Lending Transformation - Asset & Leasing (12 Months FTC)

The Function & Team 

The Investment Finance and Operations team ensures the smooth financial and operational running of our investment platforms. They manage transactions, reporting and controls that underpin the performance and integrity of our funds and portfolios 

This role sits within Investment Finance & Operations and supports the Private Credit Operations team, which administers and services a lending and leasing platform of approximately £1.8 billion across four funds. The team manages the operational lifecycle from drawdown and account set-up through cash processing, in-life servicing, reconciliations, reporting support and contract closure. 

Key Responsibilities & Role purpose 

The Operations Manager – Asset & Leasing is accountable for a defined, time-limited programme to correct legacy data issues and strengthen the processes and controls used to manage the asset finance and leasing portfolio. The role has been created following the implementation and migration to Aspire (a lending system), where further work is required on asset-level records, contract structures and the quality of information needed to administer leases effectively through their full life cycle. 

This is a hands-on delivery role combining asset finance and leasing knowledge with data analysis, operational control and change execution. The postholder will establish the remediation baseline, agree risk-based priorities, lead controlled data correction, improve in-life management processes and ensure that changes are evidenced and sustainable. 

The manager will work closely with the Operations team so that remediation reduces pressure on business-as-usual activity. The role will also partner with Finance, Investment teams, Technology and the external system provider where issues cross functional or system boundaries. 

1. Remediation planning and delivery 

• Own the asset finance and leasing remediation plan, converting known issues and stakeholder concerns into a sequenced backlog with clear scope, dependencies, resource requirements and completion criteria. 

• Establish a baseline of portfolio data quality and identify the root causes of errors, including migration gaps, inconsistent historic practices, unclear ownership and weaknesses in upstream or downstream processes. 

• Prioritise activity according to customer, cash, accounting, regulatory, reporting and operational risk, with particular focus on matters that could affect servicing accuracy, financial or investor reporting or asset ownership records. 

• Lead remediation activity directly and allocate repeatable analysis, validation and correction work to a junior analyst, reviewing output and maintaining appropriate quality control. 

• Maintain a clear delivery plan, decision log, issue escalation route and evidence of remediation; identify blockers early and recommend pragmatic resolution options. 

2. Data integrity and reconciliation 

• Review and remediate customer, contract and asset-level data, including contract-to-asset relationships, payment schedules, rates and charges, residual values, status and key dates, ownership and fund or entity allocation. 

• Resolve issues arising from asset splitting, multiple assets under a single agreement, amendments and other contract structures that were not fully addressed during migration. 

• Reconcile Aspire data to source agreements, historic records, cash records, finance ledgers and relevant portfolio reporting, working with Finance where accounting judgement or treatment is required. 

• Define authoritative data sources, validation rules, tolerances and exception categories; ensure changes are controlled, evidenced, independently checked where appropriate and capable of audit review. 

• Develop practical exception reporting and data-quality measures that allow Operations to identify and address new issues before they affect customers, cash or reporting. 

3. In-life management and operational controls 

• Map and improve the end-to-end servicing of asset finance and leasing arrangements from post-drawdown set-up through payment allocation, amendments, reschedules, extensions, novations, settlements, early terminations, disposals, arrears-related changes and contract closure. 

• Clarify hand-offs, approval points and ownership across Operations, Finance, Investment teams, Credit, Technology and third-party providers. 

• Design proportionate preventive and detective controls, including maker-checker requirements, reconciliations, aged-exception review, evidence standards and escalation thresholds. 

• Update procedures, process maps, templates and controls so that the improved approach can be operated consistently by the existing team. 

• Identify immediate process improvements as well as system-dependent changes, avoiding manual workarounds where a sustainable system or control solution is available. 

4. Systems and change delivery 

• Translate operational and data issues into clear business requirements for Aspire configuration, reporting or development changes, distinguishing system defects from data and process issues. 

• Work with the Lending Operations Transformation Manager, Technology and the external provider to align dependencies, avoid duplication and ensure asset finance requirements are reflected in the wider Aspire improvement roadmap. 

• Support solution design, data mapping, test-case preparation, user acceptance testing, defect triage, implementation and post-release validation for relevant changes. 

• Ensure changes are documented, approved, communicated and embedded, with appropriate training and ownership transferred into business as usual. 

5. Governance performance and control assurance