• Enable growth through strategic risk
• Customer-owned bank backing teachers and nurses
• Protecting members in moments that matter

Yours for the making 

Forget what you think you know about banking. We do things differently here. We exist to back teachers and nurses — building a bank designed entirely around them.

 

We’re a customer-owned Australian bank with a clear purpose: making every money moment better. While our organisation has evolved, that deep connection to our purpose is stronger than ever. And now, we're scaling new heights. We’re more than a bank — we’re building something that gives back in real, everyday ways.

The difference you’ll make

As a Chief Risk Officer (CRO), you are a critical member of the executive team, key adviser to the Board and Risk Committee and accountable for enterprise risk leadership across the Bank. You’ll champion the Risk Management Framework, risk appetite setting, prudential and conduct risk outcomes, operational resilience, third-party risk and regulatory engagement. A central responsibility is embedding risk thinking into first-line decision-making — not through documentation, but through practical guardrails that allow management to move with confidence and clarity. Success will be measured by the CRO's integration as a trusted executive team peer, the confidence of the Board and Risk Committee in the annual risk program, and demonstrable capability uplift across the risk function and the broader organisation.

 

Who we’re looking for

You’re a senior risk leader with substantive experience in an APRA regulated banking or financial services environment, with credibility earned through judgement and outcomes rather than process compliance. Your approach to risk is enabling rather than defensive — you understand that clear guardrails accelerate pace, and you are skilled at translating risk appetite into practical decision-making frameworks that first-line leaders actually use. Comfortable operating in ambiguity and at the edge of certainty, you quickly earn trust in advising executives on complex trade-offs and calling issues early and clearly. Your background includes prudential and conduct risk, operational resilience, financial crime, and regulatory engagement, and you have worked alongside technology or platform transformation at meaningful scale. Equally, you genuinely value people and are a capable people leader — able to develop a commercially literate, member-centred risk team while building genuine relationships across the executive. You are commercially literate, attuned to pace, and genuinely motivated by the kind of purpose-driven mission that Bank First represents.

Why Bank First?

Our priority isn’t just profit. It’s about giving back. This unique balance of accountability and social purpose is how we succeed and make a positive difference in our communities and for our people. 

At Bank First, you’ll find: 

 

• The chance you’ve been waiting to take: You won’t be boxed in — you’ll shape a career that sets you apart. 
• The difference you’re ready to make: Building our bold legacy and do what other banks don’t and better serve teachers and nurses.
• The bank you’ll want to create: Shaping the future of purpose-driven banking with a team that values you as a whole person.  

Ready to make your mark?

To apply for this role, click ‘Apply’ and submit your CV along with a covering letter. For more information prior to application, please contact Andrew Richards at SHK on 0422 279 039 or via email at andrew.richards@shk.com.au, quoting reference 3597567. Direct and third-party applications will be forwarded to SHK.