Job Title

Delivery Manager

Job Description

UnderwriteMe is a UK based Insurtech creating disruptive SaaS solutions for the insurance industry. We are on a mission to make life insurance more widely accessible, providing technology to ensure people and their loved ones are protected when the inevitable happens.

We are wholly owned by Pacific Life, but operate as an autonomous business within the company. This gives us the best of both worlds - the freedom to act like a technology scale-up, with the stability of a large company meaning longer-term thinking and no last minute pivots to gain our next funding round. Pacific Life Re became 100% shareholder of UnderwriteMe in 2017 given the strategic synergy with its reinsurance business.

UnderwriteMe Has Two Main Products We Sell To Customers

• Decision Platform - a B2B enterprise platform that provides a best-in-market Underwriting Rules Engine used by over 30 insurers to power their underwriting decisions. The product is sold across UK & Ireland, Asia-Pacific and North America. The platform combines our engine with technology to source and process third-party information supporting underwriting decisions for insurers. We are already working on capabilities, powered by AI, to make these decisions even more efficient.
• Protection Platform - a B2B2C marketplace used by over 15,000 advisors to power quoting and purchase of protection products in the UK. We currently deliver 16% of the UK markets protection policies and we are already working to increase our reach.

UnderwriteMe is part-way through a multi-year transformation to adopt a Product Operating Model, modernising our architecture and moving our products to a SaaS model. We still have much to do, and we’re looking for people to join us on this challenging and exciting journey.

Pacific Life and UnderwriteMe are both organisations focussed on creating a great environment in which to work. We recognise that attracting and retaining top talent is how we continue to improve the company. We pay well and as we are part of a mature organisation, we have a good benefits package. We value and celebrate diversity in our teams and continually work to celebrate the uniqueness of each person. We work in a hybrid model and we expect our leaders to flex where they work based on the needs of the company and their teams.

About The Role

We are looking for a Delivery Manager to support both our data and application platform teams. Both of these platforms sit centrally outside of our two products and support the creation of the underlying foundations on top of which our products are built. The purpose of these platform teams is to enable our product teams to move more quickly on strong foundations.

The current priority of our data platform team is to help oversee a major data transformation initiative, migrating from an existing data platform to a modern, scalable and well governed data platform that will service current as well as future analytics needs of our business.

We are going through a similar transformation in our application platform, and this role will be key in getting us from where we are today to our future target state. Our two products currently run on a platform that has gone through some transformation, but the platform does not yet fulfil our vision of creating a delightful developer experience enabling quick, iterative delivery of value to our customers.

What You Will Be Doing

This role will lead the delivery function for our data and application platform teams, partnering with and reporting to the engineering leaders in each of these areas (solid line to one, dotted to the other).

You will also partner with our other delivery managers in Decision Platform and Protection Platform to ensure a consistent delivery methodology is practiced. Most work completed in the platform teams directly impacts both products and therefore you will need to work closely with your peers to manage dependencies between teams.`

The Areas Of Focus For This Role Include

• Stakeholder management - collaborate with project sponsors and stakeholders to ensure data road map and objectives are well understood and any deviations or changes agreed and communicated to all concerned
• Planning and monitoring - working with engineering leaders to manage project and support backlog, daily stand-ups, sprint planning ceremonies and retrospectives. Provide regular updates and presentations to project sponsors & steering committees, addressing project risks, issues and any speed bumps impacting project timelines
• Resource allocation & capacity management - work with the engineering leaders to ensure the correct people are allocated to work
• Process improvements - continuously refine and enhance delivery processes, frameworks and methodologies used to ensure high quality standards are maintained in delivering required project outcomes
• Performance metrics - review, enhance and monitor key metrics to measure through-put, efficiency as well as customer SLAs
• Risk management - working with leaders in the team to identify and manage risks, dependencies and constraints to keep work on track. Proactively identifying risks and implementing mitigation strategies. Managing escalations and support leaders in resolving conflicts between teams.
• Vendor management - Manage 3rd party data vendors and partners to ensure we are getting the best possible outcomes to support delivery of our data road map
• Cross company support - Manage projects and relationships with our own internal stakeholders in our parent company including data teams, risk and compliance teams etc

What Type Of Person Fits The Role

You are an expert at managing complex delivery of engineering projects. You are passionate about agile delivery practices, having successfully applied these practices to deliver transformation initiatives from inception to completion. Through the projects you have worked on you will have gained a deep understanding of how data and application platform work through concepts such as data migrations, platform migrations and data integrations. You know what metrics matter and have a clear framework for measuring success. You foster a culture of continuous improvement, encouraging learning, innovation and sharing best practices within your project teams.

You have excellent verbal and written communication skills to effectively interact with stakeholders at all levels. You are a good listener who understands client requirements and can convey information clearly to ensure project team is fully aligned. You are comfortable getting into different levels of detail depending on what the situation demands. You play a crucial role in building trust and enhancing stakeholder relationships by providing regular project updates, addressing concerns or conflicts and fostering a culture of transparent communication across the project team.

You have exceptional project management and presentation skills. You can create comprehensive project plans, defining project scope, setting realistic timelines, and managing project resources. You excel at creating presentations that provide a clear and concise project update, tracking milestones, identifying potential bottlenecks, and implementing necessary adjustments to keep the project on track.

You thrive at solving problems and making decisions when navigating complex project scenarios. You have a critical thinking mindset, with ability to analyse problems, identify root causes, evaluate options and make informed decisions that are aligned with the project goals. You are cautiously aware of the potential impact of your decisions on key stakeholders and project outcomes.

You adapt quickly to a rapidly evolving business landscape. You embrace change, adapt to shifting project requirements, effectively manage scope creep and adjust project plans and resourcing to maintain project momentum. You respond to unexpected challenges, market dynamics, or emerging opportunities, ensuring project success in a dynamic environment.

You have a growth mindset. You respectfully challenge the status-quo. You are continually looking to improve yourself and your teams. You actively seek out and give feedback and do this in a way that builds strong relationships with your team and peers. You think about working iteratively, using experiments and data to drive how you make decisions.

You thrive in a fast-paced environment with large amounts of uncertainty. You are comfortable working to transform an organisation, accepting this means that everything is not working perfectly today

Technical Requirements

As a delivery manager, you must have:

• extensive experience in successful delivery of complex data or platform transformation projects end to end
• significant experience in Agile delivery practices, techniques and tools

As this role is a delivery manager in the data and platform space it would be extremely beneficial if you came with experience in either or both of these areas, this includes experience implementing:

• modern SaaS data platforms eg Snowflake, Fivetran and dbt
• business intelligence tools, processes and best practice
• data governance tools and best practice
• modern application platforms on AWS
• experience working with risk and compliance teams on cloud security and compliance best practices including standards like SOC2 and ISO 27001

Benefits

• Stakeholder Pension Scheme
• Life Assurance
• Subsidised Gym Membership
• Private Medical Insurance
• Season Ticket Loan
• Eye Care
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Group Income Protection
• Wellness Benefits

As part of our commitment to accessibility for all, UnderwriteMe will, upon the request of the applicant, provide accommodation during the recruitment process to ensure equal access to applicants with disabilities. Please contact us about your needs, and we will consult with you to ensure suitable accommodation is provided.