Whatever their stage of life, we provide over 108 million customers with the products and services they need to progress. From insurance to personal protection, and savings to wealth management, no matter the need we’re always there for them. And we’re always there for our employees. In 50 countries, we work hard to inspire pride and a sense of belonging in our people. To provide opportunities that challenge them, inspire them, and reward them. And to create a culture that’s open, supportive, and empowering. Because we know that’s the real secret to success – and the best way for us to keep building a better world for both our customers and the talented people who put them first.

Your work environment

The headquarters of the AXA Group (GIE AXA) brings together our corporate activities. It provides guidance and support to subsidiaries around the world, to ensure the coordination and monitoring of the Group's global strategy, the application of its standards, the consistency of commercial approaches and the sharing of best practices. The headquarters gathers approximately 1000 employees and is distinguished by its strong international culture (45 nationalities), which makes it a rich and stimulating place to work.

Within the Group, you will join the Group Underwriting Office, a newly created department to steer the performance of our insurance portfolio and support our reinforced focus on technical excellence. The platform will also contribute to define our global ambition and approach to new emerging risks related to the energy transition and cyber in the coming years.

Within this Department, you will be part of the team Group CUO Operations & Transformation, newly created strategic function (& trusted partner) within AXA GUO and AXA GIE; enabling the GUO Organisation, through partnership, collaboration, support and a continuous improvement / simplification mindset.

Our goal is to empower and simplify our organization, improve engagement across the AXA Group (GIE), underwriting community & create a meaningful, measurable impact. We do this by consistently collaborating with key stakeholders across AXA GIE functions, GUO and entities to drive the strategic priorities, with a disciplined approach, change management, clear communication and investing in our key strategic priorities.

Job purpose

As part of the AXA GUO, Transformation and Operations function, the Group Underwriting Standards and Performance Function will perform a critical role in leading, defining, creating, and maintaining and evolving the AXA GUO Underwriting Governance framework and performance monitoring strategy, including an accompanying clear communication and change management strategy, and a focus on Continuous Improvement and simplification.

Including; GUO owned (and non-owned) Standards and policies, Technical Underwriting Authority Framework, that supports clear accountability for Technical Authority and clear boundaries for matters needing to be referred.  Leading on the setting of the GUO Internal Control Framework. Development of a communication and change management strategy to support implementation of the AXA GUO Underwriting Governance framework and changes to it.  And the development of Tools (including communication) to support our mission (Intranet site, communication tools (Poppulo) etc).

Creation of non-financial KPIs to monitor adherence to Technical Underwriting Authority Framework, highlighting any issues (trends) and ensuring these are resolved within a timely fashion.  Whilst also ensuring that all reviews and action points are resolved in a timely manner across the 1st Line (GUO), 2nd Line (Risk Mgt) and 3rd Line (Internal Audit).

Dimension

• AXA CUO teams (around 160+ permanent staff in France & Spain)
• AXA entities

Context and major challenges

The newly created Global Chief Underwriting Office is accountable for establishing, enabling, and driving profit and growth through Product Underwriting Strategy, Portfolio Design and Technical Underwriting Excellence in partnership with the AXA Entities, for both Commercial and Retail.

The CUO Transformation & Operations team, under the leadership of the Head of Group GUO Transformation & Operations, is responsible for driving the strategy of CUO & its execution at all levels.

Key accountabilities

Working with the Head of Group GUO Transformation & Operations, you will:

Develop a single and consistent approach and central Tools to our Underwriting Governance activities, for Life, Savings & Health, Property Casualty (P&C) Commercial, P&C Retail, Claims and Pricing, including, but not limited to:

• Responsible for GUO owned SII and Standards.  Ensuring that, GUO Policies and Standards, reflect necessary changes due to Organisational changes (GUO, Group / GIE), reflect new regulations and / or Group initiatives and communication of these, and:
  • Drive simplification and clearly defined minimum standards (including version control) to ensure clearly understood boundaries and processes, across SII, Minimum Standards, International Letter, exclusion lists, Product Approvals, Rules & Guidelines (R&G) etc, to support referrals to Group as may be defined, with appropriate referral to Group Underwriting Committee, (incl. supporting GUC meeting cadence, meeting preparation / Agendas and minutes and preparing referrals to GUC).
  • Product Approval Process (PAPs)
    • Define the product approval process in the “Underwriting and Reserving Solvency II” policies.
    • Ensure the PAP process is consistent with the Group strategy (Customer focus, decrease the share of financial STEC, increase the share of profitability coming from technical or expense margins)
    • Consider the impact of new regulations on the PAP
    • Support the entities to implement the Group requirements
    • Ensure the PAP process is well respected
    • Give an opinion on the products failing to meet PAP requirements
    • Consider entities feedback to review the PAP process
    • Simplify the PAP process (and when a PAP is not needed)
    • Report to management on new products
• Create, cascade, maintain and monitor AXA GUO Technical Underwriting Authority Framework.  Ensuring that Technical Underwriting Authority is cascaded to all relevant stakeholders.  Ensure a link to the AXA Corporate calendar and financial planning process to support Risk Appetite definition, and translation in to GUL’s cascaded to Entity CEO’s and GUO Underwriting leaders.
• Responsible for co-ordinating & monitoring the GUO Reviews Schedule (including In-Depth Review (IDR)/Deep Dives etc)
  • Define and update the IDR/Deep Dive framework
  • Define the IDR / Deep Dive plan
  • Follow up on the IDR’s / Deep Dive remediation action plans
• Be accountable for the AXA GUO owned Internal Control Framework and ensuring that the controls are fit for purpose and reflect the changes in Group / GIE Organisation, newly created GUO Governance framework.  Support communication to GUO LT and GUO ExCom/entities to support success. And the simplification and continued evolution.
• Develop and maintain GUO non-financial / Underwriting Governance KPI dashboards and reporting, to demonstrate and ensure that AXA GUO and entities remain within Authority Limits and focused on resolving outstanding Reviews / Audits within agreed timeframes and escalate as necessary.  Including, but not limited to tracking of:
  • 1st Line – GUO – GUL’s / Authority Limits and Reviews (IDR’s, Technical Deep Dives, PAP’s)
  • 2nd Line – GUO – Risk Mgt second opinion on GUO activities
  • 3rd Line – GUO Internal Audits MAP (Management Action Plans)
•  Responsible for designing, implementation and ownership of GUO Underwriting / business communications strategy and Communication Tools, including:
  • Responsible for creating and maintaining AXA GUO Corporate Calendar (aligned to AXA GIE Corporate Calendar), detailing all GUO activities in support of GUO mission, and stored centrally and accessible by GIE and entities.
  • Plan, edit, write, and manage:
    • Engaging global internal Underwriting / business communications and campaigns across a variety of communication platforms (intranet, email, Microsoft Teams, Town Halls, etc.) to support AXA GUO mission and strategy
    • Communications to kick off GUO review processes across IDR’s and Technical Reviews, PAPs, Risk Appetite, GUL, SII and Standards, etc, detailing the process to be followed, persons accountable is clearly described, timeframes and expectations of all involved.
    • Communications explaining changes to GUO Underwriting / business and Governance with clear engagement plan to support successful implementation of changes.
  • Design, implement Communication tools to support GUO mission, including:
    • AXA GUO Intranet site, to house all GUO owned standards, policies, R&G’s, PAP etc and with clear version control.
    •  Communications Tool (Poppulo) to support clear communication on all topics as necessary.
• Supporting the Head of Group UW Transformation & Operations with additional tasks, as requested and working with the GUO LT and Risk Mgt and Audit on themes running across GUO, LoBs/Regions (e.g. Internal Control with Risk and Group, Audit findings across LoBs etc.)
•  Identification of AXA GUO systemic issues and development of recommendations, and drive resolution
•  Lead and support continuous improvement of all Underwriting / business governance frameworks and , controls, using feedback from Underwriting Governance Performance KPIs’, communications tools KPI’s and regular dialogue with key stakeholders (GUO LT, CUO’s Functions, GIE, Entities / Regions) leveraging lessons learned from across GUO owned processes.

 A key dimension of the role involves having a continuous improvement and simplification mindset, collaborating with all key stakeholders to identify potential improvements in our Governance, tools and dashboards.

Managing direct report(s) and particularly ensuring the sharing of experience, knowledge, and skills across the team to create a stable and sustainable Team, ensuring no dependency on one role.

Vous rejoignez une entreprise :

-    Responsable, vis-à-vis des personnes, y compris ses employés et ses clients, et de la planète. -    Aux valeurs fortes-    Qui encourage la mobilité interne, et la formation de ses employés-    Qui vous offre de nombreux avantages (en savoir plus ici : Reward & Benefits - french | AXA Group)-    Flexible, qui permet le travail hybride, au bureau et à la maison.

Les informations fournies par les candidat(e)s seront traitées de manière strictement confidentielle et utilisées uniquement à des fins de recrutement.

MAIN COMPETENCIES AND EXPERIENCES

• Experience of delivering Transformational Leadership in the establishment of the GUO and specifically the Underwriting Governance structure needed for AXA GUO.
• Master’s degree preferred and 5 - 10+ years knowledge and experience in global insurance.
• Significant experience partnering at the executive level. Takes initiative. Ability to lead and act independently, think in global terms and demonstrate excellent business acumen.
• Develop and maintain productive working relationships with internal and external stakeholders.  Provide guidance and seek input from others as needed to achieve the best result possible. Capable of working and collaborating with a virtual team, across multiple diverse geographies and cultures.
• Excellent verbal and written communication, collaboration, presentation and influencing skills are essential. Able to communicate effectively with internal and external stakeholders at all levels of sophistication. Ability to work in a fast-paced environment and efficiently juggle numerous concurrent responsibilities.
• Excellent project management skills with the ability to drive execution across a diverse group of stakeholders. Able to implement and deliver strategic initiatives, making positive impact to the organization. Approach tasks proactively and anticipate needs. Think quickly and have the flexibility to (re-)prioritize multiple work streams/ projects/ tasks without sacrificing quality.
• Possess strong finance, analytical skills and numerical aptitude; able to analyze and interpret data appropriately and identify trends in order to analyze or direct/ engage with others as needed.
• PROSCI certified would be a plus or extensive experience in change management
• Fluent French & English.