Operations Manager - Lending

The Function & Team 

The Operations Manager is responsible for the day-to-day management and delivery of Lending Operations, supporting the administration and servicing of the £1.8bn lending portfolio. Sitting between the Head of Operations and the operational teams, the role translates strategic direction into consistent, controlled and efficient execution. 

The role provides management oversight across the Lending Operations teams, ensuring consistent service and control standards, effective resource allocation and clear ownership of activities and hand-offs. This is a hands-on people management and operational leadership role, responsible for team performance, operational delivery, controls, capacity and continuous improvement. 

By owning day-to-day operational management, the role enables the Head of Operations to focus on strategic priorities, senior stakeholders and platform development, while providing clear visibility of performance, capacity and emerging operational risks. 

The Roles Key Responsibilities 

Team & Performance Management 

• Provide day-to-day leadership, line management and coaching to Team Leads / Senior Analysts across Lending Operations, deputising for the Head of Operations on operational matters as required. 

• Own the operating rhythm for Lending Operations, including daily/weekly stand-ups, workload prioritisation, capacity management and escalation routes, ensuring a consistent management cadence across teams. 

• Set and monitor individual and team performance against clear KPIs and SLAs, providing regular feedback, coaching and performance management where required. 

• Proactively identify capacity pressures and resourcing gaps, including periods of concentrated activity, and coordinate the prioritisation or flexing of resource across teams to maintain service and control standards. 

• Support recruitment, onboarding, development and succession planning across Lending Operations, working with the Head of Operations to build capability and resilience within the team. 

Operational Oversight 

The Operations Manager provides consistent day-to-day management oversight across the Lending Operations areas, ensuring common standards of operational delivery, service and control, while technical subject-matter expertise remains within the respective teams: 

• Deal Operations – completion hand-offs into servicing, static data set-up and day-one operational readiness for new transactions. 

• In-Life Operations – ongoing loan servicing, drawdowns, amendments and borrower/investor-facing operational activity. 

• Cash Operations – payment processing and oversight, cash management activity and associated operational controls. 

• Control & Reconciliation – cash and position reconciliations, breaks management and timely clearance against control deadlines. 

• Life Management – arrears, billing and adjustments processing, with particular focus on accuracy, timeliness and downstream finance impacts. 

Ensure work moves effectively across team boundaries, with clear ownership of hand-offs, dependencies and service standards, intervening where necessary to prevent gaps or delays impacting borrowers, investors or internal stakeholders. 

Controls, Risk & Data Quality 

• Ensure Lending Operations operates in accordance with documented processes, controls and agreed service standards, maintaining appropriate evidence and supporting ongoing audit and regulatory readiness. 

• Own the day-to-day coordination and resolution of operational incidents, control failures and service issues, ensuring root causes are understood, remediation actions are clearly owned and issues are driven through to timely closure. 

• Identify emerging operational risks, control weaknesses and recurring process failures, escalating material matters promptly to the Head of Operations with clear recommendations and proposed remediation. 

• Own the day-to-day application of data quality standards across the Lending platform (Aspire), working with the Head of Operations, Finance and relevant data owners to prevent recurring data issues impacting downstream processes and reporting. 

• Maintain and continuously improve Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), controls and operational documentation across Lending Operations. 

• Support audit and regulatory review activity, ensuring requests are coordinated effectively and appropriate evidence trails are maintained. 

Management Information & Reporting