Community First Bank is one of Australia's leading customer-owned banks, proudly serving members and communities since 1959. With more than 80,000 members, over $2.4 billion in assets, and a strong presence across Sydney, the Illawarra, Sutherland Shire, Western Sydney and the Hunter region, Community First Bank is built on a simple philosophy: people helping people. As a member-owned organisation, we reinvest in delivering exceptional service, competitive products, and meaningful community support rather than generating profits for external shareholders. Our purpose is to help our members achieve their financial goals through trusted relationships, innovation, and a genuine commitment to the communities where we live and work.

Position Scope

The Manager - Branch Network is accountable for leading the performance, capability and growth of Community First Bank's branch network. Reporting to the Head of Everyday Banking, the role ensures branches deliver consistent, trusted and member-centred service while achieving sustainable growth, operational discipline, regulatory compliance and a strong people culture.

The role leads branch sales and service performance, member acquisition and relationship deepening, community engagement, digital adoption support and day-to-day operational excellence. It is responsible for optimising branch performance, strengthening member advocacy and ensuring all branches operate within the bank's risk appetite, policies and mutual purpose.

The position works closely with Lending, Customer Care, Contact Centre, Product, Digital, Marketing, Community Partnerships, Risk, Compliance, Operations, People and Culture, and Finance to align branch activity with member needs, business priorities and transformation initiatives.

Key Responsibilities

- Branch network leadership: Lead branch leaders and teams to deliver simple, consistent and member-centred banking experiences across the network.
- Member experience: Embed service standards, complaint resolution practices and service recovery disciplines that build member trust, loyalty and advocacy.
- Business performance: Deliver agreed outcomes for member growth, deposits, lending referrals, relationship deepening, branch productivity and cost efficiency.
- Sales and growth:



Create a high-performance sales and service culture, maintain strong lead and pipeline disciplines, and implement local area growth plans.
- Operational excellence: Ensure branch operations are controlled, efficient and consistent, with explicit procedures, workforce planning, reporting and continuous improvement practices.
- Risk and compliance: Maintain effective first-line risk management across branch activities, including conduct, privacy, fraud, scams, AML/CTF, complaints and operational controls.
- People leadership: Build an engaged, capable and values-led branch team through coaching, succession planning, performance management and a strong focus on safety and wellbeing.
- Community and mutual purpose: Strengthen Community First Bank's presence in local communities and ensure branches demonstrate the care and stewardship expected of a customer-owned mutual bank.
- Digital adoption: Support members and teams through digital service adoption and process simplification while preserving accessible face-to-face support.
- Stakeholder and change leadership: Partner with leaders across the bank to implement service, people, process and technology changes across the branch network.

Key Accountability Measures

- Achievement of agreed branch growth, profitability, deposit, referral and relationship-deepening targets.
- Member experience outcomes, including service quality, complaint resolution, satisfaction and advocacy measures.
- Branch service levels, productivity, workforce utilisation, operating efficiency and cost performance.
- Effective management of first-line risk, incidents, audit actions, controls, compliance obligations and operational loss events.
- Team engagement, capability, retention, leadership bench strength, succession and safety outcomes.
- Successful implementation and adoption of branch, service, process, digital and technology improvements.




- Demonstrated contribution to community presence, mutual purpose and organisational values.

Capability Requirements

- Commercial leadership with the ability to translate branch strategy into clear operating and local growth plans.
- Strong people leadership, coaching and communication skills across geographically dispersed teams.
- Member-centred decision making with sound judgement, empathy and a strong focus on fairness and member outcomes.
- Operational discipline, data-led problem solving and continuous improvement capability.
- Risk awareness and the ability to balance growth, service, compliance and operational resilience.

Knowledge Areas

- Retail and branch banking products, deposits, transaction accounts, lending referrals, payments, cards and digital banking channels.
- Multi-site branch operations, sales and service leadership, workforce planning, service quality and complaint handling.
- Australian banking regulatory environment, including first-line risk management, conduct, privacy, fraud, scams, AML/CTF and operational risk controls.
- Mutual bank operating models, member-owned banking principles, community banking and purpose-led service delivery.
- Performance reporting, budgeting, productivity management, local business development and continuous improvement methods.

Qualifications and Experience

- Demonstrated leadership experience in multi-site retail banking, branch banking, financial services or customer service operations.
- Proven ability to lead dispersed frontline teams and deliver member, commercial, risk and operational outcomes.
- Strong understanding of Australian banking obligations, branch controls, complaints handling, financial crime awareness and conduct expectations.
- Demonstrated success in sales leadership, people development, performance management and leading change.
- Relevant tertiary qualification in business, finance, management or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.

Experience in a mutual, customer-owned or community banking environment; lending accreditation or lending experience; and exposure to digital transformation, community engagement or channel optimisation.

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📌 Branch Network Manager (Sydney)
🏢 Rippling
📍 Sydney