Whatever their stage of life, we provide over 108 million customers with the products and services they need to progress. From insurance to personal protection, and savings to wealth management, no matter the need we're always there for them. And we're always there for our employees. In 50 countries, we work hard to inspire pride and a sense of belonging in our people. To provide opportunities that challenge them, inspire them, and reward them. And to create a culture that's open, supportive, and empowering. Because we know that's the real secret to success - and the best way for us to keep building a better world for both our customers and the talented people who put them first.

Your work environment:

The headquarters of the AXA Group (GIE AXA) brings together our corporate activities. It provides guidance and support to subsidiaries around the world, to ensure the coordination and monitoring of the Group's global strategy, the application of its standards, the consistency of commercial approaches and the sharing of best practices. The headquarters gathers approximately 1000 employees and is distinguished by its strong international culture (45 nationalities), which makes it a rich and stimulating place to work.

Within the Group, you will join the Group Underwriting Office department (GUO)

The newly created Global Chief Underwriting Office is accountable for establishing, enabling and driving profit and growth through Product Underwriting Strategy, Portfolio Design and Technical Underwriting Excellence in partnership with the AXA Entities, for both Commercial and Retail, through:

• Portfolio Design Steering
• Underwriting Product Strategy and Profitability Measurement
• Technical Underwriting Guidance
• Pricing Models, Platforms and Analytics
• Risk Appetite deployment
• Ceded Reinsurance strategy design and purchasing

Within this Department, you will be part of the team P&C Retail Underwriting.

Your job and daily missions:

JOB PURPOSE

The purpose of the position is to drive Technical Excellence in Retail UW with entities worldwide, supporting them in driving growth & profit. This position promotes a strong alignment between central functions to streamline review processes and requests. The list of activities can be summarized as follows:

• Entity responsibility and continuous engagement with a set of monthly KPIs to be able to steer, challenge and support the Entity to detect potential deviations from Budget, supporting profit or premium recovery programs with the use of proper toolkits;
• Participation in PMP and in Cycle management, both to be deployed into the entities;
• Support the entity in the implementation of High granularity reports as part of portfolio performance review, leveraging on existing performance tools;
• Ad hoc Monitoring and steering portfolio profitability according to Entities' needs (prodrome to Preliminary Reviews);
• Improve discount management and sales steering, adding two dimensions: customer and intermediaries at Entity level;
• Reduce UW leakage and Distribution Coverage Analysis to be deployed at Entity level;
• State-of-the-art underwriting approach and model, with commercial view embedded in the pricing strategy, enabling fast feedback loops from the market;
• High use of internal and external data, including innovative technologies.

DIMENSIONS

Main Figures:

• 20+ countries / entities as well as 3 regional hubs (EM, AMIH and AMO).
• €49bn of revenues in scope (49% of the whole AXA Group revenue):
  • €17bn of revenues in P&C Retail & Partnerships.
  • €32bn of revenues in P&C Commercial & Partnerships
• 70+ requests for Underwriting non-authorized business per year, representing GWP ~€2bn.

CONTEXT AND MAJOR CHALLENGES

The P&C Retail business is a core pillar of the Group in terms of both Underlying Earnings (>33% of total) and customer base (20m+). Although each market AXA operates in has its own dynamics, regulations and challenges, the fundamental requirements and propositions for the retail business are similar, covering at large motor, home and travel insurance.

As of today, Motor insurance remains the 'anchor' product of the industry. In the mid-term, along potential further commoditization or technology advancements (i.e. electric vehicles, autonomous cars, ...), the private Motor market is assumed to get materially smaller (and potentially less profitable).

Moreover, the customer experience is still overly complex and P&C insurers struggle to build long-term and relevant customer relationships, driven by 1) low frequency of interaction, 2) a lack of differentiation, 3) increasing commoditization and 4) increasing price pressure. Thus, a large portion of the P&C Retail business stands at a strategic crossroad, intensified by changing supply and demand side trends which drive the integration of existing value chains to solve specific customer problems, giving rise to ecosystems.

In addition to all this, a lot of additional external challenges are impacting the profitability level of this business segment: claims inflation in first place, climate changes development and customer behaviour modification.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

The senior leader will receive yearly targets based on the following accountabilities:

• Implement State-of-the-art underwriting approach and model
• Lead In-Depth Reviews (IDR) & Technical Reviews (TR) recommendations within his scope of responsibilities
• Participate in PMP development
• Provide High granularity reports as part of portfolio performance review, leveraging on existing performance tools
• Launch Profit or Premium Recovery programs according to results from monitoring activities
• Ad hoc Monitoring and steering portfolio profitability
• Improve discount management and sales steering
• Reduce UW leakage
• High use of internal and external data, including innovative technologies
• Analyse and interpret a set of data from different entities in order to help Entities to address specific actions
• Work in close contact with cross-functional teams for developing a good understanding of the cycle management.

The ideal candidate needs to have a wide experience in the Insurance P&C market, with a good understanding of the underwriting cycles and the major topics involved.

Among these topics we can mention the following:

• Knowledge of the process for the tariff calculations and scenario testing analysis in order to quantify the impact on portfolios
• Knowledge of the definition of the technical pricing and its components
• Deep understanding of the application of discounting rules (allocation and clow-back activities)
• Good understanding of the definition of the Risk appetite
• Deep knowledge of Product development
• Good understanding of the Portfolio management process
• Customer and distributors steering

Technical skills:

• Around 8/10 years Underwriting experience in Retail Lines of Business
• General knowledge of Retail Lines insurance Products and client segments, incl.:
• Easy manipulation of complex financial figures (Current Year Combined Ratio, All Years Combined Ratio, attritional LR, GWP, GEP, Economic Capital, Economic Combined Ratio...) connected to insurance activity monitoring
• Reinsurance knowledge (Treaties and facultative)
• Experience working in complex environments
• Experience in Project Management is essential
• Knowledge of programming (such as SAS, or other AI languages) is not essential but skills in Microsoft tools is crucial

Soft skills:

• Natural leadership
• Able to develop structured argumentation to sell ideas and convince various types of stakeholders (different hierarchy levels and business background)
• Able to deliver high-level presentation in front of senior management or entities CEOs
• Agility to work in a multifaceted P&C world (Local vs Group, Small vs Large entities, worldwide underwriting cultures)
• Always customer minded while promoting strong Technical excellence in UW
• Good negotiation skills

DECISION BODIES AND COMMITTEES

• Group Lob committees:
  • Provide expertise on Group referrals
  • Support the Underwriting community fostering profitable growth and technical excellence
• P&C Retail committee:
  • Support AXA transformation strategies setup
  • Support entities in their transformation journey

Why AXA ? Every day, we work together for human progress by protecting what matters. A mission that puts a smile on your face and makes you want to get up in the morning !

One of the world's leading insurers in the protection of property, people and assets, AXA is 145,000 employees and contributors who are committed to our customers on a daily basis, 51 countries in which we distribute our products and services and more than 90 million customers who place their trust in us worldwide. As a responsible corporate citizen, AXA is committed to social and environmental causes on a daily basis. We are committed to an inclusive policy that recognizes and values individual differences. Do these ambitions speak to you ? Then come and change the world with us !

The headquarters of the AXA Group is based in Paris - La Défense (Majunga Tower) and brings together the Group's corporate activities. It is distinguished by its strong international culture.