Job Description

Team Leader – Consumer Lending

Our Consumer Credit team plays a critical role in delivering great outcomes for our customers and intermediaries. As Team Leader, you’ll guide a team of Credit Managers, support operational excellence, and help drive continuous improvement across our lending processes.

This is a key leadership role for someone eager to learn the Heartland business and take the next step in their leadership career.

What you’ll bring

You are a confident credit professional who knows Heartland inside out and is ready to step into leadership. You make sound lending decisions under pressure, communicate clearly, and naturally support and guide others.

You build strong relationships across the business, keep workflows moving, and stay calm when things get busy. You are improvement‑minded, customer‑focused, and consistently model Heartland’s values while lifting the performance and culture of the team.

What you’ll do

As Team Leader – Consumer Lending, you’ll lead the performance and capability of the Consumer Credit team, ensuring high‑quality, customer‑focused credit outcomes across Personal and Motor Lending.

You’ll balance operational delivery with people leadership, escalation management, and continuous improvement, while building strong relationships across Heartland and the intermediary network.

• Lead the delivery of high‑quality credit decisions across Personal and Motor Lending, using your strong knowledge of Heartland systems and policies

• Manage day‑to‑day team operations, including queue management, workflow prioritisation, rostering, leave planning, and SLA delivery

• Act as the first point of escalation for complex credit decisions, customer complaints, and queries from Credit Managers (CMs), Relationship Managers (RMs), and introducers

• Complete Delegated Lending Authority (DLA) co‑signing and approvals

• Monitor credit quality and trends, contributing to auto‑decisioning enhancements and continuous improvement initiatives

• Build strong relationships with intermediaries, third‑party partners, and internal stakeholders to support effective risk‑reward outcomes

• Deliver regular performance reporting, ensuring results are accurate, consistent, and customer‑focused

• Lead, coach, and manage direct reports, including performance reviews, monthly one‑on‑ones, and ongoing development conversations

• Facilitate upskilling activities, workshops, and targeted training to lift team capability

• Support the onboarding and development of new starters

• Provide ad hoc operational support, including support for Auto Lending activity as required

You’ll gain

Stepping into this role gives you the chance to stretch your leadership muscles and take real ownership of how Consumer Lending operates at Heartland. You’ll deepen your credit expertise, gain exposure to strategic decision‑making, and build strong connections across Consumer, Risk, Operations, Sales, and our intermediary network.

You’ll have a front‑row seat to shaping smarter processes, improving auto‑decisioning, and influencing how we deliver for customers. This role puts you in front of senior leaders, opens doors for future progression, and gives you the opportunity to lead a talented team while making a visible impact on the way Heartland lends.

A bit about us and what we do
Heartland is an NZX/ASX-listed financial services group with big growth plans. Heartland Group owns both Heartland Bank in New Zealand and Heartland Bank in Australia. We provide award-winning savings and finance products to a diverse range of customers including business owners, farmers and retirees. Heartland's strategy is to digitalise everything we do, enabling us to provide customers with what they need in a scalable way. We can then pass those benefits onto our customers through faster service and better rates.

Can you see yourself here?
We're innovative and always evolving. We work together as one team and have big ambition. We're committed to creating a culture of inclusivity that celebrates our diverse backgrounds and supports the wellbeing of our people. We offer real opportunities for learning and career development. You can also drive change through our internal groups (including Manawa Whenua - our Māori group, the Rainbow Committee, Diversity & Inclusion Committee and our Green Team).

Diversity & Inclusion
At Heartland, we're proud to celebrate the many characteristics that make each of us different. We embrace diversity in all its forms and believe in creating an environment that helps us better understand and serve our customers. As a Living Wage Employer, a Hearing Accredited Workplace, and a Rainbow Tick certified organisation, we're committed to doing right by our people.

Keen to learn more?
For an insight into life at Heartland, check out our Instagram @heartlandbanknz or follow us on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/heartland-bank-nz.