PM – Operational Readiness Stream Lead

Title of the mission:

Stream Lead – Operations / Operational Readiness – VERDI Phase 4

Goal of the mission:

Lead the end-to-end operational readiness of Athora Belgium for VERDI Phase 4, ensuring that Operations and all impacted internal functions can safely administer, service, control and support the migrated Classic Life and remaining Unit-Linked portfolios from Day 1. The role converts migration, product, system, legal, risk and finance changes into executable processes, trained and adequately staffed teams, controlled cutover activities, business-continuity arrangements and a stable transition to Business as Usual, while protecting policyholders, brokers, regulatory compliance and agreed service levels.

Expected deliveries:

• Approved Operational Readiness including impact and gap assessment

• Updated operational procedures and controls for policy servicing, premiums, commissions, claims/benefits, buybacks, disability covers, complaints, documents, AML/sanctions and legal declarations.

• Operational requirements and acceptance criteria for Testing, including mass-data testing and exception-handling requirements.

• Training & Knowledge Transfer Document, role-based curriculum, user guides, attendance and competency evidence.

• Change Management Plan covering stakeholder impact, deployment, adoption and support.

• Organizational Set-Up Document defining target operating model, RACI, capacity, skills, access rights and segregation of duties.

• Operational Transition Plan and runbook aligned with the integrated cutover plan and covering operations.

• Business continuity, fallback and manual-workaround plans.

• Operational readiness dashboard and evidence pack supporting COO/business-owner sign-off and Go/No-Go.

• Post-go-live hyper care, incident-support and controlled BAU handover model.

Expected role & responsibilities during the mission:

1. Planning & Governance

• Build and maintain the detailed readiness plan, milestones, dependencies, owners and gates for each migration wave.

• Chair weekly stream governance and provide evidence-based status to Cross-Stream, validation, change-control and Go/No-Go forums.

• Assess the operational impact of change requests and maintain decision traceability.

2. Operational Impact, Process & Control Design

• Lead end-to-end impact and gap assessments across Operations, Finance, IT, Legal/Compliance, Risk, Actuarial and Customer Service.

• Translate other stream outputs (features/gaps) and historical data into executable processes and exception paths.

• Ensure procedures preserve policy terms, customer rights, audit trails, data protection, AML/sanctions, complaints handling and legal declarations.

• Define KPIs, reconciliations, control points, maker-checker controls and accountable process owners.

3. Requirements, Testing & Acceptance

• Provide operational requirements for migration, target-system behaviour, documents, interfaces, reporting, access and support tooling.

• Define operational scenarios and acceptance criteria; mobilize SMEs for Test support and dry runs.

• Ensure defects, data-quality exceptions and reconciliation breaks have resolved or formally accepted operational mitigations.

4. People, Organization, Training & Change

• Design the target organization, RACI, capacity model, skill matrix, access profiles and segregation of duties.

• Assess workload and staffing impacts, including manual processing, transition peaks and hyper care demand.

• Own training-needs analysis, knowledge transfer, role-based curricula, user guides and readiness attestations.

• Drive adoption and ensure teams understand the change, execution model and support channels.

5. Cutover, Continuity & Hypercare

• Own the operational runbook and connect it to the integrated migration/cutover plan.

• Coordinate freeze windows, backlog management, TSA handoffs, staffing rosters, command-centre coverage and Day-1 activation.

• Define fallback and manual workarounds for delays, instability, data defects and unavailable calculations/documents.

• Lead hypercare, support incident triage and stabilization until agreed exit criteria and BAU acceptance are achieved.

6. Risk, Compliance & Customer Protection

• Escalate blockers with quantified customer, regulatory, financial, SLA and schedule impacts and a credible path to green.

• Ensure operations align with approved product/POG decisions and Onboarding outputs are operationally usable.

• Secure review and sign-off from COO/business owners and relevant Legal, Compliance, Risk, Finance, Actuarial, IT and Data stakeholders.

7. Reporting, Resources & Vendors

• Report weekly RAG reporting on milestones, readiness indicators, risks, defects, training, staffing and cutover.

• Track resource demand, availability and budget implications and escalate capacity or skill gaps.

• Coordinate operational dependencies and knowledge transfer

Knowledge:

• Strong knowledge of Belgian life insurance operations, policy administration and customer/broker servicing.

• Understanding of Classic Life and Unit-Linked products, reserves, premiums, commissions, benefits, buybacks, disability, …

• Knowledge of Solvency II, IDD, GDPR, AML/sanctions, product governance, complaints and regulatory/legal reporting is a plus.

• Experience with portfolio/data migrations, cutover, hyper care, business continuity and BAU transition.

• • Proficiency with hybrid delivery and MS Project, Azure DevOps, Excel, Teams/SharePoint and PPM/RAID tooling.

Competencies:

• Proven leadership of cross-functional business readiness in insurance or financial services.

• Excellent planning, dependency, risk, issue, decision and action management.

• Strong stakeholder management across business, technology, control functions, vendors and executives.

• Ability to structure ambiguity, challenge constructively and escalate with impact and recommendations.

• Experience designing operating models, RACI, capacity plans, training, scorecards and Go/No-Go evidence.

• Strong cutover and incident-management capability; calm and decisive under pressure.

• Clear executive communication and workshop facilitation.

Mindset:

• Customer- and policyholder-first, with a strong control and regulatory mindset.

• Hands-on, structured and delivery-oriented; owns outcomes rather than only coordinating.

• Proactive and transparent; surfaces weak signals and drives pragmatic paths to green.

• Collaborative but appropriately challenging across business and technology.

• Detail-conscious while retaining an end-to-end view of readiness and BAU sustainability.

• Resilient and comfortable with changing priorities and incomplete information.

Seniority expected:

Senior

Years of Experience:

Minimum 8 years, including 3+ years leading operational readiness, transformation or migration delivery in insurance/financial services.

Languages:

☒ NLD

☒ FR

☒ ENG

☐ Other: ……………………