Director - Service Delivery - IT Application Development & Maintenance - Insurance

Director - Service Delivery:

To direct the service delivery of the Application Development and Maintenance Division towards meeting its goals, setting its structure, strategy, staff, systems and resources required to meet plans.

To ensure that the business vertical continuously improves the service offering to Allianz through proactive and effective leadership and guidance to all direct and indirect reports. To build the customers confidence in the Allianz service offering and to deliver the Allianz corporate plan and roadmap.

The priorities for the leader include:

- Implementing the AMOS vision of digitalizing the Allianz Group and establishing the strategic mind set in the organization.

- Leading and delivering the growth strategy through identification of attractive opportunities within the Allianz Group.

- Providing leadership to the organization, to hire and retain the best talent for building a High Performing Organization.

- Ensuring sustainable growth through effective management of relationships with existing Allianz entities.

- Ensuring high levels of services delivery and client satisfaction.

- Work effectively with the peers and other divisions to apply best practices.

Maintaining an open communication channel to build a strong Allianz culture.

Duties and Responsibilities

Service Delivery

The Director would be directly responsible for the entire Application Development and Maintenance (AD&M) Division towards meeting its goals, developing strategies for excellent service offerings and exceed customer expectations, work with onshore colleagues towards building strong and trustworthy relationships that would benefit the business. The AD&M division comprises of technical IT resources, business analysts & testing resources and focuses on core insurance platforms, digital interaction platforms, data analytics, central function platforms and other legacy applications.

50%

- Drive large programs for our customers and take the lead role during senior management steering.

- Develop, maintain and enhance customer and other stake holder relationship.

- Monitor, control and track, project risks and establish measures to counter them.

- Measure and monitor customer satisfaction and proactively execute improvement plans.

- Contribute positively to organisational initiatives, by owning some of them.

- Define measure and refine delivery capabilities and improve them.

- Establish methods to achieve cost and operational efficiency.

- Plan and control the apportioned budget in line with corporate guidelines.

- Responsible for actions from corporate plan and tactical and strategic initiatives arising from the corporate plan or special events.

- Accountable for all the delivery targets for the areas responsible.

- Responsible for the achievement of the Target Operating Model and requisite Business volumes.

- Responsible for establishing and maintaining Technical or Management competency within AMOS India by taking complete ownership.

- Responsible for taking care of some of the organizational initiatives.

- Responsible for driving R&D, innovation, digitalization, permanent/reusable assets in the teams.

- Ensure timely and effective monitoring, reporting and planning of operational systems.

- Monitor progress against plans regularly and compare to service levels and forecasts.

- Ensure compliance with all relevant compliance rule books and codes of practices.

Qualifications

- Graduation in Engineering / Sciences

- Certifications in technology

- Trainings in software engineering, development methodologies, design principles, SOA, etc.

Preferred: Trainings or certifications in latest digital technologies

- Domain: Insurance domain experience - P&C and/or L&P or financial services

- Rich experience in driving large projects/programs in the insurance platforms for the AD&M division from planning to estimations to design to implementation.

Experience

The ideal candidate will have 10 years of experience in Project Management in reputed IT organisations with 18+ years of relevant experience. The candidate should have technically strong and rich development experience with the ability to drive the project teams from a technology perspective. Experience in managing a P&L based cost centre, preferably in Insurance services - P&C and/or L&P. He/she should bring in strong and specialist operational leadership; process orientation and experience in implementation of standardized concepts. He/she will drive productivity improvements by clear target setting on local level and innovation in winning hearts and minds of team while enforcing local leadership.

The ideal candidate should have demonstrated leadership - with a focus on results, human resources and organization development, performance management and change management and will need to provide proactive, positive coaching and development to the team. He/she will also have a strong commercial bent-of-mind but focussed on customer satisfaction and employee engagement

The ideal candidate would demonstrate strong people management and leadership skills in growing a business and the ability to collaborate with internal and external stakeholders. Interpersonal skills would need to be of a high order with the ability to organize, inspire, motivate and lead a diverse team in the business. The ideal candidate will be comfortable operating in a matrix environment. Should have direct involvement in all aspects of Divisional level project/program/account management involving at least 100+ direct/indirect reports. Should have handled client facing roles previously and must have also involved in business development initiatives

Technical

Experience in Technologies - Mainframe, Java, EAI, Web-based technologies, Mobile technologies, BI/data anlaytics. (at least one)

Experience in driving digitalization programs as part of insurance platforms

- Functional

Insurance domain experience - P&C and/or L&P or financial services

Desired Behavior

- Follows through on commitments and agreements & ensures same is accomplished. Models, leads, trains, and motivates others to demonstrate a high level of Transparency & integrity. Capable to challenge others who are not acting with integrity. Treats people fairly & drives a culture of fair treatment across ones area of operation. Takes stands based on principles and values despite personal or professional risk. Respects confidentiality & maintains it regardless of pressure.

- Drives a culture of diversity & inclusivity in teams, Influences & motivates others to have an Inclusive behaviour. Manages people as individuals rather than managing tasks.

- Is seen as a strong communicator. Inspires others and is able to Influences at many levels across the business and the organisation. Creates opportunities for others to contribute to the decisions that affect them. Seeks information & insights to develop clear understanding of the situation & its impact. Creates opportunities for others to contribute to the topic. Communicate difficult messages efficiently.

- Integrates various systems to collect customer feedbacks & constantly explores opportunities within the system to take customer experience to the next level.

- Competent to assist, advice and guide team members/ colleagues. Demonstrates willingness for knowledge & skill transfer. Is seen as a subject matter expert in one's area.

- Explores Industry & other benchmarks & effectively matches it to achieve customer & operational excellence. Leverages technology for continuous simplification of processes.

- Act on opportunities, take risks & promote a culture that allows noble failure. Willingness to take risks, make Commercial decisions and own the outcome.

- Explores Ideas & solutions that have worked in other environments & tries to replicate them. Supports & encourages Ideas from teams & helps in implementation. Proactively seeks & shares information & resources for leveraging capabilities. Fosters a culture of Innovation within & beyond the team.

- Makes excellent tactical decisions in their part of the business, controls risk/expenses and generates a commercial return. Treats work as one's own business. Quick to spot and challenge practices that are inefficient, wasteful or costly. Holds others accountable for their work & deliverables.

- Develops people through continuous feedbacks. Demonstrates exceptional people management skills & develops others for higher responsibilities. Encourages team members to take up extra responsibilities & helps them succeed.

- Ensures that levels of talent and capability are clearly aligned with the future business requirements. Attracts talented people to the team and retains them in the business. Is seen as an effective coach & mentor.

- Builds a culture of sharing best practices. Ensures inter & intra team collaboration to enhance team collaboration thereby enabling sharing & flow of ideas & good practices.

Key Competencies

- Follows through on commitments and agreements & ensures same is accomplished. Models, leads, trains, and motivates others to demonstrate a high level of Transparency & integrity. Capable to challenge others who are not acting with integrity. Treats people fairly & drives a culture of fair treatment across ones area of operation. Takes stands based on principles and values despite personal or professional risk. Respects confidentiality & maintains it regardless of pressure.

- Drives a culture of diversity & inclusivity in teams, Influences & motivates others to have an Inclusive behaviour. Manages people as individuals rather than managing tasks.

- Is seen as a strong communicator. Inspires others and is able to Influences at many levels across the business and the organisation. Creates opportunities for others to contribute to the decisions that affects them. Seeks information & insights to develop clear understanding of the situation & its impact. Creates opportunities for others to contribute to the topic. Communicate difficult messages efficiently.

- Integrates various systems to collect customer feedbacks & constantly explores opportunities within the system to take customer experience to the next level.

- Competent to assist, advice and guide team members/ colleagues. Demonstrates willingness for knowledge & skill transfer. Is seen as a subject matter expert in one's area.

- Explores Industry & other benchmarks & effectively matches it to achieve customer & operational excellence. Leverages technology for continuous simplification of processes.

- Act on opportunities, take risks & promote a culture that allows noble failure. Willingness to take risks, make Commercial decisions and own the outcome.

- Explores Ideas & solutions that have worked in other environments & tries to replicate them. Supports & encourages Ideas from teams & helps in implementation. Proactively seeks & shares information & resources for leveraging capabilities. Fosters a culture of Innovation within & beyond the team.

- Makes excellent tactical decisions in their part of the business, controls risk/expenses and generates a commercial return. Treats work as one's own business. Quick to spot and challenge practices that are inefficient, wasteful or costly. Holds others accountable for their work & deliverables.

- Develops people through continuous feedbacks. Demonstrates exceptional people management skills & develops others for higher responsibilities. Encourages team members to take up extra responsibilities & helps them succeed.

- Ensures that levels of talent and capability are clearly aligned with the future business requirements. Attracts talented people to the team and retains them in the business. Is seen as an effective coach & mentor.

- Builds a culture of sharing best practices. Ensures inter & intra team collaboration to enhance team collaboration thereby enabling sharing & flow of ideas & good practices.

Essential Personal Characteristics

The individual will have excellent executive presence, solid visioning and strategic capabilities and well-developed leadership skills, with a proven track record of successfully managing and leading large teams. He/she must possess a distinct communication style that conveys expertise and confidence. Good commercial acumen, strong execution capability and well-honed customer relationship management skills are vital.

The individual must have the ability to work well in teams, possess strong collaboration and influencing skills. He/she must be able to address changing business challenges and take actions to build that capability across the organization. He/she should also be able to spot talent opportunities, and to build alliances and create economic value for the business. Finally, the individual should have the entrepreneurial drive to ensure that the business enjoys superior growth rates of both top and bottom line by expanding the customer base and capturing new business opportunities.

R. Mahesh Kumar,
Global Professional Services
Chennai