Head of Life and Health Operations

Location: Singapore

Salary: SGD 250,000 per annum

Overview This senior leadership role is responsible for end-to-end Life and Health operations, ensuring efficient, compliant and customer-focused delivery across new business, underwriting support, policy administration, claims operations, servicing, and quality assurance. You will drive operational excellence, manage risk and controls, and lead transformation to improve productivity, service levels and regulatory outcomes.

Key Responsibilities * Own and optimise operational strategy, capacity planning, budgets and performance management for Life and Health operations. * Lead multi-disciplinary teams and managers; set clear objectives, coach leaders, and build a high-performance culture. * Oversee underwriting support, policy issuance and servicing processes to ensure accurate, timely and compliant execution. * Direct claims operations (including TAT, fraud controls, medical assessments coordination and customer communications) with strong governance. * Implement robust controls, MI and KPIs (e.g., service levels, quality, leakage, complaints, productivity, straight-through processing). * Ensure adherence to local regulatory requirements and internal policies, including conduct risk, data privacy and outsourcing controls. * Partner with Product, Actuarial, Distribution, Finance, Risk/Compliance and Technology to deliver operational readiness for new launches and changes. * Drive process improvement, automation and digitalisation (workflow, RPA, rules engines, document management) to reduce cost-to-serve. * Manage vendor and third-party relationships (TPAs, medical networks, call centres) with strong SLA and risk oversight. * Lead incident management, remediation, audits, and continuous improvement for operational risk and customer outcomes.

Requirements * Extensive experience in Life and/or Health insurance operations, including claims and policy administration, with senior leadership accountability. * Proven track record of operational transformation, Lean/Six Sigma or equivalent continuous improvement methodologies. * Strong knowledge of insurance operations controls, regulatory expectations, conduct standards, and operational risk management. * Demonstrated ability to lead large teams, manage change, and influence senior stakeholders across functions. * Strong analytical capability with experience using management information to drive performance and decision-making. * Experience with core insurance platforms and digital operations (workflow, data, automation); comfort working with technology teams. * Excellent communication skills, with a customer-centric mindset and strong judgement in complex cases. * Bachelor’s degree or equivalent; professional qualifications in insurance/operations/risk are advantageous.

What Success Looks Like * Improved customer outcomes and reduced complaints through consistently high-quality servicing and claims handling. * Measurable productivity gains and lower operational cost through automation and process simplification. * Strong audit and compliance outcomes, with effective governance and sustainable controls.