Director of Consumer Collections

At Community Financial System, Inc. (CFSI), we are dedicated to providing our customers with friendly, personalized, high-quality financial services and products. Our retail division, Community Bank, N.A., operates more than 200 customer facilities across Upstate New York, Northeastern Pennsylvania, Vermont and Western Massachusetts. Beyond retail banking, we also offer commercial banking, wealth management, investment management, insurance and risk management, and benefit plan administration.

Just as our employees are committed to helping our customers manage their finances, we're committed to our employees. After all, they make it happen for our customers every day.

To ensure our people can enjoy long and successful careers here at CFSI, we offer competitive compensation, great benefits, and professional development and advancement opportunities. As an equal-opportunity workplace and affirmative-action employer, we celebrate and support a diverse workplace for the benefit of all: our employees, customers and communities.

The Director of Consumer Collections is responsible for leading the strategic direction, operational performance, and regulatory compliance of the Consumer Collections function. This role oversees all stages of delinquency management, loss mitigation, foreclosure, repossession, recovery, and collections operations across consumer loan portfolios, including residential mortgages, home equity loans, auto loans, and other retail lending products. The Director develops and executes collection strategies that minimize credit losses, support borrowers experiencing financial hardship, optimize customer experience, and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and organizational risk appetite.

Essential Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership

• Develop and execute comprehensive collections strategies across consumer loan portfolios.
• Establish short- and long-term objectives aligned with organizational goals, portfolio performance expectations, and risk management standards.
• Lead initiatives to improve delinquency performance, reduce losses, increase recoveries, and enhance customer engagement.
• Evaluate technological solutions, including AI, to create efficiencies, modernize workflow and ensure compliance with regulations and guidelines as they pertain to collections in the consumer loan portfolios.
• Collaborate with Credit Risk, Lending, Mortgage Servicing, Accounting, Compliance and Operations to optimize portfolio performance.

Collections Operations Management

• Oversee all aspects of consumer collections, including delinquency management, loss mitigation, repossessions, sale of collateral, foreclosures, ORE, recovery, and charge-off activities.
• Develop and implement collection strategies tailored to specific consumer lending products.
• Oversee repossession and recovery activities for delinquent auto loans.
• Ensure consistent execution of collection policies, procedures, and customer treatment standards.
• Monitor delinquency trends, loss performance, and recovery results across consumer loan portfolios.
• Partner with Consumer Lending and Credit Risk to recommend policy and underwriting changes.
• Monitor collection productivity, staffing levels, and operational effectiveness.
• Implement process improvements and technology solutions.

Mortgage, Home Equity, and Consumer Lending Delinquency and Default Oversight

• Ensure compliance with investor, insurer, and regulatory servicing and collection requirements.
• Monitor portfolio performance related to delinquency, repossession activity, foreclosure activity, loss severity, recovery performance, and cure rates.
• Partner with Mortgage Servicing, Consumer Lending and external vendors to manage foreclosure, repossession, recovery, and liquidation activities.
• Evaluate emerging risks across consumer lending portfolios and implement strategies to address changing conditions.

Regulatory Compliance & Risk Management

• Ensure compliance with FDCPA, FCRA, TCPA, RESPA, TILA, CFPB requirements, UDAAP standards, and applicable state regulations.
• Maintain strong internal controls, quality assurance practices, and audit readiness.
• Partner with Compliance and other areas of the Bank to address regulatory changes and examination findings.

Vendor & Agency Management

• Manage relationships with third-party collection agencies, attorneys, repossession agents, property preservation vendors, skip-tracing providers, and recovery partners.
• Establish performance standards, service-level agreements, and monitoring processes.
• Ensure third-party vendors meet regulatory, operational, and customer service expectations.

Leadership & Team Development

• Lead and develop collections managers and staff.
• Foster a culture of accountability, customer advocacy, compliance, and continuous improvement.
• Establish clear performance expectations and provide ongoing coaching and development.
• Lead workforce planning, succession planning, and talent development initiatives.

Financial Management

• Monitor collection expenses, recovery performance, repossession expenses, and foreclosure-related expenditures.
• Evaluate operational performance and identify opportunities to improve efficiency, reduce losses, and enhance portfolio profitability.

Ancillary Duties:

As an integral member of the Credit Department, this position is also responsible to provide assistance wherever necessary to help the Credit Department and the Bank in achieving their goals.

Education, Training and Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Business Administration, Economics, Accounting, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant work experience.
• All applicants must be 18 years of age or older.

Skills:

• Extensive knowledge of consumer collections, mortgage default servicing, and consumer lending operations.
• Strong understanding of residential mortgage lending, home equity lending, auto lending, and consumer credit risk management.
• Expertise in collections, mortgage servicing, foreclosure, repossession, bankruptcy, and consumer protection regulations.
• Advanced analytical, strategic planning, and problem-solving abilities.
• Experience with collections systems, servicing platforms, and portfolio analytics tools.
• Exceptional leadership, communication, and relationship management skills.
• Ability to influence stakeholders and drive organizational change.

Experience:

• 10+ years of progressive experience in consumer collections, mortgage servicing, consumer lending, credit administration, loss mitigation, or default management.
• 5+ years of leadership experience managing collections or servicing operations.
• Experience managing mortgage, home equity, auto loan, and consumer loan portfolios strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated success improving delinquency metrics, reducing credit losses, and enhancing customer outcomes.

Compensation: Commensurate with experience plus potential for annual merit increase. In addition to your competitive salary, you will be rewarded benefits including: 11 paid holidays, paid vacation, Medical, Vision & Dental insurance, 401K with generous match, Pension, Tuition Reimbursement, Banking discounts and the list goes on!

Physical Requirements:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee may be required to stand, walk or sit. Use hands and fingers, handle or feel, reach with hands or arms, and speak and hear. The employee may occasionally be required to lift and or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, and the ability to focus.

The Company is an Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation and gender identity), national origin, citizenship status, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local law.

The Company will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with a disability. If you have a physical or mental impairment and would like to request an accommodation with respect to the application process, please contact the Human Resources Department.