Director, IT Solutions Delivery

About FWD Group

FWD Group (1828.HK) is a pan-Asian life and health insurance business that serves approximately 40 million customers across 10 markets, including BRI Life in Indonesia. FWD’s customer-led and tech-enabled approach aims to deliver innovative propositions, easy-to-understand products and a simpler insurance experience. Established in 2013, the company operates in some of the fastest-growing insurance markets in the world with a vision of changing the way people feel about insurance. FWD Group is listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under the stock code 1828.

For more information, please visit www.fwd.com

FWD Technology and Innovation Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., known as FWD TIM, was established in late 2019. Strategically located in Kuala Lumpur, FWD TIM serves as a pivotal shared service location within FWD Group, providing services to multiple markets across the Group. FWD TIM houses a diverse and talented workforce focused on essential business and technology services such as information security, cloud operations, IT solutions delivery, digital and data, actuarial, finance, investments, and customer service, among many others. FWD TIM is dedicated to drive and deliver operational excellence and efficiency, foster innovation and ensure regulatory compliance across all business functions as well as maintain a competitive edge in the market.

PURPOSE

Lead, drive and direct the Life & Health front-end technology Solutions Delivery function that operates across FWD Group to:

Collaborate with FWD markets and functions to drive operationalization of technology solution prioritization and execution

Drive solution development roadmaps and collaboration on solution design to achieve optimal business outcomes

Deliver optimized technology solutions to drive operational efficiencies in line with target operating models and business goals

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

Lead to define the technology solution roadmap and implementation strategy with Group & Market technology teams and business leaders across identified Life & Health systems, driving the adoption of new application that hosted on cloud services, and microservice/containerization application architecture in solution and design.

Lead the Policy Administration System (PAS) application development and infrastructure to define the DevOps best practices through innovative technology solution, design and delivery and drive for automatic software deployment in a fast-changing environment.

Define measurable and quality metrics for solutions as assigned as they have a sizable impact to the business performance at each market and requires advanced judgement to develop new and practical solutions.

Plan and design systems for scale, harmonization and reusability to support leverageable technology solution assets

Advise and facilitate solutions prioritization and delivery in concert with Group/Market technology, functions and business leaders’ requirements and direction

Partner Group Platforms and respective business, functions, country and peer Technology teams to embed technologies to achieve target business outcomes, and benefits; realizing through technologies

Collaborate and partner stakeholders to manage technology solution roadmaps as a going concern, aligned with defined target business goals and target IT architecture

Advise and work closely with markets and business functions on budget assessments, justifications and approvals for implementation and operationalization to drive business benefit and efficiency

Spearhead and drive the standardization & modernization of Life systems across FWD countries, e.g. PAS for all markets and etc. in order to achieve the business targets

Comprehensive understanding of the business and organization from end functions and the inter-dependencies with other functions as it represents the Front-end solution function to agree on defining technology roadmaps, project prioritization and project implementation details in respective project steering committee, e.g., integration projects post M&A.

Lead and manage to ensure coordinated design, development and deployment plans with business functions and technology solutions delivery teams

Leads multi-geography teams to ensure optimal resource allocation of assigned Life systems, and continuous improvement of team performance and their technical and non-technical competencies on solution deliveries

Lead and steward the management of technology projects through its life cycle, including resources planning, budget monitoring, clients’ expectation management, change management, contingency planning, risk assessment and mitigation

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Strategic KPIs (to realize in 3 years)

Adopt 100% of application hosted on cloud services

Achieve 100% adoption of automatic software deployment

Achieve 100% microservice/containerization application architecture

Operational KPIs

Lead and own the operationalization/modernization of PAS by working with business and country functions to optimize in-house and vendor managed solutions and strategic technology roadmap for the BUs supported

Leverage distribution sales technology solutions to expand new growth for Direct, Agency, Banca and IFA sales channels

Manages solutions delivery risks, identifies, determines and recommends risk mitigation solution for deployment and maintenance as appropriate

Lead mentorship and provide guidance to IT team members

EXTERNAL & INTERNAL CONTACTS

This position will support the VP Technology Solutions Delivery to:

Manage cross-functional, external and internal partners for country-specific and group-led initiatives

Guide cross-functional stakeholders and resources to deliver on target solution states

Ensure closed-loop execution and co-ordination with peer and Country technology leaders and teams

Lead vendor management for assigned Life systems solutions

Ensure efficient communicate and coordination with peer Group Technology teams across application, infrastructure and security on the solution roadmap, design, and implementation

DECISION MAKING

Act as key Subject Matter Expert and Leader for assigned technology solutions design, strategy and execution

Collaborate and coordinate with relevant parties through triage and consultation to fulfil solutions delivery

Support resource allocation and prioritization decisions to fulfil solutions delivery objectives

Lead and manage prioritization decisioning and allocation to achieve optimal resourcing outcomes to fulfill solutions delivery goals

QUALIFICATIONS / EXPERIENCE

University degree in Computer Science, Information Technology or equivalent, minimum 12 years' working experience in Information Technology, with at least 5 years at a senior managerial position or above, specialized in system development

Proven managerial experience

Proven track records in managing front-end systems, preferably experiences in implementing insurance IT systems/projects in multi-geography environment

Implementation experience in Life insurance systems, e.g. Point of sales, compensation system and workflow will be an advantage.

KNOWLEDGE & TECHNICAL SKILLS

In-depth knowledge of multiple organization functions and its business contributions and requirements to achieve business goals

Solid understanding of the life insurance and technology industry, including current and emerging digital solutions

Deep appreciation of latest and emerging technologies and practice

Well versed with Agile methodology

Well versed with Life Asia/Life 400, JT400/MQ/MSP, HTML/CSS, JavaScript, Git & GitHub, Backend languages, database storage, HTTP & REST, Design skills and etc.

Business domain knowledge and financial acumen skills

High awareness of the process flow

Project Management skills

Subject matter expert of the systems and whole process - end to end knowledge from development to ma