Senior Customer Contact Manager (2nd line)

We are recruiting for a Senior Customer Contact Manager in Bristol.  This is a high-accountability, strategically critical role within TLT LLP’s Secured Lender Services practice, deputising for the Customer Contact Director as needed.  As a key second line of defence, the role assures operational alignment with regulatory standards, monitors customer conduct risk, and intervenes in real time to protect customer outcomes and reduce downstream complaints. The postholder will lead the 2nd-line customer conduct and service assurance —overseeing the management of complex, sensitive customer cases, safeguarding vulnerable customer outcomes, and embedding high-quality, compliant customer support across the secured lending lifecycle.  

As the senior point of regulatory and conduct expertise within the customer contact environment, you will lead a team of 2nd-line specialist advisors, translating complex client mandates and regulatory expectations into actionable service standards. You’ll execute and continuously improve the firm’s Vulnerable Customer Strategy, ensure first-line operational alignment with Consumer Duty and SRA principles, and act as a visible expert in regulatory assurance and ethical customer treatment.  

This is a high-impact role that will drive trust, reduce risk, and assure confidence among lender clients, internal stakeholders, and external regulators. It will act as a critical partner to the Contact Director, helping to scale and evolve service operations—bringing deep technical and regulatory expertise to shape service design, embed controls, and extend delivery into new secured lending offerings, while strengthening existing capability and client trust in a growing, multi-client environment.

Your Role

As a Senior Customer Contact Manager your day to day remit will include; 

• Strategic Oversight 
  • Ownership of departmental playbooks and rulebooks, leading on any service transition plans while strengthening existing capability. 
  • Translate regulatory requirements, client mandates and conduct frameworks into service assurance practices across Secured Lender Services.  
  • Act as the senior conduct and customer outcome lead across the customer contact function, ensuring regulatory and reputational assurance.  
  • Lead and continuously evolve the firm’s Vulnerable Customer Support Strategy.  
  • Lead preventative escalation management — working with first-line teams to identify, triage and resolve high-risk cases before they crystallise into formal complaints or customer detriment.  
  • Serve as a key stakeholder to Operations, Risk, and Audit, supporting thematic reviews, audits, and client governance reporting.  
  • Lead coordination of management information (MI) and reporting on vulnerability, escalation, and conduct themes.  
  • Responsible for Technical Skills Matrix and Service Assurance Framework.  
  • Deputise for Director of Customer Contact when needed 
• Operational Leadership  
  • Lead a team of 2nd-line conduct and resolution specialists focused on escalated or complex cases, often involving increased vulnerability, technical difficulty, regulatory risk, or reputational significance.  
  • Design and implement strategies to drive a high-performance, inclusive team culture that supports wellbeing, development, and accountability.  
  • Build individual and cross team capability in FCA-aligned customer engagement, regulatory judgment, and vulnerable customer support.  
  • Deliver regular coaching, feedback, and performance reviews in line with people management and Quality Assurance frameworks.  
  • Create career pathways (in alignment with HR guidance) for your team enabling their professional growth and creating recruitment and succession planning opportunities for the wider firm.  
  • Oversee the creation and maintenance of technical libraries, SOPs, and quality frameworks to enable consistency and defensibility in case handling.  
  • Own and deliver the Technical Skills Matrix, Tiered Mentorship Programme, and service assurance frameworks across the wider department.  
  • Partner with the Contact Centre Manager and Complaints Manager to drive customer journey improvement and regulatory consistency.  
  • Implement second-line escalation insights to strengthen first-line resolution capabilities, minimise case overflow to complaints, and pre-empt systemic conduct risks.  
• Vulnerable Customer Strategy & Service Assurance 
  • Lead all proactive service controls and service assurance activity 
  • Serve as the conduct and vulnerable customer subject matter expert, ensuring services are empathetic, fair, and aligned with both legal and ethical standards.  
  • Develop training, tooling, and controls that support proactive identification and appropriate treatment of vulnerable customers.  
  • Validate that escalated cases meet the firm’s and clients’ expectations for fairness, regulatory alignment, and ethical outcomes.  
  • Leverage QA and QC outputs to identify upstream risk themes, inform training priorities, and support service design improvements across first and second line.  
• Client, Risk, and Regulatory Engagement  
  • Provide regulatory assurance input into client governance packs and audit activity.  
  • Act as an expert contributor to internal and external thought leadership on vulnerability, conduct risk, and ethical treatment in secured lending.  
  • Maintain strong working relationships with Risk, Compliance, Legal, and client stakeholders to ensure defensibility and continuous improvement.  
• Innovation, QA & Continual Service Improvement  
  • Lead second-line input into service design and preventative control measures—ensuring vulnerability and early-stage conduct risks are addressed to prevent formal complaints.  
  • Partner with the Complaints Manager to ensure end-to-end learning loops — converting complaint root cause and QA insight into preventative action across the customer journey.  
  • Leverage technology and case management tools (e.g. Peppermint, QA platforms) to identify risk trends, improve visibility, and enable early intervention.  
  • Analyse QA outputs, MI, and escalation data to inform training, process design, and operational improvements.  
  • Champion tech-enabled improvements that enhance customer outcomes, especially for vulnerable cohorts and secured lending complexity.  
• Outputs  
  • Measurable uplift in customer outcomes — particularly for vulnerable, conduct-sensitive, or reputationally high-impact cases.  
  • Strong 2nd line performance delivery, including resolution quality, regulatory defensibility, escalation response times, and early intervention success rates. 
  • Reduction in formal complaints and escalations through early, expert-led resolution of complex and high-risk cases.  
  • Improved frontline capability and confidence via technical coaching and the Tiered Mentorship Programme.  
  • High confidence from clients and internal stakeholders in service assurance and the defensibility, fairness, and consistency of customer decisions.  
  • Strengthened client assurance through transparent reporting, MI, and proactive conduct risk management.  
  • Contribution to regulatory and industry thought leadership, including forums focused on Consumer Duty, vulnerability, and secured lending conduct risk.  
  • Successful application of technology (e.g. Peppermint, QA tools) to identify trends, automate oversight, and drive continual service improvement.  
  • Scalable customer contact and assurance models that enable entry into new secured lending service lines. 

Your Skills and Experience

• Significant experience in a senior operational, customer conduct, or service assurance role within a regulated financial, legal, or secured lending environment.  
• Extensive expertise in FCA regulatory frameworks including Consumer Duty, DISP, CONC, and Mortgage Conduct of Business (MCOB) rules, with practical application in complex case management and escalation handling. 
• Strong technical knowledge of secured lending products, arrears management, forbearance options, and customer vulnerability management. 
• Demonstrated experience leading or supporting second-line teams, with a focus on embedding service controls, quality assurance, and compliance governance across customer contact operations. 
• Experience managing or influencing vulnerable customer strategies in a lending or collections environment.  
• Experience in leading high performance teams with evidence of technical uplift through  coaching. 
• Experience authoring, maintaining, and improving policies, procedures, and knowledge base documentation aligned to regulatory and operational standards. 
• High level of technical and technological literacy, including confidence working with case management (e.g. Peppermint), QA systems, and contact centre technology to monitor quality, support compliance, and drive efficiency.  
• Excellent stakeholder management skills, with experience working closely with legal, compliance, risk, and client teams to ensure seamless escalation resolution and operational scaling. 
• A proven background in conflict management and dispute resolution with a demonstrated ability to manage conflict and diffuse difficult situations, particularly when dealing with vulnerable customers who may be in distress or experiencing financial hardship.  
• Proficient in data analysis, root cause investigation, and reporting, with the ability to translate insights into actionable improvements that reduce complaints and operational risk. 
• Strong communication skills
• Financial services qualification such as DipFA (or equivalent) strongly preferred; formal training in vulnerable customer care, mental health first aid, or dispute resolution desirable.  
• Certified or working knowledge of continuous improvement methodologies (e.g. Lean Six Sigma or equivalent), with experience applying structured problem-solving  in service delivery or control environments.  

Your Team

Operating from our offices in Bristol, Manchester, Glasgow and Belfast, we have specialist expertise in each UK jurisdiction. We act for banks, building societies, other secured lenders and third party services. Whatever the size of mortgage portfolio, we adapt our processes to deliver the best outcome for the lender and their customer. Our approach ensures that all customers are treated fairly, and vulnerability is identified and handled appropriately.

About TLT

Fast paced, fast growing and forward thinking, TLT is the law firm that helps clients stay one step ahead, and we do the same for our people.

We work with high profile clients in innovative sectors. With local, national and international reach, we have over 1,800 people in offices across the UK and a network of partner firms across Europe, India and the US. TLT was named Law Firm of the Year at the Legal Business Awards 2023. This marks the third year in a row the firm has taken away this accolade in industry awards - having previously been named Law Firm of the Year at The Lawyer Awards in 2021 and the British Legal Awards in 2022.

Our purpose is to protect, prepare and progress our clients for what comes next and it’s essential that we do the same for our people, our planet and our communities too. In our open and collaborative culture, we encourage everyone to be their whole self, to have a voice and to contribute.

Our Benefits

We value our employees highly and we want you to feel valued. You’ll receive a competitive salary with an annual pay review. You will also have access to an extensive range of benefits via our flexible benefits scheme including 25 days holiday (which will increase to 30 days based upon length of service) and private medical insurance. 

At TLT we have a progressive fully flexible working approach. We empower our people to work in a place and at a time that meets their needs, those of their clients and of the wider team and firm. Part of this agile approach is a focus on hybrid working and supporting the work/life balance of our people. We’re happy to talk about how flexible working can work for you and this role. 

TLT is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive working environment and encourages applications from all suitably qualified people, regardless of disability, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other characteristics protected by the laws in the locations in which we operate.

We welcome applications from people with disabilities and are committed to providing reasonable adjustments, where necessary, to make interviews and jobs more accessible. Should you have any difficulty during the recruitment process, require any reasonable adjustments or an application to Access to work please contact the recruitment team on Recruitment.Operations@TLT.com

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