Operations Senior - Payments & Cash

ASB Bank; Auckland; Hybrid; NZD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Wellbeing initiatives

Parental and flexible leave

Customisable benefits

Flexible working environment

Job summary

ASB Bank is seeking an Operations Senior to lead a high-performing Payments and Cash Support team. You’ll support and enable exceptional service while balancing customer, business and risk outcomes.

You’ll act as a trusted 2IC to your manager, driving performance, capability and process improvements. Ideal candidates have 3–5 years in operations within banking/financial services, strong customer service and stakeholders management, and a data-informed approach to decision making.

Qualifications

• 3–5 years’ experience in operations, ideally within banking, financial services, payments or cash operations.
• Strong customer service, stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Proven ability to deliver results with accountability and ownership.
• Strong problem-solving, attention to detail and data-informed decision making.

Responsibilities

• Deliver excellent customer and stakeholder outcomes across payment, cash and operational support activities.
• Act as a key escalation and decision point, applying sound judgement across service and risk considerations.
• Support the smooth running of operational work, including queue management and performance outcomes.
• Support payroll platform activity, client set-up requirements and Direct Debit exception management.
• Oversee cash-related processes: ATM loading, cash orders/returns, and related RBNZ activities.
• Support settlements across vaults with other banks and RBNZ.
• Assist trace requests, investigations and recovery of direct credits.
• Analyze operational performance and uplift service and productivity outcomes.
• Lead exception management, investigations and problem solving with end-to-end mindset.
• Support delivery of operational and change initiatives and embed improvements.
• Strengthen risk management, controls and compliance within the team.
• Support manager in building capability, culture and governance.

Skills

Operations experience

Customer service

Stakeholder management

Communication skills

Data-informed decision making

Job description

At ASB, our purpose is to help our customers get one step ahead. Within Enterprise Operations, we play a critical role in delivering great customer outcomes by continuously improving how we work, strengthening our risk environment, and ensuring operational excellence across the bank.

We’re looking for an Operations Senior to join our Payments and Cash Support team, a specialist operational team that supports key payment and cash processes across ASB. The team manages ASB direct by monitoring the payments platform that bureaus submit payrolls through, supports the set-up of clients, and manages Direct Debit exceptions that flow through this platform.

This team also plays an important role in ASB’s cash operations, including managing the Armourguard relationship, ATM loading and cash returns, cash orders and returns to RBNZ for Advice Centres, and floats for commercial customers. The team also performs settlements across vaults with other banks and RBNZ, processes trace requests across domestic banks for customers, and supports the investigation and recovery of direct credits through Direct Credit Recovery.

Mō te Tūranga | About the role

This is a hands‑on operational leadership role where you’ll support and enable a high‑performing team to deliver exceptional service while balancing customer, business and risk outcomes.

You’ll act as a trusted 2IC to your manager, helping to drive performance, uplift capability, and identify opportunities to improve processes, systems and ways of working. You’ll also play a key role in managing escalations, supporting change, and embedding a strong risk and continuous improvement culture.

Key responsibilities include:

• Delivering excellent customer and stakeholder outcomes across payment, cash and operational support activities.
• Acting as a key escalation and decision point, applying sound judgement across service, risk and policy considerations.
• Supporting the smooth running of operational work, including queue management, prioritisation, workflow allocation and performance outcomes.
• Supporting the team with ASB direct payroll platform activity, client set‑up requirements and Direct Debit exception management.
• Helping oversee cash‑related operational processes, including ATM loading, cash orders, cash returns, RBNZ‑related activity and commercial customer floats.
• Supporting settlements activity across vaults with other banks and RBNZ.
• Supporting trace requests, investigations and recovery of direct credits through Direct Credit Recovery processes.
• Analysing operational performance, identifying insights, and taking action to uplift service and productivity outcomes.
• Leading and supporting exception management, investigations and problem solving with an end‑to‑end process mindset.
• Supporting delivery of operational and change initiatives, embedding improvements into business‑as‑usual.
• Strengthening risk management practices, controls and compliance across the team.
• Supporting your manager in building capability, culture and strong operational governance.

You’ll be a strong operator with a customer‑first mindset, who enjoys working in a fast‑paced environment and taking ownership of outcomes. You’re confident navigating complexity, supporting others, and continuously improving how things are done.

Ideally, you’ll bring:

• 3–5 years’ experience in operations, ideally within banking, financial services, payments, cash operations or a related environment.
• Strong customer service, stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Proven experience delivering results with a high level of accountability and ownership.
• Strong problem‑solving capability, attention to detail, and data‑informed decision making.
• Confidence working with operational processes where accuracy, controls and timely outcomes are critical.
• Experience supporting escalations, exceptions, investigations or complex operational queries.
• An understanding of payment operations, cash operations, settlements, payroll platforms, Direct Debits, traces or Direct Credit Recovery would be highly regarded.
• Experience identifying and driving continuous improvement initiatives and challenging the status quo.
• Understanding of operational frameworks such as Lean, DMAIC, Agile or similar would be beneficial.
• Ability to balance customer, business and risk considerations in decision making.
• A proactive, collaborative mindset with the flexibility to support team and business needs.

He aha tā mātou | What can we offer

Get the work‑life equation right.

We know life is full of priorities, from soccer practice to side hobbies. We're here to help you find balance, with a flexible and supportive working environment.

What's important to you is important to us.

We support your wellbeing in meaningful ways, including comprehensive health insurance, wellness initiatives, parental and flexible leave, and customisable benefits to suit your lifestyle.

Bring your whole self to work every day.

Whether you're into scrap booking, spontaneous karaoke sessions, or just spending time with whānau, ASB is working hard to create a culture where everyone feels safe, included and part of our shared purpose.

The whole “one step ahead” thing applies to you, too.

With learning opportunities, mentorship and career pathways, ASB is a place where you can grow and take the next step in your career.

To serve a diverse community, we need a diverse organisation. We encourage applicants from allbackgrounds who bring unique perspectives and thinking styles that add to the culture andperformance of our team.