Interim Credit Control Officer

Interim Debt Management Officer

Location: North London
Contract: 6 months – Interim
Working pattern: Full-time
Office attendance: 1 day per week
Rate: £250 per day Umbrella
Start date: ASAP

The Opportunity

We are currently recruiting for an experienced Interim Credit Controller / Debt Management Officer to join a well-established and complex organisation in North London on an initial six-month assignment.

Following an internal restructure, the organisation is looking to strengthen its credit control function and bring in additional interim support to focus on recovering a significant backlog of legacy debt, improving existing processes and embedding more efficient ways of working.

Key Responsibilities

• Take ownership of a substantial legacy debt portfolio, developing and implementing effective recovery strategies.
• Prioritise high-value balances and older outstanding debt, ensuring appropriate action is taken to maximise recoverability.
• Manage the recovery of trade, sponsorship and potentially tuition fee debt, depending on experience.
• Investigate disputed balances, identify reasons for non-payment and work with relevant stakeholders to resolve outstanding queries.
• Apply an appropriate and considered approach to debt recovery across different customer groups, including students, sponsors and commercial organisations.
• Identify potentially unrecoverable debt and make recommendations for appropriate write-offs.
• Build strong relationships with internal stakeholders to support and progress debt recovery activity.
• Work closely with the systems team to understand and maximise existing system functionality, including automated reminders, payment promises, templates and notifications.
• Review and improve existing credit control policies, procedures and processes.
• Identify opportunities to streamline processes and introduce automation to improve efficiency and reduce future debt backlogs.
• Provide guidance and training to the permanent credit control team, ensuring improved processes and system functionality are embedded before the end of the assignment.
• Assess the longer-term resource requirements of the credit control function and make recommendations where appropriate.

About You

We are looking for an experienced, hands-on credit control professional who is confident taking ownership of a challenging assignment and can operate with minimal supervision.

You will ideally have:

• Extensive credit control and debt recovery experience, with a proven ability to manage and reduce substantial outstanding debt portfolios.
• Experience working through legacy debt and identifying effective recovery strategies.
• Strong investigative skills, with the ability to understand complex outstanding balances and resolve disputes.
• A proactive and solutions-focused approach, with the ability to identify process inefficiencies and recommend improvements.
• Experience reviewing and improving credit control processes, ideally including the use of automation and system functionality.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, with the confidence to build relationships across a complex organisation.
• The ability to work independently, organise your own workload and drive projects forward without extensive supervision.
• A collaborative and patient approach, particularly when working alongside an established permanent team.

• Higher education experience is highly preferred, particularly exposure to student debt, tuition fee collection and sponsorship arrangements.

If you are an experienced credit control or debt recovery professional looking for your next interim assignment and have the ability to take ownership of a challenging improvement project, we would love to hear from you.