VodafoneThree - Strategic Partnerships Lead

Location & Hours

Newbury or London + Hybrid. Full time 37.5 hours per week - Monday to Friday. Hybrid working 2-3 days in office per week.

What you'll do

You'll lead strategic partner engagement and run rigorous proof of concept initiatives to identify the solutions that will define our next generation of Collections. It's a career defining opportunity to influence how a new industry leader operates from day one.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead market scanning to identify emerging digital, AI enabled and agentic collections solutions, drawing insight from fintech innovators and global credit leaders.
• Evaluate potential partners end to end - from capability and compliance to commercial value - and support robust negotiations that secure the best outcomes for the organisation.
• Champion the digital transformation of Collections by embedding advanced technologies, self service journeys and intelligent decisioning across the lifecycle.
• Guide cross functional delivery with IT, product, supply chain and operations to ensure seamless integration, scalability and operational readiness.
• Design and run proof of concept initiatives using champion/challenger testing to validate performance, compliance and alignment to strategic goals.
• Define success measures and build business cases, performance dashboards and reporting to track recovery, cost, customer and regulatory outcomes.
• Maintain strong governance and regulatory oversight, embedding customer fairness and responsible innovation into every solution and partnership.
• Use data and market intelligence to generate actionable insights, optimise strategies, and present clear recommendations to senior leadership and programme teams.

Qualifications & Experience

• Strong experience in digital collections, AI driven optimisation or working with fintech and technology partners.
• Proven ability to design, run and evaluate POCs and structured testing frameworks.
• Solid technical understanding of digital customer journeys, data driven decisioning and modern collections technologies.
• Confident in navigating governance, risk and compliance requirements with a focus on customer fairness.
• Skilled stakeholder manager, able to influence cross functional teams and senior leaders.
• Comfortable translating insight, performance data and solution design into clear recommendations and action.

Inclusive Employment

We believe that everyone has valuable contributions to make. As a Disability Confident Employer, we actively encourage individuals with disabilities to apply for positions within our team.

Through the 'Offer an Interview' scheme, we aim to offer interviews to a fair and proportionate number of applicants with disabilities who best meet the essential criteria for our vacancies.

Benefits & Compensation

Excellent basic salary plus bonus and Vodafone benefits. Up to 28 days off plus bank holidays, paid time for charity work, discounts, vouchers, pension plan and more.

Regulatory & Screening

We are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and all offers of employment for this role are subject to background checks, including criminal (DBS) and financial checks to meet the regulator's standards.