Team Lead, Billing & Collections

Overview

This role leads end-to-end past-due receivable collections, including installment payments, short-rated policies, claim deductibles, audit surcharge fees, and additional premium from mid-term endorsements or end-of-policy audits. The position is accountable for overall bad debt recovery rate and for driving collection, litigation, and settlement outcomes against internal targets.

The role manages a team of individual contributors, supported by BPO and offshore partners, and sets strategy for pursuing every dollar of exposure. It also focuses on upstream process improvements to reduce exposure before receivables reach collections.

Responsibilities

Own recovery outcomes across every policy in collections

• Own bad debt recovery rate, driving collection success against internal collection-rate and recovery targets, including outcomes of litigation and settlement.
• Set and enforce service-level agreements across the full collection lifecycle—from receivable handoff and outreach cadence through referral timing and final closeout—holding the team, vendors, and BPO/offshore partners accountable to SLAs and KPIs.
• Own and continuously improve collection assignment processes, including vendor preference lists and placement for unpaid installment invoices, surcharge fees, and final invoices after audit close.
• Prioritize collection effort on a risk basis, focusing on large and jumbo balances that drive most of the exposure.
• Ensure all communications comply with the FDCPA, Regulation F, the TCPA, and applicable state debt-collection laws; partner with Compliance and Legal on consent, opt-out, and disclosure requirements.
• Act as the top-level point of contact for collection issues, complaints, and escalations, serving as subject matter expert and business stakeholder advocate.
• Partner with Product and Engineering to build systems and automations that streamline collections (automated ordering, tracking data, KPI reporting, and automated action triggers/process steps).
• Track and drive continuous improvement for bad debt allowance processes in partnership with Accounting.
• Coordinate dispute resolution cross-functionally and identify upstream process improvements to reduce bad debt exposure.
• Ensure timely closeout for all receivables at the end of collections or litigation.
• Partner cross-functionally to ensure trackability, visibility, and inclusion of policy/collection-handling data used for Collections KPI tracking and management.
• Monitor collection progress and make or propose escalation approvals based on defined debt-amount thresholds.

Manage collection vendors and litigation

• Partner with Legal to drive litigation and settlement strategy and outcomes; establish fast-track referral criteria for high-risk accounts (explicit refusal to pay, payment-plan default, or flight risk) to pursue accounts before they age out of viability.
• Manage litigation decisions, billing, documentation, and judgment readiness.
• Create and maintain vendor scorecards covering recovery rates, timeliness, and other key data points.
• Partner with vendors to design and implement quality improvements based on scorecard findings.
• Review and update vendor guidelines regularly; communicate changes in a timely manner.
• Manage vendor billing.
• Serve as primary point of contact for vendor escalations and approval requests.
• Research, propose, and vet potential new vendor partners.

Lead and grow the collections team

• Lead, develop, and manage collections team performance, including BPO/offshore resources: set benchmarks, coach to them, and manage underperformance through improvement plans up to and including off-boarding.
• Develop and maintain SOPs for collections processes to ensure timely handling, dispute management, and proper receivable closeouts.
• Establish benchmarks and KPIs for the team and individual contributors; manage business performance and productivity.
• Drive process improvement and optimization through Agile methodology.
• Manage onboarding, ongoing training and development, and offboarding; coordinate training strategy and identify growth areas in partnership with Enablement and Learning and Organizational Development.
• Serve as an escalation point for complex customer inquiries, questions, and disputes, and handle follow-up.

Requirements

• High school diploma or GED required.
• 3+ years of team leadership or people management experience, including managing performance.
• Working knowledge of debt-collection regulations—FDCPA, Regulation F, and the TCPA—and applicable state laws.
• Experience with data analysis and understanding of workers' comp operational practices is required, plus a strong understanding of the organization’s products and systems.
• 2+ years of vendor management experience required.
• 1+ year of experience with data analysis and an understanding of workers' comp operational practices required.
• Comfortable with G-Suite tools, Salesforce, collaboration tools (Slack preferred), and basic office machines.
• Intermediate data reporting and analytic skills to pull vendor scorecard data, analyze it, and provide recommendations to vendor partners and the Premium Audit team.
• Intermediate organizational skills to track progress against vendor expectations and pivot between platforms frequently.
• Ability to communicate clearly and convincingly in writing and out loud; closes the loop; gives and receives feedback with empathy; brings professional maturity, customer empathy, and an owner’s attitude.
• Ability to build bad debt allowance formulations with financial close documentation and back-testable, documented assumptions.
• Ability to analyze and solve simple to complex problems independently using data to make informed decisions; apply agile thinking (testing ideas, iterating on findings, refining before full launch).
• Demonstrated interpersonal awareness, collaboration, and respect for individual and cultural differences.
• Take responsibility for tasks, deliverables, and timelines with strong self-direction.

Preferred Qualifications

• Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree.
• 1+ year of Premium Audit experience.
• Experience in commercial insurance.
• 1+ year of experience managing BPO or offshore teams.
• LEAN Certification.

Compensation & Benefits

• Base compensation range: $70,000—$85,000 USD
• Competitive cash compensation
• Comprehensive health plans
• Generous PTO
• Future focused 401k match
• Generous parental and caregiver leave
• Discretionary annual bonuses for eligible team members (based on company performance)

Location

Unless otherwise specified, this role is remote. Remote team members must live and work in the United States (territories excluded) and have access to reliable, high-speed internet.

Additional Information

• Equal opportunity employer; does not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, age, disability, national or ethnic origin, military service status, citizenship, or other protected characteristic.
• E-Verify program participation.
• Privacy policy applies to personal data collected during the recruitment process.
• Safety: will never ask for credit card information or ask candidates to purchase equipment during interview or onboarding.

AI Use in Application Review

AI-powered tools may be used to assist with initial screening of applications and to support note-taking and candidate evaluation during interviews. AI outputs are subject to human oversight and decision-making at multiple stages of the process.