaulted customers for new credit products     WHAT YOU BRING Required - 3–5+ years of experience in collections strategy, recoveries, or credit risk management at a consumer lender, bank, fintech, or credit card company - Deep knowledge of the consumer collections lifecycle — from early delinquency through charge-off, third-party placement, and recovery - Hands-on experience designing contact strategies, payment arrangement programs, and/or settlement frameworks - Experience working with BPO vendors, including setting performance standards - Strong analytical skills — comfortable building financial models, cohort analyses, and cost-benefit frameworks; SQL proficiency is highly valued - Familiarity with Canadian consumer protection and debt collection regulations - Excellent communication skills; able to translate analytical findings into operational recommendations and present to senior leadership Nice to Have - Experience at a company building a collections function from scratch or in a high-growth / early-stage environment - Familiarity with digital-first collections channels (in-app, chat, push) as a primary contact mechanism — rather than traditional dialling-first models - Background in IFRS 9 provisioning and how collections performance feeds into credit loss modelling - Experience designing customer hardship or financial wellness programs, particularly within a mandate of treating customers fairlyThe budgeted salary range for this role is $110,000 - 170,000 CAD / year. At KOHO, we are dedicated to providing pay transparency to all candidates. Compensation at KOHO is determined through various factors including but not limited to: comparable salary market data within Canada, technical skill assessment, a holistic view of previous work history, and internal pay equity with other KOHO team members. Description de poste en français KOHO est à la recherche d’un Stratégie de Recouvrement Gestionnaire, pour bâtir et piloter notre fonction de recouvrement à partir de zéro. Il s’agit d’une occasion rare de concevoir un programme de recouvrement au sein d’une entreprise en pleine transition pour devenir une banque de services complets — un poste où vous définirez la stratégie, établirez le modèle opérationnel et influencerez directement la façon dont nous traitons nos clients dans leurs moments de plus grande vulnérabilité financière. Vous serez responsable de la stratégie de recouvrement de bout en bout pour l’ensemble du portefeuille de prêts de KOHO : de l’intervention précoce en cas de retard de paiement jusqu’au recouvrement après passage en pertes et à la réhabilitation des clients. Vous travaillerez en étroite collaboration avec les équipes des opérations, des produits et nos partenaires d’externalisation (BPO) pour concevoir des stratégies de contact, des programmes de paiement et des expériences de recouvrement axées sur le client qui réduisent les pertes tout en traitant les clients avec dignité et respect. Vous piloterez également la stratégie visant à ramener les clients chez KOHO après un défaut de paiement — transformant ce qui pourrait être un départ définitif en un parcours de retour à la santé financière. Ce poste se situe à la croisée de l’analyse, des opérations et de la stratégie. La personne idéale est à l’aise avec les données, décisive face à l’ambiguïté et motivée par l’idée qu’un recouvrement bien mené est une forme de service à la clientèle. VOS RESPONSABILITÉS ANALYSE DES RETARDS DE PAIEMENT ET DES PERTES - Assurer le suivi et l’analyse des tendances en matière de retards de paiement et de pertes pour tous les produits de prêt de KOHO — taux de roulement (roll rates), taux de rétablissement (cure rates), rendement par génération (vintage performance) et trajectoires de passage en pertes. - Bâtir et maintenir des tableaux de bord et des cadres de production de rapports qui donnent à la direction une visibilité en temps réel sur la santé du portefeuille et le rendement du recouvrement. - Repérer les signaux d’alerte précoce de détérioration du crédit et proposer des stratégies d’intervention proactives. - Définir et suivre les indicateurs clés de rendement (KPI) essentiels : taux de contact avec la bonne personne (right-party contact), taux de promesses de paiement, taux de promesses de paiement tenues, taux de recouvrement brut par étape de retard, coût par dollar recouvré et taux de recouvrement après passage en pertes. STRATÉGIE DE CONTACT ET ENGAGEMENT CLIENT - Concevoir et optimiser continuellement la stratégie de contact de KOHO tout au long du cycle de retard de paiement — y compris le moment idéal pour communiquer, les canaux à privilégier (clavardage, courriel, notifications poussées, SMS, appels vocaux), le type de message et la fréquence. - Développer des modèles de segmentation de la clientèle afin d’adapter les stratégies de traitement en fonction de l’étape du retard de paiement, du profil de risque du client, de l’historique des comportements de paiement et de la réactivité. - Collaborer avec les équipes de produit et d’ingénierie pour concevoir ou améliorer les incitations numériques et intégrées à l’application (in-app) afin d’encourager le remboursement avant que les comptes n’atteignent des stades critiques de retard. - Veiller à ce que toutes les stratégies de contact soient conformes aux réglementations en vigueur, notamment les lignes directrices de l’ACFC sur les pratiques de recouvrement de dettes et les attentes du BSIF pour un prêteur sous réglementation fédérale. PROGRAMMES DE PAIEMENT ET CONCEPTION DE RÈGLEMENTS - Concevoir des programmes d’entente de paiement — y compris des régimes d’aide en cas de difficultés financières, des options de paiement échelonné, la suppression de frais et des offres de règlement ou de renonciation partielle — qui équilibrent la réduction des pertes et le soutien aux clients. - Définir les critères d’admissibilité, les structures de cascade de remises (discount waterfall) et les protocoles d’autorisation pour les offres de règlement. - Évaluer et tester les compromis financiers des différents programmes de recouvrement par rapport à un scénario de référence modélisé d'inaction. - Bâtir et peaufiner des modèles financiers pour évaluer la valeur des traitements de recouvrement, la probabilité de rétablissement par segment et les…