Director of Retail Banking

Director Of Retail Banking

First Federal Bank of Kansas City (FFBKC) is one of the largest mutually owned banks in the Midwest with a 90-year history of serving the Kansas City metropolitan area. We exist to help people build a better financial future and as a mutual institution, every dollar we earn is reinvested in our customers, our communities, and our people. We are in an intentional period of growth and transformation, expanding our small business, commercial banking, and FinTech capabilities while strengthening our retail foundation and relationships.

At First Federal, you'll be supported by diverse, talented, energetic individuals moving toward a common vision of prosperity and a home for all. You'll have boundless opportunities for growth whether it's personal or professional development to reach your career goals, company events to strengthen your connections, or volunteer work to champion our community partners.

Your success is our success. When our employees feel valued, our customers feel valued, and our community grows.

The Director of Retail Banking is a visible, coaching-first leader responsible for the performance, culture, development, and training of FFBKC's nine banking centers. This is not a desk role. It is a presence role built on consistent, meaningful engagement with every banker and Banking Center Manager in the network. This leader plays a key role on the retail leadership team and is the primary advocate for retail banking within the organization. They carry a clear vision for what retail banking looks like at its best, communicate that vision with conviction, and translate it into daily direction, coaching, and accountability for their teams. They show up with an agenda and follow through on issues quickly and escalate appropriately. They know their people by name and aspiration and every person on the team feels it. Critically, this leader is the primary developer and deliverer of the sales, leadership, and customer experience (CX) training program for the retail network. Operational training is managed separately by other departments; this role owns the sales, service and leadership development function for retail exclusively. The Director of Retail Banking reports to the Chief Operating Officer and operates with a high degree of autonomy, accountability and self-direction. They are expected to bring strategic thinking, retail expertise, training capability, and execution discipline that makes the retail division run efficiently and productively. They communicate proactively, clearly, and candidly with leadership at every level.

The feedback we received from our banking center staff describes this person precisely:

• An advocate for retail banking and the people who do it every day.
• Present, visiting every banking center every two to three weeks, spending time with every team member, not just the manager and providing feedback to the Executive Leadership Team on ways to improve.
• Make people feel seen and heard.
• When there is an issue, you tackle it and follow through and your team never wonders if their concern was received.
• Balance risk and maximize opportunity within the bank's established risk appetite.
• Not afraid to change and bring your team along with you.
• Show up to every visit with a clear agenda providing education, direction, coaching, and recognition.
• Communicate a vision for retail that every team member can articulate.
• Proactive, not reactive.
• Feel like a part of the team, not above it.

Presence & Advocacy:

• Conducts regular, structured banking center visits on a minimum bi-weekly cadence, with a prepared agenda that includes education, coaching, direction, and recognition and spending time with every team member.
• Serves as the primary advocate for retail banking within the organization, ensuring the needs, wins, and voices of banking center teams are heard and acted upon at the leadership level.
• Responds to banking center concerns and issues with urgency; follows through with timely resolution and communication so teams always know where things stand.
• Builds genuine relationships with banking center staff at every level, knowing their professional goals, strengths, and development areas.

Training Design & Delivery:

• Develops, owns, facilitates, and continuously improves the retail team's sales training curriculum, customer experience (CX) training materials, and banking center manager leadership development content.
• Ensures all training content reflects current bank strategy, products, service standard, and the Hungry, Humble, Smart performance framework.
• Leads the completion and full rollout of consumer loan training across the retail network (with HELOC training to be completed within 90 days of hire).
• Partners with operational departments where training intersects with operational processes; but owns the sales, service, and leadership development curriculum exclusively.
• Measures training effectiveness through branch performance outcomes, scorecard results, and observed behavior change - revising content and delivery accordingly, ensuring that the learning is being put into action and achieving the desired results.

Vision & Direction:

• Establishes, communicates, and continuously reinforces a clear vision, budget, and scorecard for retail banking that every team member can understand and connect to their daily work.
• Translates organizational strategy into branch-level priorities and expectations; ensures teams know what they are working toward and why it matters.
• Leads change with clarity and conviction - bringing teams along through transitions rather than around them.
• Operates within and reinforces the bank's Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) rhythm: clear rocks, scorecards, structured rhythm meetings, and accountable follow-through.

Coaching & Development:

• Coaches Banking Center Managers and their teams to develop capability, not just correct behavior, by asking questions before offering solutions.
• Uses the Banking Center Team Challenge scorecard (Hungry, Humble, Smart) as the primary framework for performance conversations, development planning, and recognition.
• Develops Banking Center Managers into leaders who operate with confidence and accountability; identifies and accelerates high potential individuals.
• Builds a sales culture grounded in relationship depth and household primary, not product pushing.

Performance & Accountability:

• Drives deposit growth, net new account production, partner referrals, and consumer loan volume across all nine banking center locations.
• Owns performance against Banking Center Team Challenge targets and communicates results transparently with banking center teams and leadership.
• Manages direct reports with clear expectations, defined deadlines, and structured performance conversations.
• Monitors key retail metrics including deposit mix, household primacy, product penetration, attrition, and customer satisfaction scores.
• Executes the retail customer acquisition strategy developed in partnership with leadership, using data to inform targeting, channel allocation, and branch-level priorities.

Strategy & Partnerships:

• Partners actively in the bank's retail strategy development and the annual retail recommendation to the board.
• Partners with Commercial Banking and Treasury Management to identify and convert commercial client employees and referral opportunities into retail banking relationships.
• Collaborates with Marketing to develop targeted campaigns supporting new customer acquisition, customer retention, checking account growth, deposit growth, HELOC production, and overall relationship deepening.
• Identifies and proposes new products, services, and approaches to advance retail banking goals; stays current on internal and external market trends, competitor activity, and customer behavior.
• Uses internal and external data to analyze and recommend opportunities for growth and improved revenue.

Community & Culture:

• Maintains active community presence in the bank's markets, representing FFBKC with professionalism and purpose.
• Promotes and model's the bank's mission - helping people build a better financial future - in every customer and team interaction.
• Participates in community development activities and encourages banking center teams to do the same.
• Complies with all applicable banking laws and regulations, including, but not limited to, the Bank Secrecy Act, USA Patriot Act, and related anti-money laundering statutes; and federal consumer protection legislation and regulations.

Direct reports include Banking Center Managers across all nine locations. May include additional retail support roles as the organization evolves. Responsible for hiring, onboarding, coaching, performance management, and development of all direct reports in accordance with bank policies, practices, and applicable law. The right candidate will bring a combination of retail banking expertise, genuine people leadership, training design and facilitation skills, and the character to lead a team that is already performing well- someone to take it further, not start over.

• Humble, hungry, and smart - the Ideal Team Player standard applied across our organization.
• Kind, not just nice, and willing to deliver