Head of Operations

About FWD Group

FWD Group (1828.HK) is a pan-Asian life and health insurance business that serves approximately 34 million customers across 10 markets, including BRI Life in Indonesia. FWD’s customer-led and tech-enabled approach aims to deliver innovative propositions, easy-to-understand products and a simpler insurance experience. Established in 2013, the company operates in some of the fastest-growing insurance markets in the world with a vision of changing the way people feel about insurance. FWD Group is listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under the stock code 1828.

For more information, please visit www.fwd.com

In Singapore, FWD aims to change the way people feel about insurance by leveraging technology to deliver products and services that are relevant, easy to understand and always convenient for our customers. To this end, we have a direct-to-consumer (DTC) platform that allows customers to buy their preferred life and general insurance products directly from our website; as well as a network of preferred Financial Advisory (FA) firms for customers who want to speak with an advisor before committing to an insurance plan. Whatever their preference, we believe insurance should be simple, reliable and convenient.

If you are looking for a career where you can create a real impact and celebrate living, we invite you to join us on our exciting journey.

PURPOSE

This role will be expected to lead and manage the insurance operations of retail life, HNW life and GI business covering contact centre, new business underwriting and ops, policy servicing and claims.

KEY ACCOUNTAIBILITIES

• Provide strategic leadership to ensure delivery of excellent customer service experience and operations efficiency.
• Ensure our operations are compliance with regulatory requirements and company policies.
• Ensure that all functions are compliance with Company’s risk governance and philosophy by proactively setting appropriate risk management procedures and controls.
• Achieve operations efficiency through constant review of processes, identify opportunity to transform and automate.
• Manage implementation of IT solutions for all operational processes.
• Perform business and resource planning which includes staff recruitment.
• Provide guidance and set development programs to build competency of the team.
• Support new product launches and all corporate initiatives to ensure smooth delivery.
• Ensure financial targets and other agreed key performance indicators are achieved.
• Develop strong stakeholder management and partnerships with key stakeholders for all distribution channels.
• Maintain good working knowledge of industry trends, products, relevant laws and regulations

New Business & Underwriting

• Provide oversight of new business operations and underwriting, ensuring compliance, risk governance, and operational excellence across life, health, and investment-linked products.
• Work closely with Underwriting team to maintain competitiveness and ensure alignment with Group Underwriting Philosophy.
• Drive service delivery and production targets in partnership with distribution teams, while fostering talent development through training and competency programs.

• Support new product launches and corporate initiatives by establishing robust underwriting frameworks and operational processes.

Policy Servicing

• Ensure consistent high quality customer services meeting or exceeding required service levels and turnaround times.
• Ensure customer’s complaints are managed with agreed internal processes and collaboration with various stakeholders to achieve reasonable and fair outcomes.
• Involve in complex customer’s complaints and investigation to resolve errors and prevent similar repeated errors.

Claims

• Ensure all claims processing are processed in a timely  and automation processes to be put in place when necessary.
• Ensure appointments of service partners such as adjusters, solicitors, lawyers, doctors and investigators are within the compliance of authority rules, regulation, statute law and other procedural reference.
• Monitor claims volumes to provide recommendations and solutions on minimising claims loss ratios.
• Build strong relationship with service partners to ensure timeliness and high service quality.

Customer Engagement

• Drive excellence in pre-sales and post-sales services across all customer touchpoints to deliver superior experiences for customers, financial advisors, and partners.
• Provide oversight for corporate initiatives, UAT, and customer experience improvement projects, ensuring alignment with organizational objectives and compliance with financial budgets and KPIs.

QUALIFICATIONS / EXPERIENCE

• Degree holder
• At least 12 years of experience in insurance operations and process improvement
• Proven records in team leadership

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITY

• Strong knowledge in insurance and operations.
• Experience in managing different functions of operations teams.
• Good understanding of regulatory related to life, health and general insurance.
• Demonstrated ability to design and implement customer service strategies that enhance satisfaction, loyalty, and retention across multiple channels (online and offline).
• Strong track record in managing complex customer relationships, balancing customer needs with business objectives to deliver fair and sustainable outcomes.
• Good verbal and written communication skills.
• Excellent leadership ability
• Excellent interpersonal skills and relationship management skill to work with senior management.
• Good analytical, problem solving and decision-making skills
• Risk management skills
• Strong negotiation skills with external partners.
• Analytical skills and attention to detail, with the ability to think laterally around issues, proposing solutions where required.