Head of Operation Transformation and Excellence

Prudential’s purpose is to be partners for every life and protectors for every future. Our purpose encourages everything we do by creating a culture in which diversity is celebrated and inclusion assured, for our people, customers, and partners. We provide a platform for our people to do their best work and make an impact to the business, and we support our people’s career ambitions. We pledge to make Prudential a place where you can Connect, Grow, and Succeed.

ROLE PURPOSE

This role leads large-scale transformation of the operations value chain — new business, underwriting, policy servicing, claims, and customer management — toward a digital-first, automated, and data-driven operating model, while simultaneously driving continuous improvement, service quality, and operational reengineering in day-to-day operations. The mandate spans changing the machine and keeping it running at peak: transformation programs deliver step-change capability, and the excellence discipline measures, stabilizes, and continuously optimizes the results.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Operations Transformation

· Define and own operations transformation roadmap aligned to company strategy and growth targets

· Lead end-to-end delivery of transformation programs: digital onboarding, straight-through processing (STP), workflow automation core policy admin system modernization, and paperless servicing.

· Redesign target operating models—including organizational structures and end-to-end process architectures—to deliver a seamless customer journey through an integrated, one-stop service model.

· Build business cases for transformation investments; secure budget and track benefits realization (cost savings, TAT reduction, NPS uplift…)

· Manage transformation governance: steering committees, program status reporting, risk and dependency management across workstreams

· Lead change management and adoption — communications, training, and capability building for impacted operations teams

· Scan the market for Insurtech, automation, and AI capabilities; run pilots and scale proven solutions

Operations Excellence

· Own the operations performance management framework: KPIs/SLAs for turnaround time, accuracy, productivity, unit cost, and customer satisfaction across all operations functions

· Lead continuous improvement programs using Lean Six Sigma methodology; build and manage a pipeline of improvement projects with quantified impact.

· Conduct in-depth process reviews and root cause analyses to address pain points and increase the straight-through processing (STP) rate across the Operations value stream.

· Standardize operational processes; maintain comprehensive SOP libraries, process maps, and control documentation; and own the quality assurance framework

· Design and run capacity planning and workforce management models to balance service levels against cost

· Partner with Risk and Compliance to strengthen operational controls and support audit readiness.

· Leverage AI-powered solutions to reengineer ways of working and accelerate Operations modernization.

Leadership & Stakeholder Engagement

· Partner with IT, Distribution, Actuarial, and Compliance Risk, Legal to ensure solutions meet regulatory and risk requirements.

· Collaborate with regional teams on roadmap alignment, adoption of Group platforms and standards, benchmarking, and best-practice sharing

· Produce management reporting and insights on operational health and transformation progress for CO and executive committee.

· Build and lead a combined team of program managers, business analysts, process engineers, and quality analysts; manage vendors and system integrators

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

· *Bachelor's degree required; MBA or equivalent preferred.

· 12–15+ years of experience spanning insurance operations, transformation, and process improvement, with 5+ years in senior leadership; life insurance domain strongly preferred

· Proven track record delivering large, cross-functional transformation programs (process digitization, core system replacement, automation at scale).

· Demonstrated results in operational excellence: measurable improvements in cost, quality, and turnaround time; Lean Six Sigma Black Belt strongly preferred

· Strong knowledge of life insurance processes: new business, underwriting, policy servicing, claims, and distribution support.

· Experience with automation and digital technologies: RPA, OCR/IDP, workflow platforms, AI/GenAI use cases in operations

· Advanced analytical skills; proficiency with BI tools (Power BI..) for performance analytics.

· Experience in a matrixed multinational environment and program management certification (PMP, Prince2, SAFe) are advantages

COMPETENCIES

· Strategic thinking with hands-on execution discipline — equally comfortable setting multiyear direction and diving into daily operational detail

· Strong stakeholder management up to C-level; ability to influence without authority

Financial acumen — business case development, benefits tracking, and cost management

· Rigorous analytical problem-solving (DMAIC, root cause analysis) with strong control and compliance orientation.

· Change leadership in legacy-heavy environments; coaching skills to build improvement capability in others

· Data-driven decision-making and comfort with ambiguity

Prudential is an equal opportunity employer. We provide equality of opportunity of benefits for all who apply and who perform work for our organisation irrespective of sex, race, age, ethnic origin, educational, social and cultural background, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, disability or part-time / fixed-term work, or any other status protected by applicable law. We encourage the same standards from our recruitment and third-party suppliers taking into account the context of grade, job and location. We also allow for reasonable adjustments to support people with individual physical or mental health requirements.