Group UW Head of Operations

Whatever their stage of life, we provide over 108 million customers with the products and services they need to progress. From insurance to personal protection, and savings to wealth management, no matter the need we’re always there for them. And we’re always there for our employees. In 50 countries, we work hard to inspire pride and a sense of belonging in our people. To provide opportunities that challenge them, inspire them, and reward them. And to create a culture that’s open, supportive, and empowering. Because we know that’s the real secret to success – and the best way for us to keep building a better world for both our customers and the talented people who put them first.

YOUR WORK ENVIRONMENT :

The headquarters of the AXA Group (GIE AXA) brings together our corporate activities. It provides guidance and support to subsidiaries around the world, to ensure the coordination and monitoring of the Group's global strategy, the application of its standards, the consistency of commercial approaches and the sharing of best practices. The headquarters gathers approximately 1000 employees and is distinguished by its strong international culture (45 nationalities), which makes it a rich and stimulating place to work.

Within the Group, you will join the Group Underwriting Office , a newly created department to steer the performance of our insurance portfolio and support our reinforced focus on technical excellence. The platform will also contribute to define our global ambition and approach to new emerging risks related to the energy transition and cyber in the coming years.

Within this Department, you will be part of the team Group CUO Operations & Transformation , a newly created strategic function (& trusted partner) within AXA GUO and AXA GIE; enabling the GUO Organisation, through partnership, collaboration, support and a continuous improvement / simplification mindset.

Our goal is to empower and simplify our organization, improve engagement across the AXA Group (GIE), underwriting community & create a meaningful, measurable impact. We do this by consistently collaborating with key stakeholders across AXA GIE functions, GUO and entities to drive the strategic priorities, with a disciplined approach, change management, clear communication and investing in our key strategic priorities.

YOUR JOB AND DAILY MISSIONS :

Job purpose

The job purpose is to create, drive and enable across the GUO and the GIE and entities more broadly, across multiple topics; AXA GO/TDO, Global Business Services (GBS – AXA’s Service Centre), Procurement of Data / Ai, and Finance. In addition, to managing the GUO budget to ensure we invest in our Technical Excellence strategy and supporting the Head of Group Transformation & Operations with administrative and on operational and ad-hoc topics and priorities.

Dimensions

GUO teams (around 180+ permanent staff in France & Spain) GIE AXA entities

Context & Major Challenges

The newly created Global Chief Underwriting Office is accountable for establishing, enabling, and driving profit and growth through Product Underwriting Strategy, Portfolio Design and Technical Underwriting Excellence in partnership with the AXA Entities, for both Commercial and Retail.

The CUO Transformation & Operations team, under the leadership of the Head of Group CUO Transformation & Operations, is responsible for driving the strategy of CUO & its execution at all levels.

Key Accountabilities

You will lead on topics and provide support to the Head of Group Transformation & Operations, working closely with all members the Group Transformation & Operations Team, GUO team, across GIE, entities as necessary and facilitate teamwork across department(s).

This role will act as a key facilitator to address requests and expectations of internal and external stakeholders.

The role will also drive high level projects and coordinates complex and confidential information to facilitate decision making. This role therefore requires you to maintain strict confidentiality regarding sensitive business and employee information.

You will be accountable for:

AXA GUO Engagement

Leading GUO engagement with Group functions ( GO / TDO), on both the day-to-day topics and strategic topics TDO for Support & Control Functions (SCF). Act as GUO SPoC (Single Point of Contact). In respect of GO and GIE IT, act as the GUO IT Demand and Project Portfolio Manager. Leading the work necessary to define the GUO ‘demands and needs’ , through process analysis & design; scoping business requirements, working with key stakeholders within GUO and external to the GUO, and documenting our business requirements. Stakeholder management - Lead governance to support the structuring of GUO ‘demands and needs’ and ensuring that these requirements, are gathered in a structured considered way, and socialized with key stakeholders prior to finalization. Ensuring all stakeholders (GUO LT, GUO employees, and other key stakeholders) are brought along, and any challenges, risks or issues, are understood, and resolved. Communications – ensure simple and clear proactive communication to stakeholders on topics and not waiting for steerco’s to raise issues, anticipate early and seek to resolve. Establish a network of SME (Subject Matter Experts) to support delivery of business requirements, and ensure to resolve pain points.

AXA GUO Procurement and Outsourced services

Accountable for GUO Procurement and outsourced services, and developing a clear strategic roadmap, to support GUO Technical Excellence ambitions and monitoring to ensure we achieve them.

Procurement

Ensuring that GUO follows Group and / or GIE Procurement process for all existing and new external partnerships, on time and ensure that payments are made in a timely fashion Create and maintain a GUO register of external partnerships (within entities and across Group), capturing key metrics Understand with the GUO LT new Partnerships and support onboarding of Partners with our Group Procurement processes. Drive efficiency, at each stage, understand opportunities for cost savings, through negotiating with partners at a group level, where appropriate. Develop / ensure clear business requirements for our outsourced relationships with clear KPI’s, and ongoing monitoring and early resolution of issues/blockers.

Outsourced Services

Develop a strategic roadmap, to support GUO ambitions, and leveraging outsourced services GBS/ESS, to partner with GUO on the delivery of its roadmap. Develop business requirements, processes designs, for all processes and or responsibilities transferred to outsources service partners, and proactively monitor the transfer of accountabilities, using KPI’s and Data to support sign off / formal handover of work transferred, including; accuracy, timeliness, and quality. Maintain regular, engagement with outsources partners to monitor work (BAU and projects/transfers), with clearly defined service KPI’s to support ongoing monitor of work quality and service. Use data, and feedback from partners/users of outsourced services, to identify any service issues, and proactively resolve issues, before matters become critical. Ensure clear and proactive communication to all stakeholders. Escalate any issues to Senior Management and Service Management Team as necessary.

Plus other ad-hoc requirements.

GUO Budget

Accountable for the AXA GUO Budget. Taking a strategic view of the GUO financial plan, to ensure that we are looking long term, and decisions made today reflect and support our long term strategy (12 / 24 months in advance as part of our strategic planning to support investment in or Technical Excellence Plan). Specific accountabilities include (but not exhaustive): Creation of a GUO Financial / Budget process to support the creation and management of GUO Budget. And Cost Centre owners (as applicable) Working with the GUO LT to set the budget, based on priorities and ensuring investment in to key strategic priorities. Budget submission, using planning tool. Ensure the planning / budget and reforecast timelines are understood and achieved. Manage accruals for the GUO, and ensure they are submitted within the overall AXA Group timeframe Regular (monthly) and ad-hoc reporting to the GUO LT on actuals vs budget Actively look to achieve savings, through analysis, to support reinvestment into GUO Technical Excellence priorities. Tracking, monitoring, and reporting of savings o Partnering with AXA CFO reporting Team to ensure budget is understood. Manage ad-hoc questions and topics.

Support to Head of GUO Transformation & Operations

In addition, you will be accountable for, providing administrative support to the Group UW Head of Transformation & Operations .

Lead meetings and workshops with careful planning and coordination and supporting the sequencing and preparation of meetings with key internal stakeholders and others key external stakeholders, including entities. Ensuring agenda, clear outcomes, and minutes, identify participants, track deliverables/outcomes. This may include fostering collaboration and alignment across the Group’s top management and their direct reports. Steering strategic projects and initiatives from beginning to completion, with your roles / functions scope Complete special projects and initiatives with oversight and support Identify and address issues with operational processes and procedures Prepare and modify documents including correspondence, reports, drafts, memos powerpoints, and emails o Establish and leverage a strong network of relationships with internal and external stakeholders to develop and deliver coordinated views around GUO, Transformation & Operations Management topics etc Perform other duties as assigned

Support the team

Responsible for relaying key business information between Transformation & Operations (T&O) Team Work closely with the other T&O Leaders to develop and implement a long-term vision and strategy

plus other ad-hoc requirements required from time to time.

Your Profile

Main competencies and experience

Competencies

Demonstrates the ability to drive change in a matrix & international environment Shows the ability to understand a simplify key messages and communications Can develop and maintain productive working relationships with internal and external stakeholders Has the ability to provide guidance and seek input from others as needed to achieve the best result possible Can work and collaborate with a virtual team, across multiple diverse geographies and cultures Has excellent verbal and written communication, collaboration, and presentation skills Has excellent financial and analytical skills Knows how to use judgment to identify and solve day to day problems in straightforward situations Demonstrates the ability to interrogate reports & surveys and identify trends & provide insights to leadership Demonstrates ability to build strong engagement and partnership relationships with ones own function and other functions and Teams to deliver results. Has knowledge of procurement and budget and business processes, preferably at AXA

Behaviours  

Self aware Collaborative Builds trust Good listening skills to build consensus Excellent communication skills (oral and written) Comfortable with ambiguity Strong relationship builder Flexible & willing to say ‘I don’t know, let me find the answer’ Humble enough to listen to others who have the expertise and build relationships Change agent Not afraid to challenge the status quo Culturally sensitive to difference Patience & the ability to take time to learn

Languages

Fluent French Fluent English Spanish is a plus

Experience

Experience in helping establish & execute a strategy at regional/global level, preferably involving multiple organizations from different countries Proven experience interacting with Senior leaders and evolving in matrixed environments Experience in managing BU budget (5+ years), Experience in procurement strategy (outsourcing, setting up managed services, offshoring) Experience in creating Business engagement & partnerships, to deliver results, and working with stakeholders at all levels of the NJANDA to manage change and advance business topics. Experience in using budget & reporting tools (Anaplan, PowerBI) will be a plus
About AXA

Why AXA ? Every day, we work together for human progress by protecting what matters. A mission that puts a smile on your face and makes you want to get up in the morning

One of the world's leading insurers in the protection of property, people and assets, AXA is 145,000 employees and contributors who are committed to our customers on a daily basis, 51 countries in which we distribute our products and services and more than 90 million customers who place their trust in us worldwide. As a responsible corporate citizen, AXA is committed to social and environmental causes on a daily basis. We are committed to an inclusive policy that recognizes and values individual differences. Do these ambitions speak to you ? Then come and change the world with us

About the Entity

The headquarters of the AXA Group is based in Paris - La Défense (Majunga Tower) and brings together the Group's corporate activities. It is distinguished by its strong international culture.

What We Offer

You will join:

A responsible company, towards people, including its employees and customers, and towards the planet  A company with strong values A company promoting internal mobility and the training of its employees A flexible company, allowing hybrid work, in the office and from home.

The information provided by applicants will be treated as strictly confidential and used for recruitment purposes only.
 

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