Open Finance & Payment Standards Lead

Westpac New Zealand; Wellington; On-site; NZD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Holiday leave

Wellbeing leave

Leave options

Banking benefits

Parental leave

Volunteer days

Job summary

Westpac New Zealand seeks a senior leader to drive industry participation, governance and strategy across Open Finance, Digital Identity and diverse payment rails. You will align enterprise payments objectives, guide regulatory engagement and oversee cross‑domain initiatives that strengthen resilience and customer outcomes.

You will lead a team of payment specialists, partner with regulators and standards bodies, and shape enterprise positions on reform and ecosystem change while delivering

Qualifications

• Experience in payments, transaction banking, Open Finance, Digital Identity, financial services or a related regulated industry.
• Deep understanding of payment systems, industry standards, participation frameworks, regulatory obligations and payment ecosystem governance.
• Demonstrated experience representing an organisation with regulators, industry bodies, standards organisations, payment networks and ecosystem participants.
• Experience developing enterprise strategies, influencing industry outcomes and shaping organisational positions on regulatory reform, standards development and ecosystem change.
• Strong leadership capability, including leading teams of specialist subject matter experts and delivering outcomes through others.
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the ability to build alignment across executive leaders, business units and external stakeholders.
• Strong strategic thinking and analytical capability, with the ability to assess industry developments and translate them into enterprise recommendations and priorities.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including experience preparing executive papers, Board materials, consultation responses, submissions and strategic recommendations

Responsibilities

• Lead Westpac New Zealand's industry participation, ecosystem engagement and payment standards activities across Open Finance, Digital Identity, Domestic Payments, Consumer Payment Systems and High Value and International Payments.
• Lead the development and coordination of payment rail strategies and industry positions, ensuring alignment with Westpac's enterprise payments strategy and future-state objectives.
• Provide leadership and oversight across payment rail domains, ensuring effective governance, industry representation, management of industry obligations, and coordinated delivery of industry, regulatory and standards change.
• Lead Westpac New Zealand's enterprise strategy and industry position across Open Finance, Digital Identity, Domestic Payments, Consumer Payment Systems, and High Value and International Payments, ensuring alignment with the bank's broader payments strategy and future-state objectives.
• Establish and operate governance frameworks for payment rails, industry standards and participation obligations, ensuring regulatory requirements, industry commitments and payment-system obligations are identified, understood, assigned, monitored and met across the organisation.
• Lead Westpac's engagement with regulators, industry bodies, standards organisations and ecosystem participants, ensuring effective representation and influence across Payments NZ, Open Finance, Digital Identity, SWIFT and other relevant industry forums.
• Oversee the assessment, prioritisation and coordination of industry, regulatory and standards change, ensuring impacts, risks, opportunities and delivery requirements are understood and translated into clear business, technology, operational and strategic outcomes.
• Provide executive oversight of payment rail strategies, industry positioning, standards development and ecosystem evolution, ensuring Westpac is well positioned to respond to emerging industry trends and future payments-system developments.
• Lead and develop a team of high-performing payment industry professionals, ensuring strong domain expertise, effective industry representation, consistent strategic alignment and delivery of outcomes that improve customer experience, strengthen resilience and reduce risk across Payments.
• Perform related duties as assigned, within the scope of role and as required by senior leadership

Job description

Westpac New Zealand seeks a senior leader to drive industry participation, governance and strategy across Open Finance, Digital Identity and diverse payment rails. You will align enterprise payments objectives, guide regulatory engagement and oversee cross‑domain initiatives that strengthen resilience and customer outcomes.

You will lead a team of payment specialists, partner with regulators and standards bodies, and shape enterprise positions on reform and ecosystem change while delivering