Lending Operations Manager

The role

We are looking for an experienced Operations Manager to join a growing financial services team, taking responsibility for the day-to-day leadership and delivery of a busy operational function.

This is a hands-on management role, sitting between senior leadership and the operational teams. You’ll be responsible for translating strategic priorities into effective day-to-day execution, while ensuring teams have the structure, support and resources needed to deliver consistently high standards.

You’ll lead and develop a team of operational professionals, providing clear direction, coaching and performance management while overseeing workloads, capacity and service delivery.

A key element of the role will be ensuring effective collaboration across different operational areas, maintaining strong controls and identifying and resolving issues before they impact the wider business.

You’ll also play an important role in continuous improvement, identifying opportunities to simplify, standardise and automate processes and embracing technology to improve efficiency and scalability.

What you’ll do

• Lead, manage and develop the Operations team, setting clear KPIs, managing performance expectations, providing regular coaching and feedback
• Oversee daily workloads, prioritisation and resource allocation across multiple functions
• Monitor operational performance, ensuring strong controls, processes and data quality are maintained
• Investigate and resolve operational issues, identifying root causes and driving corrective action
• Develop meaningful MI and reporting for senior management
• Work collaboratively with Finance, Sales, Tech and other key business stakeholders
• Identify and implement opportunities to improve processes, controls and ways of working
• Support automation and the adoption of AI to reduce manual and repetitive activity
• Support audit and regulatory activities

What you’ll bring

We’re looking for an experienced operational leader with a strong background in financial services within a lending environment 

You’ll ideally have:

• Proven people management and team leadership experience
• Experience managing multiple teams, workstreams or competing priorities
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• A strong understanding of operational controls and risk
• Experience using MI and data to drive performance and decision-making
• A track record of improving processes and operational efficiency
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills
• A proactive, accountable approach with the confidence to take ownership and drive issues through to resolution
• An interest in technology, automation and the potential for AI to improve operational delivery