Head of Corporate Strategy

Company Description

Forward with Cuscal 

At Cuscal, our Commercial and Business teams are the backbone of our organisation. From supporting clients and driving growth to ensuring compliance, managing finances, and fostering a positive workplace culture, our people play a vital role in achieving our commercial objectives while staying true to our values. 

If you’re looking for a role where your skills and ideas make a real impact, join us to help shape the future of payments in Australia.

Job Description

The Head of Strategy is accountable for shaping Cuscal’s corporate strategy, long-range planning, value creation agenda, and M&A and corporate development activities. Reporting to the Chief Strategy Officer, this role provides strategic insight, analysis and advice to support decision-making by the Executive Leadership Team, and Board.

The role will help to define Cuscal’s long-term direction by identifying growth opportunities, emerging risks and market disruptions, and ensuring investment and capital allocation decisions are aligned to enterprise priorities. Working across the Group, the Head of Strategy translates strategic ambition into executable initiatives that strengthen Cuscal’s competitive position and drive sustainable growth.

The role also leads Cuscal’s enterprise AI value creation agenda, ensuring AI investments, capabilities and use cases are aligned to business priorities and focused on delivering measurable value. In addition, the Head of Strategy must ensure adherence to internal policies and regulatory requirements, proactively identifying, documenting and mitigating potential compliance and operational risks.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the development, stewardship and refresh of Cuscal's corporate strategy, ensuring the MD, ELT and Board have a clear view of strategic priorities, risks, opportunities and key choices.
• Lead the design and content of Board Strategy Days, Executive offsites and strategic planning forums, focusing discussions on the decisions and trade-offs that matter most.
• Develop Board papers, market assessments, scenario analyses and strategic recommendations that support high-quality Executive and Board decision-making
• Maintain an ongoing view of strategic risks, market disruption and emerging trends across customers, competitors, technology, regulation and the broader economy.
• Partner with Finance and business leaders on capital allocation and strategic investment decisions, ensuring resources are directed to the highest-value opportunities.
• Provide rigorous commercial analysis, scenario modelling and strategic recommendations on Cuscal's most significant priorities, opportunities and risks.
• Support the MD and CSO with executive presentations, conference content, industry positioning and external thought leadership that strengthens Cuscal’s market presence and strategic credibility.
• Shape and continually refine Cuscal's AI ambition, roadmap, investment priorities and value creation agenda, ensuring alignment with corporate strategy.
• Maintain an enterprise-wide view of AI opportunities, risks, market developments and emerging business models.
• Support corporate development, strategic partnership and inorganic growth opportunities through market scanning, commercial analysis and investment thesis development.
• Assess acquisition, partnership, adjacency and market expansion opportunities aligned to Cuscal's strategy and long-term value creation objectives.

Qualifications

Essential:

• 10+ years’ experience in corporate strategy, management consulting, corporate development, investment banking or strategic advisory.
• Demonstrated experience developing corporate strategy and influencing enterprise-level decisions in complex organisations.
• Proven ability to act as a trusted adviser to senior executives, with experience preparing materials for Executive Leadership Teams, Boards or Board Committees.
• Strong commercial and financial acumen, including experience with capital allocation, investment prioritisation, business case assessment, scenario analysis and value creation.
• Experience identifying and assessing strategic risks, opportunities, market disruption and competitive dynamics.
• Demonstrated experience building high-quality strategic narratives, options papers, market insights and executive-level recommendations.
• Experience working across multiple functions and influencing senior stakeholders without direct authority.
• Exposure to AI, technology-enabled transformation or digital business model change.

Highly Regarded:

• Experience in financial services, payments, banking, fintech, data, technology or regulated infrastructure businesses.
• Experience supporting corporate development, M&A, strategic partnerships or market expansion opportunities.

Additional Information

Why Cuscal? 

At Cuscal, you’ll find a strong, successful company that’s reimagining the future. And our team is right there at the heart of it all.   

Here, you’ll deliver ground-breaking work that has real impact - on Australia’s financial services sector and the millions of customers it serves. You’ll innovate alongside skilled, smart, connected teams. And you’ll build an impressive, fulfilling career that continues to grow.   

You’ll also enjoy a range of benefits, including: 

• Work in a hybrid model that supports your lifestyle and goals 

• We celebrate success: Our IGNITE program recognises individual and team achievements. 

• Wellbeing focus: We support your physical, mental, and financial health with holistic initiatives and access to discounts via ‘Cuscal Advantage.’  

Join us and reimagine the future:

If this role excites you, we’d love to explore your potential and vision for the future. For further information about this role please contact Nicola Liney at [email protected]

Cuscal is an equal opportunity employer committed to an equitable, diverse, and socially inclusive work environment and a positive, barrier-free recruitment process. We welcome applicants from an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage, people living with a disability, LGBTQIA+ and people from culturally diverse backgrounds to explore career opportunities with Cuscal.   

Note: Cuscal does not accept unsolicited resumes from recruitment agencies or search firms. 

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