Job Description
PositionSenior Manager – Strategy, Portfolio Compliance (SPC)
Incumbent
DepartmentOperations (FLG)FunctionSPCReporting toVP, SPC
Band4ALocationGurgaon HOTeam size (Direct/Indirect)
~3
JOB SUMMARY
SPC empowers the Operations, Technology and Digital teams within Axis Max Life. This team manages the planning, budgeting, training, outsourcing, project management and process controls for the largest non-sales patch in the organization. To run efficient and profitable operations, it is imperative to plan effectively for all large projects as well as unit level transactions. There are 4 functions within SPC
Project Management Transformation Office: There are various projects and initiatives that each of the various functions within the fulfillment group (FLG) and Digital/Tech are working on – some of which are of strategic importance at the org./CEO level. These projects need to be managed centrally at the COO’s office such that the (CEO – 1) level of governance is effective in ensuring deliveries on these projects. Moreover, the functions themselves need augmentation of their bandwidth to be able to manage these projects better and also effectively solve for the respective problem statements. This will include projects in key areas such as protection and underwriting, customer agenda, fulfillment, renewals and capability building projects in technology.
Strategy, Planning and Budgeting: Technology and Digital are strategic growth pillars for Max Life while Operations ensure running an efficient and profitable organization. SPC team is responsible for evolving the functional planning for Ops and IT, planning for COO’s patch and managing all organization spends for these verticals. The team helps Max Life run cost efficient operations, arrive at the right strategic decisions for build vs. buy, Capex vs. Opex etc, identifies the projects that deliver the biggest impact, and is the gatekeeper of all the spends. Regular cost reporting, identification of cost saving initiatives and its execution is done by this team.
Outsourcing: There are over 200+ vendors being actively managed by the SPC team for vendor lifecycle from onboarding to compliance, payments till contract closures. The unit also helps onboarding of vendors for POCs and special purposes, and works closely with business units, procurement and finance teams to manage vendor operations for both Operations and IT.
Process Controls: This unit interfaces with business units and compliance teams to ensure adherence with the regulatory requirements, helps with both internal and IRDAI audit readiness, and proactively monitors and mitigates and compliance related risks. It reports out the status to various regulatory forums and helps with completion of compliance tasks..
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Annual strategy planning for Ops IT functions, including COO priorities, transformation themes, customer-impacting initiatives and efficiency agenda.
Project management / monitoring of health of Tier 1 projects and COO-sponsored initiatives through structured charters, milestones, RAID logs, decision notes and governance dashboards.
Identification of cost save opportunities, disruptive technology, automation, AI-led productivity opportunities and process simplification themes.
Convert business priorities and leadership asks into execution plans with clear owners, timelines, dependencies, success metrics and benefits tracking.
Run post-implementation reviews to validate whether intended customer, operational, regulatory and financial outcomes were delivered.
Demand Management and Portfolio Governance
Own the demand intake process for Ops, Digital and Technology initiatives emerging from COO office / business functions.
Maintain a demand register covering objective, customer impact, regulatory criticality, value, effort, risk, dependency, resource requirement and decision status.
Facilitate prioritization forums across Operations, Digital, Technology, Finance, Risk and Compliance to sequence work based on strategic alignment, capacity and benefits.
Provide portfolio-level visibility on approved, in-flight, deferred, parked and completed initiatives, including ageing, bottlenecks and escalation points.
Manage capacity and resource conflict visibility with delivery teams to avoid overcommitment, duplication and delivery delays.
Budgeting
Link project prioritization with cost, benefits, ROI, productivity impact and budget availability.
Track financial benefits and cost-save delivery for transformation and demand-management initiatives.
Stakeholder Management and Communications
Departmental communication for management forums like board meetings, weekly leadership reviews and COO governance forums.
Manage COO Program Office governance structures, including project reviews, demand pipeline reviews, action tracking and closure of next steps.
Prepare crisp executive updates, steering committee packs, decision memos and escalation notes for COO / senior leadership.
Influence cross-functional owners without direct authority and ensure timely closure of dependencies and decisions.
Compliance Audit
Strict adherence to IRDAI regulations and internal guidelines.
Identification of potential regulatory outages and proactive management of risks.
Ensure demand items and COO projects are assessed for regulatory, customer, operational, technology and reputational risk before prioritization and implementation.
Track audit observations, regulatory commitments, control gaps and management action plans linked to COO / Operations initiatives.
Ensure documentation, evidence retention and closure validation for critical projects and regulatory / customer-impacting actions.
Team management
Performance monitoring, feedback and development
Learning and retention of key talent
MEASURES OF SUCCESS
Be a constant force of change and innovation for the organization, challenging status quo and bringing new ideas for testing and incubation
Successful archival of knowledge and dissemination of it across business functions
Positive feedback and appreciation from business owners and decision makers.
Timely delivery of COO-sponsored projects, leadership action items and Tier 1 initiatives.
Improved visibility, prioritization discipline and governance of the demand pipeline.
Reduction in ageing demands, unresolved dependencies, project delays and unplanned escalations.
Realization of committed benefits such as cost save, productivity, TAT improvement, customer experience improvement, risk reduction or digital adoption.
Quality of executive dashboards, decision support, portfolio reporting and stakeholder confidence.
Key Relationships
Digital and Technology COE
Finance
Operations functions
Customer Service, Claims, Underwriting, Renewals, Persistency and Fulfilment teams
Risk, Compliance, Legal, Audit, Procurement and vendor partners
COO Office, CEO-1 leadership forums and senior functional stakeholders
KEY COMPETENCIES/SKILLS REQUIRED
8-12 years of experience; presently should be in COO office / PMO / portfolio management / demand management / corporate strategy / FPA / budgeting / business transformation roles for large businesses or engagement manager roles in top tier consulting firms.
Preference for candidates with MBA from a tier 1 business school with excellent academic track record
Demonstrated experience in managing cross-functional programs, demand intake, project prioritization, governance cadences and senior leadership reporting.
Strong understanding of portfolio management, benefits realization, resource / capacity planning, issue resolution, risk management and change adoption.
Ability to work with cross functional teams; strong networking and inter-personal skills
Detail-oriented, organized, critical thinker with strong work ethics
Excellent communication skills and a thoughtful, persuasive personal style.
Self-starter, comfortable in a project-oriented environment and comfortable in dealing with large cross functional projects.
Ability to influence key stakeholders and operational owners through well-articulated strategies backed up with metric driven value statements.
Analytical skills and judgment to solve problems with limited information at hand by learning and using statistical tools and logic.
Ability to develop, test and validate hypotheses. Should be competent at analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data.
Advanced Excel and PowerPoint skills; working knowledge of Power BI / Tableau, Jira, ServiceNow, MS Project or equivalent portfolio / workflow tools preferred.
Ability to write clear business requirements, user stories, problem statements, acceptance criteria and executive decision notes.
Understanding of AI, automation, workflow digitization and analytics use cases in operations / service / technology preferred.
PMP / Prince2 / Agile / Scrum / Lean Six Sigma certification will be an advantage.
Life insurance experience a plus, but not mandatory
