Job Openings at Santam Insurance

What will you do?

The PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT CENTRE (PMC) has a position available for a PROJECT MANAGER who will be based in Bellville Head Office. The person will typically be allocated to a project with budget of more than R3million to deliver over a 12-36 month period with a medium/large sized team of resources (10-15 full time people). The person will typically manage cross-functional level Digital projects which introduce substantial change where there is some resistance to change and the project priority and urgency is high.

Key Areas Of Responsibility

• Project Definition, Inception and Kick-off (kick-off sessions; definition of charter; facilitate definition of requirements and user stories).
• Project Planning (scoping, conceptual sprint planning and development; project and work stream definition; sizing and estimating; sprint, release and milestone management).
• Responsible for Project Financial and Cost management (accurate budgeting, actuals tracking, forecast projections, monitoring and control of expenses, invoicing and payment).
• Managing Project Scope (understanding project scope and product backlog; monitoring scope).
• Project level Risk, Issue and Decision management (including Dependency management and escalation).
• Project Reporting (reporting on status, financials, schedule, risk, blockers and issues, reporting on metrics including burn up/down charts, team velocity; updating Agile/PMC reporting and management tools).
• Defining and implementing the project’s Governance framework
• Quality Management
• Project Success management (agree and regularly review project measures of success).
• Adherence to the Agile framework, governance, standards for reporting and Tools (JIRA, Confluence).

What will make you successful in this role?

• Relevant 3+ year degree or equivalent qualification.
• Certificate or Diploma in Project Management from an industry recognized training institution.
• At least 6-10 years’ experience in managing projects and/or change initiatives.
• At least 3 years’ experience working in the Financial Services and/or Insurance industry to demonstrate understanding of the business context.
• Demonstrate experience in the application of industry standard project management methodologies and processes; and working in an Agile environment with Scrum method knowledge strongly preferred.
• Experience using the Tools and Techniques in alignment with the agreed Santam ways of working. Including but not limited to, PPO, JIRA, Confluence, Portfolio for JIRA and SharePoint.
• Demonstrate experience and sound knowledge of the system development lifecycle processes and methods from business concept to deployment stages.
• Digital solution implementation experience recommended.
• Ability to act as Scrum Master supporting the scrum teams to ensure the delivery of sprint goals and measureable business value. Includes: partnering with the business Product Owner determining the product backlog and the on-going refinement and prioritization of the backlog that ensures the availability of work for the development team; proactively work to eliminate blockers/impediments and other barriers for the development team; guide the team members on best practices and facilitate scrum ceremonies.

Qualification And Experience

• Degree with 8 to 10 years related project management experience.

Knowledge And Skills

• Project Oversight
• Project Planning
• Project Management Tools
• Project Tracking and Reporting
• Project Portfolio Management

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JOB DESCRIPTION

• Control the issuance of Underwriting Mandates across all business areas with underwriting authority across the Santam Group. 
• Design and implement a process to govern the adherence by business areas to their Underwriting Mandates, within a Combined Assurance framework working with the Group CRO Office and Group Internal Audit.
• Monitor the Group’s gross and net underwriting exposures, based on its risk appetite. 
• Assist the CRO office to report on and rectify breaches to the Group’s risk appetite.
• Provides thought leadership and drive policy implementation around all aspects of Underwriting in the Group, including ESG imperatives and requirements.
• Collaborates with the SEM Chief Risk Officer and provides expert support and thought leadership on General Insurance Risk Management.
• Provides support to the Executive Head in delivering the Santam Group’s strategy and objectives for its International Investments.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Underwriting Governance function leadership:

• Manage the renewal of all Santam Group underwriting mandates, on at least an annual basis.
• Manage the Group’s approval process for the extension of underwriting mandates and the implementation of new products.
• Develop a plan for the oversight and auditing of underwriting practice across the Group, in conjunction with Group Internal Audit and the Group CRO Office, with clear responsibilities for execution over an agreed cycle.
• In collaboration with Group CRO Office, expand and develop the underwriting risk metrics that are monitored in the Group
• Assist in monitoring, reporting, and addressing any deviations.
• Ensures appropriate governance representation on the Risk Committees of all key business areas for monitoring and the provision of input where needed.

Latent claims exposure risk analysis, reviews, and remedial actions

• Facilitates an ongoing process across business areas to review policy wordings from a legal and underwriting risk exposure perspective to identify potential unexpected latent claims, aggregations, and risks that cannot be tolerated by the Group.
• Ensure that action is taken where agreed upon with policy wording must be modified.
• Report to the Executive Risk Forum and Group Risk Committee on a regular basis on the reviews conducted and actions taken.

Reinsurance gap exposure management

• Within a combined assurance framework, ensure that the Group monitors and acts on any latent reinsurance exposure gaps that may lead it to exceed its risk appetite due to e.g. a difference in conditions between original policies issued and reinsurance treaties / facultative contracts, or due to legal issues of interpretation between policy wordings and treaty wordings.
• Key parties within the combined assurance framework are Group Reinsurance Buying, Group CRO Office, Group Internal and External Audit, and Business Division Underwriting functions.

Co-ordination of International Strategy and Support

• Set up and coordinate Executive Forum for Santam directors of International Investment companies.
• Discuss performance and risk exposures across Santam’s key International Investments
• Identify key actions to be driven through board and SEM representation to improve performance and better manage risk.
• Coordinate technical support provided by Santam to International businesses e.g. pricing, product, etc.

Reporting:

• Feedback on findings and priority remedial actions required.
• Assistance with risk and compliance reporting and submissions.
• Performance and risk exposure management of Santam’s International Investments, working closely with SEM.

Stakeholder Management:

• Maintain and develop effective relationships with key internal and external stakeholders.

Thought Leadership:

• Provide thought leadership and drive policy implementation around all aspects of Underwriting in the Group, including ESG imperatives and requirements.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s Degree (4-year).
• Professional qualification as an Actuary, Underwriter, Risk professional would be advantageous.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE

• Minimum of 10 years short-term insurance professional experience.