VP, Collections Strategy Leader

Job Description:

Role Summary/Purpose:

The Head of Synchrony’s Collections & Recovery Strategy team is looking for a candidate to lead Synchrony’s Collections Strategy team; the Collections Strategy team is a global team of 22 analysts (12 in U.S., 10 in India) responsible for collections strategy for all of Synchrony’s businesses, clients and products, including consumer and business & commercial products.

Our Way of Working

We’re proud to offer you choice and flexibility. At Synchrony, our way of working allows you to have the option to work from home, near one of our Hubs or come into one of our offices. Occasionally you may be required to commute to our nearest office for in person engagement activities such as business or team meetings, training and culture events.

Essential Responsibilities:

• Lead the development, testing, performance monitoring and rollout of collections strategies, including segmentation, contact strategy, loss mitigation programs and payment strategies.  Partner with the Model Development team (within the Growth organization) to develop and monitor collections scores.  Supervise champion-challenger testing and the development, validation, implementation and performance monitoring of decision tree segmentations. 

• Lead Collections Strategy support for critical company initiatives (e.g., new client introductions, new product introductions, portfolio purchases, portfolio conversions, portfolio deconversions, business acquisitions).

• Partner with the Credit Innovation and Prism teams to expand data access, make better decisions, and implement new capabilities.

• Partner with Collections Operations to identify, prioritize, test and rollout initiatives to reduce expenses and to improve customer experience, including reducing complaints.

• Actively manage a portfolio of collections strategy initiatives, including tracking performance and providing regular updates to senior management and to other stakeholders.

• Partner with the Collections & Recovery Strategy Strategic Initiatives & Planning team on intake, prioritization, planning, change management and performance monitoring processes.

• Develop a transformational vision and multi-year roadmap.  Lead discussions with executives to ensure they understand and support the future state vision and roadmap.

• Own the Level 3 (L3) Collections Strategy Development process including validating Critical to Compliance (CTC) mapping and updating the Risk Assessment Questionnaire (RAQ) and Process, Risks & Controls Self-Assessment (PRCSA). Prevent, detect & remediate issues.

• Ensure robust governance, processes and controls are in place.  Ensure compliance with applicable laws, regulations and company policies including for complex, regulatory sensitive loss mitigation programs (e.g., re-age, forbearance, settlements, deferrals).  Lead the management of models and Non-Model Tools (NMTs) for Collections Strategy, ensuring compliance with all policy requirements and standards.

• Partner with Legal, Compliance, Fair Lending and other groups to complete gap assessment for new laws, regulations and regulatory guidance and, if necessary, lead and implement changes to ensure compliance. 

• Lead or co-lead Collections Strategy support for regulatory exams, internal audits and second line reviews, including leading discussions with Compliance, Legal, Risk Testing, Credit Strategy Validation, Internal Audit and regulators (e.g., CFPB, FRB, OCC).

• Lead identification and adoption of best-in-class methodologies (ex. design of experiments), processes, tools and infrastructure to enhance strategy development and analytics.

• Partner with the Collections & Recovery Strategy Business Intelligence and Credit Analytics & Reporting teams to develop business intelligence & management reporting.

• Complete regular benchmarking and represent Synchrony at industry collections conferences. Stay abreast of the regulatory environment and industry trends to identify emerging opportunities and risks.

• Perform other duties and/or special projects as assigned.

Qualifications/Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree with a minimum 10+ years of strategy, analytics, risk management or credit experience or, in lieu of a bachelor’s degree, 14+ years of strategy, analytics, risk management or credit experience.

• 5+ years of credit or strategy management experience.

• Demonstrated ability to build and lead high performing credit strategy teams.

• Demonstrated ability to lead analytics an