Chief Sustainability Officer — Corporate Bank

The mandate

A privately held corporate bank has made public sustainability commitments without consistently assigning operational, financial and capital ownership. Reporting teams assemble progress after decisions, while product and relationship leaders pursue deposit growth under different definitions. The board wants commitments converted into funded action and credible stakeholder evidence.

The Chief Sustainability Officer will influence approximately A$72,750 million in loans and deposits and lead around 1,050 employees and material partners. Scope includes sustainability strategy, transition pathways, product governance, portfolio measurement, operations, disclosure, partnerships and stakeholder engagement. The role is answerable to the Group Chief Executive or designated executive committee sponsor.

Public commitments will be decomposed into near-term decisions. Each needs a baseline, accountable executive, resources, milestones, evidence and consequences for delay. The CSO will distinguish enterprise ambition from obligations and prevent distant targets masking a lack of current action.

Capital integration is central. Lending, deposits, technology, data and operating investments should state sustainability consequences alongside customer demand, economics, risk and capacity. The executive will make trade-offs visible and stop initiatives that use public commitments as justification without measurable delivery.

Deposit growth requires disciplined product criteria. Customer eligibility, use, verification, pricing, treasury value, ongoing monitoring and exit should connect. Marketing cannot outrun evidence. Products should be judged by persistent relationship value and credible outcomes rather than labelled balances at period end.

Corporate-client transition pathways will be sector-specific. Relationship teams need evidence standards, milestones and escalation appropriate to customer context. Engagement counts when it changes a financing, product or portfolio decision. The bank should identify where advisory support is credible and where claims must be narrowed.

Operational ownership includes the bank’s own footprint, suppliers and workforce practices where material. Facilities, technology, travel and procurement initiatives require complete cost and control. Reporting should not substitute small visible actions for the business decisions carrying larger consequence.

Data and disclosure must be reproducible. Definitions, sources, estimations, adjustments and limitations need named owners. External reports should reconcile with planning and product decisions. Restatements and gaps must be transparent, with investment focused on information that changes action.

Partners may supply data, verification or specialist capability, but the bank retains judgement. Contracts require methodology visibility, service, security, challenge and exit. Dependency on opaque ratings or estimates will be reduced where they influence material capital choices.

The organisation will place sustainability expertise close to commercial and operating owners without absorbing their accountability. Succession should develop leaders capable of discussing economics, delivery and stakeholder consequence, not only technical disclosure.

Why this seat is open

This planned replacement provides a four-to-six-month handover with the incumbent. The sequence protects public reporting and customer commitments while enabling an orderly transfer before the next planning and deposit cycle.

What you will own

• Translate public commitments into funded operational and financial action.
• Influence sustainability across A$72,750 million of loans and deposits.
• Embed transition consequences in capital and product decisions.
• Govern deposit propositions through evidence and treasury economics.
• Build auditable data, disclosure and stakeholder reporting.
• Lead approximately 1,050 employees and partners with credible succession.
• Hold client pathways and external partners to defined evidence.
• Present the board with progress, uncertainty and corrective choices.

The first 12 months

The first 90 days should reconcile commitments, portfolio measures and capital assumptions. Meet the 30 stakeholders most consequential to delivery, including clients, investors, treasury, risk, finance, operations and data owners. Assess leaders and agree evidence gates.

Months four to nine should assign operational owners, embed investment tests and repair priority deposit criteria. Reset weak partnerships and stop claims without support. Initial value may appear through credible deposits, redirected capital, reduced reporting risk or a client pathway advanced.

By year end, auditable delivery, capital integration and credible reporting should improve repeatedly. Performance should stay inside 10% of the approved case, supported by three quarters of forecasts aligning customers, balances, cash and workforce assumptions. Priority issues require independently accepted closure; severe escalation cannot remain unresolved beyond 30 days.

What the board will measure

• Public commitments translated into funded, owned milestones.
• Capital and product choices changed through sustainability evidence.
• Deposit growth supported by persistent economics and verified criteria.
• Disclosure reconciled to operational and financial decision data.
• Preserve more than 90% of critical leaders and ready successors for 70% of direct roles.
• Partner methodologies understood, challenged and replaceable.

The person

You are a Chief Sustainability Officer, Transition Executive or Operations Strategy Leader with 18–22 years in banking or adjacent regulated services. You have converted strategy into capital and resource choices and tracked delivery through board governance.

Your accountable P&L, book, budget or portfolio has been at least A$42,200 million, and you have led 725 or more people. You can demonstrate outcomes sustained across two reporting periods.

You understand corporate banking, deposits, transition pathways and public disclosure. You can challenge commercial claims and technical methodologies while preserving credibility with clients, investors and regulators.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is A$380,000–500,000 plus annual incentive. The permanent Sydney appointment is onsite, supports international relocation and permits notice of up to six months.

Confidentiality

The bank, incumbent, commitments and client portfolio remain confidential. Further detail follows mutual interest under an undertaking; figures and context are blended.