Head: Product Development (Insurance)

Capitec Bank Ltd.; Stellenbosch; On-site; ZAR 300,000 - 400,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading insurance provider in Stellenbosch is seeking an experienced Product Development Manager to drive insurance strategies and product management. The ideal candidate is a qualified actuary with over 10 years in the life insurance sector, skilled in stakeholder engagement and data analysis. This role emphasizes innovative product design and includes team leadership responsibilities. Join us in building a transformative insurance environment.

Benefits

Growth opportunities

Employee benefits

Dynamic work environment

Qualifications

• At least 10 years’ experience in life insurance industry.
• Experience in life insurance product design and segmentation.
• Proven ability to analyze data for trends and opportunities.

Responsibilities

• Drive the Product Development strategy and provide insights.
• Develop and maintain profitable life insurance products.
• Build relationships with stakeholders and manage communications.

Skills

Product Development

Stakeholder Management

Client Insights

Market Research

Team Leadership

Education

Qualified actuary

Job description

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We're on the lookout for energetic, self-motivated individuals who share our passion for service in the banking industry. To be part of the journey, follow the steps below:

1. To see what life at Capitec is all about and complete a short assessment, please click here!
2. Once you have completed the above finalize your application by clicking apply below.

We appoint people for their potential and continuously look for talented, driven individuals to help us innovate and evolve the insurance industry. That is why we focus on finding the right people for the right jobs. We love what we do –it takes a talented team, commitment, and dedication to build a brand that we are proud of and that our clients trust.

Who we Are

At Capitec Life, we’re more than just an insurer. We believe that insurance is about people and helping South Africa to grow. That\'s why we aim to uplift society by providing accessible, simple and trustworthy insurance solutions that promote financial inclusion and contribute to South Africa’s growth. Our approach is rooted in understanding individual needs and delivering solutions that make a meaningful difference.

Why Choose Us

At Capitec, we offer our best by being a CEO in every situation – we always put the Client first, act with Energy and take Ownership. And to support people in being their best, our Employee Value Proposition offers every member of our team value by encouraging their involvement in our organisation, creating cohesive teams, and providing growth opportunities as well as employee benefits and savings. We make it a priority to ensure that each Capitec person feels known, valued, focused, and has the opportunity to grow.

Main Purpose

To inform and drive the Product Development strategy for the Capitec Insurance Division, and provide business improvement insights and suggestions in line with the strategy.

To lead the design, development and maintenance of profitable life insurance products that deliver the intended client value proposition, in line with the Capitec Insurance growth strategy.

To differentiate the Capitec life product offering through disruptive product innovation (including pricing and client experience initiatives).

Your key responsibilities include:

• Strategy development and implementation
• Product development and management
• Product roadmap planning and delivery
• Client insights
• People Management
• Stakeholder Management

Strategy Development and implementation

• Build and manage relationships with members of the Capitec Life Exco and contribute towards the formulation and execution of the Capitec Insurance business strategy and deliverables by providing subject matter inputs.
• Develop and oversee the execution of the Insurance Product Development strategy and business plans.
• Assume accountability for budget approvals and cost / expense management relating to product development and enhancement.
• Identify and introduce commercial partnerships. Assume responsibility for driving and managing end-to-end commercial agreements (terms and conditions, service level agreements, delivery, etc.).
• Actively participate in the formulation, implementation and maintenance of initiatives that drive profitable growth and increased sales productivity.
• Play a business enablement role, by providing business-focused solutions to challenges relating to life products and pricing.
• Pro-actively help identify opportunities from big data to address the client needs in a targeted manner, enabling a data-driven business.
• Establish a research driven environment, and ensure the adoption of best practice across the product design life cycle.

Product Roadmap Planning and Delivery

• Develop and maintain the product roadmap, ensuring alignment across operations, finance, risk and actuarial.
• Ensure alignment of IT deliverables against the product roadmap and plan timelines for delivery.
• Manage Business Owners and collaborate with IT functions on the systems implementation of all life product elements and processes. Ensure test results are aligned with product specifications.
• Deploy life product updates and enhancements based on feedback from all stakeholders, ongoing assessment of the effectiveness of product delivery and the performance of the product as measured by agreed KPIs.
• Provide specialist input to operational and administrative functions, procurement functions, and sales and marketing functions.
• Monitor product performance against business case expectations and identify product and marketing enhancements based on this.

Client Insights

• Build a Client Insights framework within which Insurance clients are analysed consistently with the 5-star approach adopted across Capitec.
• Utilise the insights to inform marketing strategies and pricing decisions.
• Inform affordability metrics to be designed to support the sales process and address over-commitment by clients at sales stage.
• Support refinement of propensity modelling that feeds into propensity to buy, propensity to lapse, etc in order to plan pro-active communication initiatives in all these areas.
• Establish a culture of testing, learning and improving by implementing A/B testing and monitoring results against control groups.
• Drive projects to increase client loyalty using Live Better and develop cross Capitec strategies to enhance the value of Life products within the Capitec Group.
• Manage an effective people structure which can deliver the department plans, goals and targets.
• Plan and budget the department resources (people, technology, systems, tools etc.) to optimise support for the business plan and specific business needs/focus areas. Responsible for the recruitment of direct reports and oversee and approve recruitment of indirect reports.
• Monitor and evaluate the team through personal development plans, performance management and KPAs and KPIs.
• Identify improvement opportunities, ensure succession planning and drive performance from the team.
• Propose a plan and budget for any external / co-sourced teams, according to the business plan.
• Support the organisation’s transformation objectives by planning and seeking transformation opportunities.

Product development and mangement

• Guide market research, internal research and competitor analyses that deliver the intended client value proposition to support the design, development and maintenance of profitable life insurance products.
• Lead and oversee the development and maintenance of detailed product specifications.
• Drive the conceptualisation, design, development and maintenance of profitable insurance products including detailed specifications of products based on market and internal research and competitor analysis that deliver the intended client value proposition.
• Develop and agree life product rules/features in conjunction with the Head of Actuarial Function to ensure optimized capital allocation.
• Develop and draft policy clauses and policy wording in conjunction with Legal, taking IFRS17 impacts into account.
• Responsible for driving market feasibility studies, technical marketing, incorporation of behavioural economics, maintaining the distribution strategy and owning the complaints process.

Stakeholder Management

• Identify stakeholders and develop engagement tactics in line with their criticality to the department.
• Develop and maintain effective professional relationships with entities which will enable and enhance the achievement of the Department’s business plans; e.g. industry leaders, regulatory bodies, legal entities etc.
• Undertake relationship building to build trust and ensure stakeholders understand the function, the department, operating model and methods as well as their role and required contribution.
• Responsible for the ongoing clear and concise verbal and written communication across all levels of the organisation.
• Build, strengthen and leverage internal networks with senior stakeholders to optimise co-operation, in order to drive service excellence and manage risk.
• Network internally and externally to ensure a relevant and comprehensive network which will enable and enhance the development of new initiatives and projects.
• Engage on industry forums where relevant (for example, the Market Conduct Forum).

The ideal candiate will:

• Qualified actuary with at least 10 years’ industry experience covering various lines of business and in various roles in life insurance.
• Experience of life insurance product design, segmentation, marketing and client experience.
• Experience collaborating with key resources and stakeholders, influencing decisions and managing work to achieve strategic goals required.
• Proven experience in analysing and manipulating data to identify trends and/or opportunities.
• Experience in managing reinsurer relationships and the different reinsurance structures.
• Experience of leading, guiding and managing a team.

Knowledge Requriements

• Extensive knowledge of the life insurance industry and competitor landscape.
• Detailed knowledge and experience of current insurance legislative framework and prudential requirement.
• Understanding of channel VNB (value of new business) and other profitability results and levers.
• Understanding of the impacts of IFRS17 on product development and contract boundaries.
• Generation and utilisation of data insights to inform product design.
• Business case conceptualisation, principles and compilation.

Conditions of Employment

• Clear criminal and credit record.

We would expect that you have developed your ability to act strategically and tactically to achieve outstanding results. We are looking for an “energy-giver,” someone who is emotionally connected to the business to feel the pulse of the organization even before results are published. If you are interested in being part of this dynamic team, on a mission to build the best Insurer in the world through unlocking the potential of its people, please apply. We would love to hear from you!

Capitec is committed to diversity, applications to this position will strictly be considered in support of our employment equity goals.

Capitec Bank is an authorised financial services provider (FSP 46669) and registered credit provider (NCRCP13). Capitec Bank Limited Reg. No: 1980/003695/06