Dispute Resolution Manager

As a leader in dispute resolution, you will be responsible for managing the External Dispute Resolution (EDR) or external complaints team for the Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) region. Your role will involve overseeing a team of five specialists who resolve complaints from customers under the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) and Financial Rights Legal Centre (FRLC).

The team members are based in Melbourne and work remotely, while one team member is based in New South Wales (NSW). As the leader, you will need to engage the team both remotely and in-person.

You will be responsible for being knowledgeable in AU regulations as it relates to complaints and have strong analytical skills to mitigate complaint trends.

This role will be based in Melbourne with hybrid working arrangements.

• Support your team to deliver on a customer-centric complaints model by establishing performance expectations, monitoring daily improvement, and assuring training is continuously maintained.
• Provide support to the Customer Service team for escalated complaints where first-level resolution team members have not been able to resolve.
• Understand complaint drivers, dissect complaint data, and transfer insights into an actionable execution plan.
• Present insights representing both the customer experience/journey and commercial outcomes/opportunities.
• Establish and maintain strong engagement with external complaint and regulatory bodies to ensure a customer-centric experience aligned with our values.
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of industry trends and technical developments within the complaints and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) industry.
• Act as a subject matter expert in complaint processing and understanding of global regulatory requirements.
• Prepare and present reporting for stakeholders on complaint volumes, categories, and insights from internal and external dispute resolution.
• Analyze complaint data, report on trends to the business, and make recommendations to improve processes.
• Evaluate and reengineer processes to ensure the best possible outcomes for the customer and business, and solve complex problems.
• Operate within standard operating procedures and promote compliance across all touchpoints and teams with a solid understanding of relevant legislation, guidelines, and industry.
• Identify and address challenges impacting staff's ability to adequately evaluate complaints within a standardized process.
• Be involved in/leadership of regulator requests for information in conjunction with Legal/Compliance.
• Focus on providing a supportive customer experience and ensuring timely and fair outcomes are achieved.
• Own and maintain workforce models, training plans, and staff recruiting, onboarding, and offboarding.
• Lead team performance and oversight of staff's performance and development.
• Lead and develop a team, providing direct staff member supervision and ongoing coaching.
• Drive a culture of continuous improvement within the complaints function.
• Lead projects or other ad-hoc tasks related to complaint management and be flexible to work with support partners globally.

• Tertiary qualifications and/or equivalent industry experience (CIO, FOS or AFCA).
• 2 years+ Leadership within Dispute Resolution and Financial Services.
• Proven staff leadership and performance management.
• Ability to draft detailed, logical, and comprehensive findings to external dispute bodies.
• Proven experience in conflict resolution and strong problem-solving abilities.
• Leadership skills and the ability to oversee multiple projects simultaneously.
• Active involvement and ability to influence others to desired outcomes.
• Handle complex disputes tactfully - exercise discretion and make complex independent decisions to ensure the best outcome.
• Ensure operations policies, procedures, processes, and disclosures meet regulatory requirements and applicable laws.
• Maintain a great culture and foster an environment where people want to work.
• Coach individuals so that they reach their full potential.
• Ability to successfully manage workload to timelines.
• Proven background in Customer Service, Complaints Handling, and Dispute Resolution.
• Demonstrated experience in dispute resolution, including communication and management of complaint cases to external groups and governing bodies.

We offer a range of benefits designed to empower you to do your best work and build the life you want.

These include remote work options, medical insurance, flexible time off, retirement savings plans, and modern family planning.

Check out our benefits page for more information.

We're committed to creating a workplace that's fair and square.

Block is a proud equal opportunity employer and works hard to evaluate all employees and job applicants consistently, without regard to identity or other legally protected class.

We believe in being fair and strive to live by these same values in building our workplace.

Our aim is to build a more inclusive economy where our customers have equal access to opportunity.