Head of Customer Operations, Pension Risk Transfer (PRT) Operations

Standard Life plc; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private medical cover

38 days annual leave

Excellent pension

12x salary life assurance

Career breaks

Income protection

Volunteering days

Job summary

Standard Life plc in London is seeking an exceptional Head of Customer Operations, PRT Operations to shape the customer operations strategy and capability as the Pension Risk Transfer business grows.

This senior leadership role requires deep PRT experience, strategic influence across transactions, and the ability to build trusted relationships with Trustees, advisers and senior stakeholders while delivering scalable, compliant service for members.

Qualifications

• Significant leadership within UK Pension Risk Transfer with end-to-end lifecycle knowledge.
• Commercial mindset linking operational decisions to growth and outcomes.
• Experience influencing transaction, proposition or operating model decisions.

Responsibilities

• Shape and lead the PRT customer operations strategy and capability.
• Act as strategic partner to Business Development & Origination on transactions.
• Lead end-to-end post-transaction onboarding, transition and servicing.
• Build senior relationships with Trustees, advisers and key stakeholders.
• Own performance and governance of customer operations and TPAs.
• Drive transformation, scalability and service improvements using insights.
• Provide visible leadership across Customer Operations and culture.
• Influence at executive level on wider PRT strategy and investments.

Skills

UK Pension Risk Transfer leadership

Stakeholder management

Commercial & strategic thinking

Leadership of senior teams

Regulated financial services

Transaction lifecycle understanding

Education

Pensions/Insurance professional qualification

Job description

Job Description

As our Pension Risk Transfer business enters its next phase of growth, we’re looking for an exceptional PRT leader to shape the customer operations strategy and capability that will help us deliver it. This is a significant senior leadership opportunity to influence how we scale, support increasingly large and complex transactions, and deliver outstanding outcomes for Trustees, schemes and members.

We’re looking for a Head of Customer Operations, PRT Operations to join our Customer Operations team within RS&AM.

Job Type: Permanent

Location: London, with time spent working from home and the office

Flexible working: All roles are open to part-time, job-share and other types of flexibility. We’ll discuss what’s important to you and how this can be balanced with business requirements during the recruitment process.

Salary and benefits

• c.£100,000+ depending on experience
• plus bonus
• private medical cover
• 38 days annual leave
• excellent pension
• 12x salary life assurance
• career breaks
• income protection
• 3 volunteering days
• and much more

Who are we?

We’re Standard Life, a retirement specialist focused entirely on retirement savings and income. We champion the belief that everyone’s journey to and through retirement can be better, and for more than 200 years, we’ve been helping our customers plan and prepare for their financial futures.

Life today is increasingly complicated, uncertain and unpredictable. People move through different careers, face unexpected moments and navigate important choices. We offer our colleagues flexibility, trust and benefits that work for whatever life brings. In return we expect curiosity, connection, accountability and high standards. We make room for what matters - so you can bring your best, every day.

The role

As we continue to grow our Pension Risk Transfer business, we’re looking for an experienced PRT leader to shape and lead the customer operations capability that will underpin our next phase of growth.

This is a senior leadership role with a broad strategic and commercial mandate. As the scale and complexity of the transactions we pursue grows, you’ll ensure we have the operational capability, customer proposition and service model to deliver successfully for Trustees, schemes and members, both today and as the business evolves.

Working at the intersection of Business Development & Origination, Operations, Technology and our third-party administration partners, you’ll bring deep PRT expertise and commercial judgement to decisions across the transaction lifecycle. You’ll help ensure that the commitments we make during origination are deliverable, scalable and translate into strong long-term outcomes for our customers.

Crucially, you’ll look beyond today’s operation. You’ll anticipate what needs to change as we grow and shape the strategy, capability and operating model required to support our ambition in the UK PRT market.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Shape and lead our PRT customer operations strategy, ensuring our operating model, capability and capacity evolve in line with the growth, scale and increasing complexity of the business.
• Act as a strategic partner to Business Development & Origination, bringing customer, commercial and operational expertise to transaction activity and helping shape how new opportunities can be delivered successfully and sustainably.
• Lead the end-to-end post-transaction customer operation, from onboarding and transition through to ongoing scheme and member servicing, ensuring the commitments we make to Trustees and customers are delivered.
• Build trusted senior relationships with Trustees, EBCs, advisers and other key stakeholders, representing Standard Life with credibility and acting as a senior escalation point when required.
• Own the performance and governance of customer operations and third-party administration, ensuring strong service, customer, regulatory and commercial outcomes. You’ll also own customer outcomes and complaints, ensuring emerging themes inform service improvement and the future development of our operating model.
• Drive transformation and scalability, using customer insight, operational performance and market intelligence to identify where our propositions, processes, technology and service models need to evolve.
• Provide visible leadership across Customer Operations, building capability and creating a high-performing culture of accountability, commercial awareness, customer focus and continuous improvement.
• Influence at senior and executive level, ensuring customer and operational considerations help shape wider PRT strategy, investment and business decisions.

What We’re Looking For

Deep UK Pension Risk Transfer experience is essential for this role. Given the scale and ambition of our growth plans, we’re looking for someone who already understands the market and can bring credibility, insight and judgement from day one.

You’ll Bring (Essential)

• Significant leadership experience within the UK Pension Risk Transfer / Bulk Purchase Annuity market, with strong knowledge of the end-to-end PRT lifecycle.
• Strong technical understanding of Defined Benefit pensions, including buy-in, buyout, onboarding, implementation and ongoing scheme and member servicing.
• A commercial and strategic mindset, with the ability to connect operational and customer decisions to transaction considerations, business growth and long-term outcomes.
• Experience influencing transaction, proposition or operating model decisions, with the confidence and credibility to challenge where customer or operational implications require greater consideration.
• Strong senior stakeholder capability, ideally including experience working with Trustees, EBCs, advisers and institutional clients, alongside the ability to influence at executive level internally.
• Significant people leadership experience, with evidence of building high-performing teams and developing strong leadership capability.
• Strong experience of customer outcomes and complaints oversight within a regulated environment, with the ability to identify systemic themes and translate insight into operational and service improvements.
• Experience shaping and scaling complex operations within a regulated financial services environment, including effective oversight of TPAs and strategic service partners.
• A track record of leading transformation and building capability, with the strategic judgement to anticipate what needs to change as an organisation grows.

Desirable

• Direct experience supporting significant BPA transactions, implementation programmes or complex scheme transitions.
• Experience contributing to proposition development or strategic initiatives within a PRT business.
• A relevant professional qualification within pensions, insurance or financial services.

We Want To Hire The Whole Version Of You.

We are committed to ensuring that everyone feels accepted and welcome applicants from all backgrounds.

If your experience looks different from what we’ve advertised and you believe that you can bring value to the role, we’d love to hear from you.

If you require any adjustments to the recruitment process, please let us know so we can help you to be at your best.

Find Out More About Working At Standard Life

• Guide for Candidates: standardlifeplc.pagetiger.com/guideforcandidates
• Find or get answers from our colleagues: www.standardlifeplc.com/careers/talk-to-us