Senior Manager, Small Business Lending

Export Finance Australia; Sydney; Hybrid; AUD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Great Place to Work

Hybrid work environment

Parental leave

Job summary

Export Finance Australia is seeking a Senior Manager, Small Business Lending in Sydney to own the credit assessment process from application through to signing, in collaboration with an Associate Director. You will maximise the Small Business channel by advancing applications and ensuring compliance with KYC/AML guidelines.

The role requires strong credit acumen, relationship management, and the ability to partner with internal teams to drive deal conversions while maintaining robust data and

Qualifications

• Experience in business lending and customer success or business development.
• Strong credit writing and assessment skills.
• Ability to build relationships with customers and internal partners.

Responsibilities

• Own and drive credit assessment to signing with Associate Director.
• Drive progress of Small Business applications (credit, environmental & social, mandate).
• Review applications and gather information for pre-screen and credit analysis.
• Collaborate with Credit Risk and internal partners to optimise approvals and ensure KYC/AML compliance.
• Maintain CRM data accuracy and pipeline records.

Skills

Business lending

Credit writing

Credit assessment

Relationship management

Regulatory knowledge

Communication skills

Job description

• Join an organisation that has been proudly recognised and certified as a Great Place to Work for five consecutive years
• Hybrid work environment
• Play an impactful role in financing Australian exports and interests
• 12 month Fixed Term Contract

ABOUT OUR ORGANISATION

Location: Sydney

Role Type: Full-time, Temporary (12 months)

For almost 70 years, Export Finance Australia has helped Australian businesses grow and succeed internationally with finance to secure opportunities, expand into new markets and diversify their presence. We support critical minerals and defence sectors, finance projects that strengthen economic resilience and advance net zero, and back Australian investment in sustainable infrastructure.

Working with banks, other Government agencies and international partners, we back Australia’s exporters, supply chain businesses and industries, contributing to a more stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific while advancing Australia’s trade, investment and economic security objectives.

The Senior Manager, Small Business Lending is a critical role to ensure the overall performance of the Small Business pipeline to help us deliver our customer growth objectives. This includes owning and proactively driving application approvals and conversions, optimising the customer experience and ensuring customers progress through the application process and Small Business pipeline as the primary credit assessor.

• Ownership and accountability for managing credit assessment to actively drive these to signing, in conjunction with an Associate Director. This requires a strong skillset in helping customers and to establish relationships with internal stakeholders, as well as excellent credit acumen.
• Maximise opportunities for the Small Business channel by actively driving the progress of applications, including screening applications from credit, environmental & social, and Export Finance Australia mandate perspective.
• Review applications and prepare the submission for pre-screen and credit analysis including obtaining additional information or documents as required, whilst thoroughly understanding the customer’s business and its needs.
• Utilise credit and finance knowledge to work collaboratively with the Credit Risk team and other internal partners to optimise approvals and ensure KYC/AML compliance.
• Meticulous approach to data entry and records management to maintain customer pipeline data in the CRM, ensuring system/reporting accuracy, capturing new data as required, and updating existing information.
• Support the ongoing management of customers who have breeches and non-performing loans.

QUALIFICATIONS & SKILLS

• Previous experience in business lending, with minimum 5 years’ experience in customer success or business development. Proven experience in managing business or other lending applications with customers
• Stong Credit writing and credit assessment skills are vital.
• Understanding of the business fundamentals, how businesses scale and their financial requirements during the growth cycle.
• Credit assessment, risk and regulatory knowledge to assist in driving conversion of deals through to approval.
• Relationship skills – proven ability to build and maintain strong relationships with key customers, driving business outcomes including conversion, satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy.
• Ability to articulate EFA’s suite of products and understand how the Small Business channels can help customers through a variety of financing solutions.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to engage with business customers and establish strong internal relationships throughout the origination process, such as credit and legal, to drive the outcome.

Even if you haven’t ticked every box but this role resonates with you, don't rule yourself out just yet, we'd love to hear from you!

OUR BENEFITS & CULTURE

We are small enough to have an impact, BIG enough to make a world of difference and it starts with our people.

We support flexible working and pride ourselves in fostering a culture that is inclusive, diverse and collaborative. We are proud to be certified as a Great Place to Work, recognised on the 2023 AFR BOSS Best Places to Work list and listed as one of Australia’s Best Workplaces for Women in 2025.

In line with our commitment to our people, we have a comprehensive array of benefits available to our employees:

• Generous leave provisions (e.g. Annual Wellbeing day) & leave purchase opportunities
• 18 weeks paid parental leave for primary care givers
• Thorough induction onboarding program
• Fitness Passport along with other Health & Wellbeing initiatives
• Gender affirmation leave
• Income Protection Insurance
• Community volunteering
• and many more!

Our headoffice is based in Sydney CBD, and we have a national presence across Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.

ELIGIBILITY

Australian Citizenship - To be eligible to apply for this position, applicants must hold Australian Citizenship at the time of application.

Security Clearance - To be eligible to apply for this position, applicants must be able to obtain and maintain a Baseline security clearance.

We invite and welcome applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people from diverse cultural backgrounds, people with disability and members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

If you are a candidate with a disability, let us know how we can provide you with additional support.

ABOUT EXPORT FINANCE AUSTRALIA

Export Finance Australia is Australia’s export credit agency.

The reason our people join us, stay with us and grow with us is because they wholeheartedly believe in our purpose. They can see the impact we create for our customers.

We are a highly purpose-driven organisation. We seek to create an inclusive culture that values our customers and employees. Our people are expected to champion this and play a key role in achieving those outcomes. In working towards our strategy, our people display our IMPACT leadership behaviours of Frank & Fearless, Dexterous & Agile and Careful & Diligent

For more information about us, please refer to our website.

Applications from recruitment agencies will not be considered on this occasion.