Head of Product Development & Management

Job Title:Head of Product Development & Management

Fitness & Probity Classification:CF2
Role Type:Permanent, Full Time
Position Reports To:AGL Head of Product and Investment
Department:AGL Product & Investment
Location:AGL Head Office, Maple House, Temple Road, Blackrock, Co. Dublin

Background:
Allianz Global Life dac (“AGL”) is a rapidly growing cross-border life insurer with products sold in the French, Italian, and German markets, and more recently, the Greek and Lithuanian markets. It also reinsures a portfolio of variable annuities sold in Taiwan and Japan. Our goal is to expand into other markets over the coming years while continuing to expand our product range. We currently write unit-linked, variable annuity, and protection business.

Main Purpose of the Job:

The key contribution of this role is to design and establish the qualitative area of the product department.

1. Support Head of Product and Investment in building a product department with a culture of excellence, that exemplifies the Allianz people attributes of “Customer and Market Excellence”  “Entrepreneurship” “Collaborative Leadership” and “Trust”.
2. The ”Customer and Market Excellence” component of the qualitative product area contains the following –not an exhaustive list:
   1. Customer Protection ( e.g. PRIIPS) and compliance of products with any regulatory standards ( e.g. SFDR, Irish Pension Act, etc…);
   2. Own and manage the Product Governance system and its implementation (e.g. POG policy, PAOC, etc..);
   3. In strong collaboration with Operations, manage the implementation and maintenance of products;
   4. Build knowledge share on all AGL products.
3. The “Entrepreneurship” component of the qualitative product area contains the following –not an exhaustive list:
   1. Contribute to and/or coordinate competitor analysis of AGL’s products;
   2. Research into new product designs and features. As part of this anticipate changes due to regulatory and market trends.

Key Performance Measures:

Customer Protection and compliance of products with any regulatory standards:

• Ensure all products and product documentation fulfil regulatory requirements (e.g. PRIIPS, SFRD,…).Product Documentation includes product specifications, contractual documentation of the products at sale, any reports/letters to the customer as well as any forms required in the life of a policy, e.g. proposal/surrender/AML forms.
• Oversight of outsourced PRSA Actuary responsibilities. 
• Together with team manage the relationship with external legal/tax advisors.
• Contribute with team on product design and specification from a non-quantitative perspective, e.g. create p/h tax specification.
• Ensure that team satisfies CBI's Minimum Competency Code, e.g. through Accredited Product Advisor (APA) or Qualified Financial Advisor (QFA) qualification.

Own and manage the Product Governance system and its implementation:

• Act as PAOC secretary and responsible for legal compliance of products.
• For assessing compliance and sign-off, coordinate with relevant AGL branches, Group departments, AGL Compliance and external advisors.

Manage in strong collaboration with Operations the implementation and maintenance of products:

• Design and develop the product launch checklist template, use the template for all product launches and improve framework as necessary.
• Coordinate the creation/changes and sign-off of BRDs and product specs with team.
• Manage overall Product control framework.

Build knowledge share on all AGL products:

• Maintain and develop further the “AGL product Information” SharePoint.
• Act as knowledge centre on any questions for product functionality.

No of Reports: 1-2 (Trieste/Dublin)

Key Customers:
Internal: GL Senior Management including CEO as part of the PAOC, AGL branches, Compliance, Market Management, Operations, Actuarial, Risk.

External: GCL, TPAs.

Business Competencies
Education and Qualifications: University degree in Finance/Business/Law or similar. Ideally APA or QFA qualified or willingness to pursue qualification.

Professional Competence: Minimum of 5 years of experience in a similar role within the Life Insurance Industry.Ability to work on multiple projects and tasks with strong priority setting skills.

Product & Technical Knowledge: Understanding of customer protection requirements for life insurance and financial regulations of the European market.

Management: Ability to form and lead high performing teams. Proven record of leading a team/project.

Commercial Awareness: Strong understanding of the European Life Insurance Market.

Personal Competencies:
Personal Impact: Self-motivated with can-do attitude and striving to have  positive impact on department culture.

Intellectual Effectiveness: Strong analytical skills combined with emotional intelligence.

Communication: Ability to communicate technical detail in a straightforward manner with senior management and commercial colleagues. Proficiency in Italian or French is a plus.

Dealing with people: Ability to build strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders.

Fitness & Probity:

• Conduct to be honest, ethical, and act with integrity – demonstrate honesty and integrity at all times.
• Demonstrate financial soundness.

Allianz Global Life DAC is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes applications regardless of ethnicity or cultural background, age, gender, nationality, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or any other protected characteristic. We welcome diversity of thinking as it is an important part of our company culture.