Assistant Vice President/Deputy Vice President - Product Role - Life Insurance

Description:

Its a pivotal leadership role in driving strategic initiatives, ensuring operational excellence, and supporting business growth for the company. This position is responsible for aligning departmental goals with the company's overall vision, overseeing cross-functional teams, and managing high-impact projects to enhance customer experience, regulatory compliance, and profitability.

As a key member of the senior management team, provides strategic direction, monitors performance metrics, and fosters a culture of innovation and accountability. The role demands a strong understanding of the Indian life insurance market, regulatory landscape, and emerging industry trends to effectively steer the organization toward sustainable growth.

Key Responsibilities

1. Product Ideation & Market Research

- Lead end-to-end product conceptualization based on market trends, customer needs, competitor analysis, and regulatory outlook.

- Conduct primary and secondary research to identify gaps in the existing product portfolio and

assess demand for new offerings

- Work closely with sales (including banca, broking, web aggregators and individual agent), marketing, training, actuarial, underwriting and analytics teams to identify opportunities for differentiated and customer-centric products.

- Evaluate product ideas i.e. profitability, persistency and claims outlook.

- Bring innovation in Product Development i.e. Industry First or Company first design to bring disruption in the market and gain mind share of Intermediary, Partner and Agents

2. Product Design & Pricing Strategy

- Define product structure, including benefits, riders, premium payment terms, sum assured options, and bonus mechanisms (for participating products).

- Collaborate with actuarial teams to design robust pricing strategies aligned with IRDAIs guidelines and companys risk appetite.

- Ensure product design supports long-term view

- Oversee pricing frameworks for different channels to see Margins/ OPAT

3. Internal Approvals & Governance

- Present product proposals and financial impact assessments to internal stakeholders including:

- Product Committee

- Risk & Compliance Team

- CFO & CEO/Executive Management

- Align with operations, underwriting, claims, legal, IT, and servicing teams to ensure readiness for product implementation.

- Manage approval workflows, meeting documentation standards set by the companys Product Governance Framework.

4. Regulatory Filing IRDAI Coordination

- Prepare comprehensive product filing documents including:

- Sales Literature

- Policy Document

- Benefit Illustration Format

- Proposal Form

- Customer Information Sheet etc.

- Ensure that the product complies with IRDAI (Life Insurance) Regulations, 2024, and subsequent circulars/guidelines.

- Liaise with IRDAI throughout the filing process respond to queries, submit clarifications,

and ensure prompt turnaround.

- Maintain records of regulatory communication and track approval timelines to ensure on-time product launches.

5. Pre-Launch Preparation & Testing

- Develop training content, FAQs, brochures, and sales tools for internal and external distribution teams.

- Coordinate User Acceptance Testing (UAT) for system readiness

- Ensure integration with digital platforms and APIs for smooth onboarding and servicing workflows.

- Define and implement Product Launch Calendar, in sync with marketing, sales, and training departments.

- Conduct PMC and obtain necessary approvals

6. Go-to-Market strategies

- Collaborate with bancassurance, broking, agency, direct sales and digital teams to execute scalable sales strategies.

- Drive channel performance via analytic input and benchmarking

7. Product Launch & Monitoring

- Drive multi-channel product roll-out through agency, bancassurance, digital, and third-party partnerships.

- Monitor product performance using metrics such as:

- PPT, PT, ATS, Avg. SA, Plan options

- Age, Gender, Smoking status etc.

- Rider attachments, if any

- Persistency

- Conduct Post-Launch Review within 30 to 90 days to assess product success.

- Recommend tweaks or future product variants based on actual data and market feedback.

8. Regulatory & Risk Management Post-Launch

- Continuously track changes in IRDAI regulations and align future filings accordingly.

- Ensure product compliance audits and internal risk assessments are performed periodically.

- Coordinate with legal/compliance for customer grievances or regulatory escalations related to the product.

9. Stakeholder Reporting

- Present insights, business plans, and performance metrics to senior leadership and board.

- Strong market intelligence and understanding of competition landscape and share valuable insight to plan strategies

10. Team Leadership & Stakeholder Engagement

- Lead a team of product managers, Mentor, supervise and coach the team. Provide for on the job as well as classroom training for skill enhancement and ensure periodic work rotation.

- Manage relationships with internal stakeholder for constant process improvements.