The Head of Operations leads the back-office and administration functions that enable the Group’s financial advisers and mortgage brokers to succeed. Accountable for the people, processes, systems and service standards of the operations function, the role ensures advisers and brokers can focus on advice and client relationships while operational delivery remains efficient, accurate, compliant and consistent. Leading through the Operations Team Leads and their associate and support teams, the Head of Operations builds a high-performing, service-oriented operations capability within a regulated AFSL and credit-licensed environment.

Key areas of responsibility

- People leadership & team management
- Leadership: leading, managing and developing the operations function through the Operations Team Leads and their associate and support teams.
- Performance: setting clear expectations, goals and accountabilities, and managing performance, capability and development across the teams.
- Capability: coaching and developing the Team Leads as people managers, and building a positive, service-oriented, high-performance culture.
- Workforce planning: planning workforce capacity, structure and resourcing — across onshore and offshore teams — to meet service demand.
- Talent: leading recruitment, onboarding and retention of operations staff in conjunction with People & Culture.

- Back-office & administration operations

- Ownership: owning the end-to-end back-office and administration functions that support financial advice and mortgage broking — client onboarding, data and records management, application and lodgement support, revenue and commissions administration, platform and product administration, and review and renewal processing.
- Process: ensuring workflows are documented, efficient and consistently executed to agreed standards and turnaround times.
- Data integrity: overseeing the accurate maintenance of client data, files and records.
- Enablement: ensuring advisers and mortgage brokers are well supported so they can focus on advice and client relationships.




- Service standards: defining and managing service standards, SLAs and turnaround times, and monitoring and reporting on service performance.
- Escalation: acting as an escalation point for complex operational issues and resolving service bottlenecks.
- Alignment: partnering with the Head of Advice to align operational support with advice delivery and business priorities.

- Compliance & regulated-environment operations

- Obligations: ensuring operational processes support the Group’s obligations under its AFSL and credit licence — including record-keeping, support for the best interests duty, responsible-lending / NCCP administration, complaints handling and breach-reporting workflows.
- Controls: embedding compliance into operational workflows and controls and maintaining audit-ready records.
- Change: supporting the compliance function with the operational implementation of regulatory change.

- Technology, systems & service-delivery tech

- Systems ownership: owning the operational use of CRM, financial planning and mortgage-broking software, and workflow and document-management platforms.
- Adoption: driving adoption, data integrity and effective configuration of systems to improve service delivery.
- Automation: identifying, evaluating and implementing technology and automation that improve efficiency, accuracy and client experience.

- Operational performance & continuous improvement

- Measurement: defining and tracking operational KPIs — productivity, quality, turnaround, error rates and service levels.
- Improvement: leading continuous-improvement initiatives to streamline processes and remove waste.
- Reporting:



reporting operational performance and insights to the Chief Operating Officer and leadership.

- Stakeholder & cross-functional collaboration

- Internal: working closely with the Head of Advice, advisers, brokers, and the compliance, finance and technology functions.
- External: managing relationships with platforms, product providers, aggregators, lenders and key vendors.
- Planning: contributing to operational planning for business growth and change.

- People leadership — builds, leads and develops high-performing teams through others, including leading other people-leaders.
- Operational excellence — designs and runs efficient, reliable back-office and administration processes.
- Regulated-workplace acumen — understands service delivery within an AFSL and credit-licensed environment.
- Technology fluency — leverages CRM and service-delivery technology to lift performance and client experience.
- Client & adviser focus — orients operations around enabling advisers, brokers and strong client outcomes.
- Problem-solving — resolves complex operational and service issues with sound judgement.

Qualifications and experience

- Experience: substantial experience leading operations, back-office or administration teams in financial services — ideally across financial planning and/or mortgage broking — including leading team leaders (leading other leaders).
- Regulatory: sound understanding of operating within a regulated AFSL environment; familiarity with credit / NCCP obligations for mortgage broking is highly regarded.
- Technology: strong working knowledge of CRM, financial planning and mortgage-broking software, and workflow / service-delivery platforms.
- Education: a relevant tertiary qualification (business, finance or related) is desirable; operational compliance / RG 146 familiarity is advantageous.
- Skills: people leadership; operational and process management; stakeholder management; change and continuous improvement; and data and reporting.

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📌 Head of Operations — Financial Planning (Melbourne)
🏢 Freedom Finance Australia
📍 Melbourne