Mars Recruitment is partnering with a growing private credit and non-bank lending business specialising in short-term property-backed finance.

As the business continues to grow, they are looking for an experienced Collections Manager / Head of Collections to establish and lead the collections and recovery function across their property lending portfolio.

This is a newly created role, making it an opportunity for someone who enjoys being hands-on, building processes and having genuine ownership over a function.

About the role

Reporting to senior leadership, you will take ownership of the end-to-end collections and recovery lifecycle, from early-stage arrears through to complex recoveries, restructures and enforcement where required.

Initially, the focus will be on building the foundations of the function, developing processes, workflows, reporting and proactive collections strategies. As the portfolio grows, there will be an opportunity to build and lead a dedicated collections team.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Develop and implement a proactive collections and recovery framework across a property-backed lending portfolio
• Manage accounts from early arrears through to recovery and enforcement
• Monitor arrears, delinquency trends and portfolio performance, identifying early warning indicators
• Assess hardship and borrower circumstances and develop appropriate repayment arrangements
• Lead loan restructures, workouts and commercial negotiations
• Coordinate legal recovery, enforcement and external stakeholders where required
• Develop processes, procedures, reporting and automated workflows to support an effective collection function
• Work closely with borrowers, brokers, solicitors, investors and funding partners
• Provide regular reporting and recommendations to senior leadership
• Identify opportunities to improve systems, processes and risk monitoring
• Conduct site inspections and asset verification where required
• Ensure collections and hardship activity are managed in line with relevant regulatory and compliance requirements
• Build and lead a collections team as the function develops

About you

We are particularly interested in candidates with experience across private credit, non-bank lending or specialist property/mortgage lending.

You will ideally bring:

• 3-5+ years' experience across collections, recoveries, hardship, credit or loan workout environments
• Strong experience within private credit, property lending, non-bank lending or specialist mortgages
• Experience managing arrears, defaults, restructures, workouts and/or recoveries
• Strong understanding of Australian lending, hardship and collections practices
• Knowledge of NCCP, AFCA and relevant hardship frameworks
• Strong commercial negotiation and stakeholder management skills
• Experience developing or improving collections processes, systems and reporting
• The ability to operate hands-on while also thinking strategically about how a function should be built
• Previous people leadership experience is highly regarded, particularly for candidates targeting the Head of Collections level

If you're an experienced collections or credit professional with private credit, property lending or non-bank mortgage experience and are looking for an opportunity where you can genuinely build something, we'd love to hear from you.

Please reach out directly for a confidential discussion.