Head of Lender Partnerships

We're REA

With bold and ambitious goals, REA Group is changing the way the world experiences property. No matter where you're at on your property journey, we're here to help with every step – whether that's finding or financing your next home.

Our people are the key to our success. At the heart of everything we do, is a thriving culture centred around high performance and care. We are purpose driven and collaborative, which drives innovation and our ability to make a real impact. As such, we're proud to have been named in Australia's "Top 5" Best Workplaces two years in a row, as well as being recognised as a Best Workplace for Women.

Where the Financial Services Group fits in

We aspire to make it easy to connect property and finance with our goal to be the #1 destination to find and finance property. We want to be the trusted destination to easily find and finance property for those using realestate.com.au for their property search. Given the opportunity of the size of that audience, the FS vision is to integrate a consumer's property search with finance though a world class digital seamless process.

This will be achieved by building innovative consumer search and property finance application experiences that integrate the mortgage distribution channels of digital, phone and face to face. The financial services team is accountable for strategy development and execution, working with our banking and mortgage broker partners to build our capability and product offerings, leading sales management and engaging across the other lines of business in REA.

Within the Financial Services Group, the partnership panel team works hand in hand across the teams to deliver outcomes to help brokers grow their businesses and ensure we have a panel of lenders that is broad enough to meet consumer demand. In addition, the role will work with other parts of REA to ensure we make the most of the relationships we have with all lenders on the panel.

What the role is all about

• Lead and manage the Lender Partnership team, including Lender Partnerships Managers, and Analysts responsible for bank/lender relationships
• Oversee and develop strategic partnerships with panel lenders and banks, ensuring alignment with Mortgage Choice and REA's commercial objectives and supporting the growth of the mortgage network. This includes the negotiation of the Partnership Development (PDP) funding.
• Unlock synergies with relevant customers (i.e., banks), acting as a key relationship manager and primary point of escalation for major partners
• Collaborate closely with Distribution, Operations, Franchise, Product, and Marketing functions to maximise partnership outcomes, deliver value to brokers and consumers, and evolve the Mortgage Choice offering
• Work with the broader REA team to ensure that the Group maximises the relationships with Lenders for the benefit of both parties.
• Drive initiatives that support lender onboarding, relationship management, and ongoing panel performance (including the evaluation and optimisation of lender products and services)
• Influence and contribute to strategies for panel management, including optimising lender mix, improving terms, and negotiating panel agreements in alignment with the broader Financial Services strategy
• Monitor market trends, competitor activity, and regulatory changes impacting lender partnerships; ensuring Mortgage Choice maintains a strong competitive position and compliance stance.
• Represent Mortgage Choice to external stakeholders (lender partners, industry bodies), advocating for the needs of the broker and franchisee network.
• Work with internal risk, compliance, legal, and operations teams to ensure all lender relationships meet regulatory, reputational, and operational requirements.
• Develop, track, and report on partnership performance KPIs, supporting executive and board-level insights and continuous improvement.
• Lead, coach, and develop team members to ensure ongoing capability uplift in partnership management and bank engagement.

Who we're looking for

• Extensive experience in mortgage, banking, or financial services, primarily in partner management, lender relations, or channel strategy.
• Demonstrated ability to build and manage strategic partnerships at a senior level across banks and financial institutions.
• Proven leadership and people management skills, including experience leading cross-functional or partnership teams.
• Strong commercial acumen to align partnership work with business growth, negotiate agreements, and drive outcomes.
• In-depth knowledge of mortgage lending products, industry trends, and regulatory requirements.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement and communication skills with credibility at executive and industry levels.
• Proven record of delivering operational improvements and partnership innovations using market insights and feedback.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with product, distribution, marketing, risk, and compliance teams.
• Looks at tricky situations through a solutions-focused lens
• Ability to exceed customer service expectations
• Work productively in a fast paced and agile environment – #gsd (urban dictionary will help on this one)

The REA experience

The physical, mental, emotional and financial health of our people is something we'll never stop caring about. This is a place to learn and grow.

• A hybrid and flexible approach to working
• Flexible leave options including, birthday leave and purchase additional leave
• Flexible parental leave offering for primary and secondary carers
• Our Because We Care program offers employees volunteering leave, community grants, matched payroll giving and our Community Café donates 100% of revenue to charity
• Hackdays so you can bring your big ideas to life

Our commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

We are committed to providing a working environment that embraces and values diversity, equity and inclusion. We believe teams with diverse ideas and experiences are more creative, more effective and fuel disruptive thinking. If you've got the skills, dedication and enthusiasm to learn but don't necessarily meet every single point on the job description, please still get in touch.

Like a lot of companies, we have perps out there who like to 'phish' and have had a few recent instances of people pretending to be from REA and making offers of employment, on the condition that they transfer money for security checks.

Take a look inside our Sydney office, right in the heart of the city.