Senior Project Manager - Actuarial Projects (Contract)

Starr Underwriting; London; On-site; GBP 125,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading financial services company is seeking a Senior Project Manager to oversee transformational projects in the London office. The successful candidate will facilitate large-scale business change initiatives and engage with senior stakeholders to ensure alignment with strategic objectives. Ideal applicants will possess strong communication skills and experience in managing complex projects within the financial services sector, particularly in actuarial environments. The role offers an inside IR35 contract for 12 months with a competitive day rate.

Benefits

Comprehensive private insurance

Subsidized gym membership

Generous annual leave

Qualifications

• Experience in running business change programmes in Financial Services.
• Strong record in managing large scale business change programmes using various delivery frameworks.
• Proficiency in technology problem solving and business analysis.

Responsibilities

• Drive delivery of business change projects with technology components.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to align on project scope and deliverables.
• Manage all stages of delivery including problem-solving and implementation.

Skills

Stakeholder Management

Business Analysis

Problem-solving

Communication

Job description

Job Title

Senior Project Manager - Actuarial Projects (Contract)

Job Description

Inside IR35 Contract - 12 months day rate contract

We know that in order to be leaders in our industry we cannot stand still, and so we continually invest in our capabilities and challenge the status quo. To achieve this, we have set up a dedicated Transformation function, reporting to the Chief Operating Officer and working closely with Functional Leaders, Transformation Teams, Project Managers, Technology Leaders, and our Delivery Teams to drive transformation across our business.

Presently, Pacific Life Re is mobilising and delivering of a new portfolio of business projects within our Savings and Retirement division. The Senior Project Manager will play a critical role supporting this portfolio, and in the immediate term will work with the business and strategy teams to define and execute the business projects from outline business case stage through into delivery.

About you
As a Senior Project Manager, you are passionate about managing the delivery of better, more effective solutions to solve business problems and you are skilled in navigating complex landscapes. You will have knowledge of businesses in the financial services sector and how they operate, and experience of managing large-scale business change programmes (either with a consulting firm or an in-house business change team). It would also be a distinct advantage to have experience of technology implementations for this role especially in the Actuarial modelling space.

You will have a proven ability to work with a wide range of stakeholders to translate strategic goals into technology, business process and organisational change plans, and to manage these plans through to implementation. The ability to bridge the gap between the business and IT delivery teams is critical and you will have a strong track record of managing very senior business stakeholders coupled with exemplary communication and programme management skills.

You will manage all stages of our delivery cycle, including initial identification of business challenges and subsequent development of solutions, embedding of new capabilities into the business and ongoing monitoring of effectiveness of any embedded capabilities. This is a Business Change focused role.

You will:

• Work closely with our PL Re business teams to define and implement a complex business change project with a technology component. This will involve working with our Actuarial projects team to implement an Asset Liability Modelling Solution defining process and technology change, planning and implementation including business readiness preparation, and engaging with IT delivery teams to oversee technical delivery.

• Act in a senior project management capacity to help navigate the delivery of projects within a complex multi-year global growth portfolio.

• Work closely with global senior stakeholders across our division as well as our parent company Pacific Life to align on strategic objectives.

• Partner with project sponsors & stakeholders to define project scope, priorities, timelines, milestones, deadlines, plans, RAID, resource plans and deliverable schedules.

• Build strong links with global colleagues and ensure strategic alignment between the Transformation Team and wider stakeholders.

• Facilitate strong cross functional collaboration.

• Guide teams through all phases of our problem solving and delivery methodology including discovery & research, design & build, and test & release phases for technology projects, and operating model, business process, organisational change and practical implementation phases for business projects.

• Facilitate continuous improvement across the team including through the application of process excellence disciplines.

• Remove or facilitate the removal of impediments to ensure project and portfolio teams have what they need to succeed.

• Align, manage, and navigate external dependencies and key stakeholders outside the Transformation team.

• Ensure business readiness for supporting delivery including managing the closure of skills and capability gaps, measuring organisational maturity, and championing clear pathways to improve this.

• Lead baselining and business case creation for new initiatives.

• Be familiar with design thinking techniques and lean development principles to help architect innovative solutions to a wide variety of business challenges.

• Co-ordinate with external consultants to help supplement internal talent to deliver quality solutions in areas where we lack capabilities, and use these as opportunities for knowledge transfer; and

• Stay up to date with industry trends and the development of improved practices and approaches and bring these to the transformation team.

Qualifications & Experience

• Previous experience of running business change programmes in the Financial Services industry.

• Experience within the Re/Insurance industry desired but not essential.

• Demonstrable record of delivery within medium to large organisations.

• Past experience of working with stakeholders with varied exposure to project and change management ways of working.

• Comfortable working in variety of delivery frameworks i.e. Waterfall and Agile and have experience of planning and managing large scale business change programmes.

• Strong senior stakeholder management skills and experience managing project and business teams effectively.

• Numerate, financially literate with strong problem-solving skills.

• Knowledge & understanding of Design Thinking beneficial.

• Knowledge of needs analysis, process mapping, requirements gathering & solution discovery.

• Proficient in technology problem solving, developing business cases, and succinctly communicating these to relevant stakeholders.

• Able to effectively translate insights into actions through business analysis practices which includes gap analysis, business process modelling and product ownership

#LI-Contract

Working For Pacific Life Re

Every person in our global team is valued for the unique qualities they bring to our business and we seek to build their expertise and support their individual ambitions at every step. Of course, we take our work seriously and we know our team can operate under great pressure. We work hard and thrive on achievement, but we also know how to have fun and relax too. We regularly host a range of team building days to strengthen our team's connection with each other and reflect on their successes.

Providing employees with a healthy work-life balance is very important to our culture. We have a wide range of employee benefits and we host regular social activities and well being initiatives. We are also committed to supporting our employee's involvement in their communities, by actively fundraising, hosting charity events and overseeing volunteering opportunities.

Benefits (Only for Permanent and Fixed Term Employees)

Leave

• 25 days of annual leave with option to buy/sell more days

• Adoption and fertility leave

• Generous enhanced parental leave

Healthcare

• Comprehensive private insurance coverage for employee and dependents

• Group Life Insurance coverage of 9x basic annual salary and Group Income Protection up to 75% of basic annual salary

• Optical benefits

Savings & Retirement

• 15% combined employee/employer contributions

Wellness

• Subsidized gym membership

• Access to Employee Assistance Program

• Cycle to Work and Electric Car Salary Sacrifice Scheme

• Time off for volunteering

• Charitable matching of employee donations

As part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion, we will provide reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process to ensure equal access to applicants with disabilities. Please contact us about your needs so that we can discuss these with you to make sure that suitable adjustments are made, where possible.

Pacific Life Re Values

Please click here to view our company values