Product Innovation Specialist (SPAL) - Based in either Cape Town | Sandton at Sanlam Group

What will you do?
Reporting to the Product Manager – Innovation and Growth, the successful candidate will be responsible for providing technical and research support to the Innovation and Growth team. This will involve product development and pricing support for Sanlam Emerging Markets Innovation and Growth initiatives as well as product and economic research across the countries that Sanlam Emerging Markets is active in. Success in this role will be measured by the candidate’s technical prowess with regards to excel modelling and prophet as well as the ability to do effective research on products, competitors and markets and generation of insights from the research.  

What will make you successful in this role?
Technical support

• Product modelling on Excel and Prophet
• Product pricing and profit testing of risk and savings products
• Experience investigations
• Setting product design features and assessing risks given market and regulatory requirements  
• Sensitivity analysis and estimating capital requirements
• Reviewing product admin system configuration

Documentation of results

• Developing product specifications
• Translating business cases into product specifications
• Compiling pricing notes for Statutory sign-off 

Research and strategy

• Research on the economic and demographic profiles of countries where our businesses operate
• Research on the products and technological solutions offered by competitors in the markets we operate
• Research on market trends and dynamics to help forecast future opportunities
• Collating research into easily digestible databases that can be used by businesses for decision-making
• Generating insights to drive product and solution design based on research findings

Qualification and Experience

• Actuarial student with good progress in exams
• Minimum 2 years work experience 
• Prophet experience is preferable
• Demonstrable research ability is preferable
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word and Excel)

Personal Attributes

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills 
• Ability to work independently and meet deadlines
• Analytical and conceptual thinking
• Ability to multi-task 
• Creative, practical and innovative thinking 
• Willingness and eagerness to learn
• Systems thinking
• Manage complexity
• Adaptability and flexibility with different business and national cultures
• Excellent customer orientation and client service ethics
• Strong personal integrity and values driven work ethic

Core Competencies

• Cultivates Innovation
• Client Focus
• Drive Results
• Collaborates
• Flexibility and adaptability