Head of Travel Insurance Operations

This is a great and rare opportunity to join a spectacularly growing business within Admiral (in the past 3 years we have grown more than 6 times in size of our turnover and team and we have ambitious plans to continue growing) . Your role as the Head of Operations is to lead the department (currently made up of more than 120 employees spread on two sites in Delhi and Cardiff) and ensure it contributes to the travel success overall. Key focus areas are: customer centricity, retention, operational efficiency, and data-driven decision making – all whilst keeping a great culture and happy people.

You will be expected to look at the department as a whole, whilst supporting  Ops managers and people in key roles directly. You will be part of the travel leadership team and  your role will see you working closely with the Head of Travel, and the HODs for Claims, Underwriting, Pricing, and Product – as well as other Senior Managers across Admiral Group.

The customer will be at the heart of everything you do, whilst remembering that a commercially successful business is crucial to continuing to provide for our customers.

The main goals in the role are:

• To develop travel operations into an area to creates sustainable competitive advantage for travel insurance and ensures our customer get good outcomes

• To lead the department and communicate matters affecting the function to both internal and external parties.

• To make decisions in all matters affecting operations and performance of the Operational function in accordance with the group strategy.

• To help ensure that the supply of management information is appropriate to the department and fits with operational needs.

• To act in accordance with the Risk Strategy and Policy, ensuring an appropriate risk register is maintained in the areas for which you have direct responsibility.

• To develop a culture of audit, quality control; and compliance and (with advice sought from SMEs in Compliance, Regulatory Advice and Customer and Conduct etc) ensure that all aspects of the department’s operations comply with regulations.

As the Head of Operations your key duties will be include:

• Create and drive the ops strategy that supports the product strategy

• Ensure a solid governance structure is in place

• Adherence to any relevant FCA requirements

• Ensure the area is at the forefront of innovation, technology

• Create a data driven culture

• Responsibility for the pre-sale, sales and renewals activities of EUI insurance products to retail customers via agents and online including design and maintain scripts , incentive structure and competitions, new business and ancillaries sales, renewal calls and cancellations

• Ensure staffing is adequate to cover predicted call volumes and attrition

• To ensure the department meet required standards in respect of quality monitoring, productivity and compliance

• Work to constantly improve sales and performance

• Act on any performance trends and arrange training and plans to rectify issues and improve performance

• To manage and motivate staff to ensure morals and culture grow and improve the working atmosphere

• Maintain accurately all appropriate records in relation to department / company / personal performance.

• To work to maintain and build on the departments working relationship with other departments and provide an excellent service to both internal and external customers.

• Proactively identify, manage and mitigate risks to the business in the Travel area

• Own, develop and test travel (non-claims related) BCP

Key skills / qualifications

• The ability to drive and motivate for change through e­ffective leadership

• Business awareness and ability to balance customer needs, colleague needs, and financial outcomes

• Ability to build long term plans and execute effectively to deliver outstanding results

• Highly motivated and energetic with a people centric approach to leadership

• Strong communication and interpersonal skills with an ability to engage with stakeholders at all levels

• Good analytical skills to be able to interrogate data and look for opportunities to improve all aspects of performance

Essential experience

• At least 2 years’ experience in an operational management role or equivalent management experience in support departments

• Experience in a contact centre department (preferably service / operations)

Desired experience

• Experience in a ‘Head of’ or ‘Lead Ops’ role

• Experience in a hybrid / multi-skilled / omni-channel environment

• Business / leadership/ management / project management qualifications

Salary, Benefits and Work-Life Balance

We do not have a set salary for this position, as it will be dependent on the successful candidate’s experience. We are happy to see CVs from all candidates who meet the requirements and will be happy to discuss the remuneration package.

At Admiral, we are proud to be a diverse business where we put our people and customers first. We have great benefits to ensure employees have a great work-life balance; it's one of the reasons we’re consistently voted one of the Sunday Times Best Big Companies to work for in the UK. We want you to have an element of freedom to define a working lifestyle that supports this, so accommodate flexible hours wherever possible.

All colleagues will receive 33 days holiday (including banks holidays) when they join us, and this will increase with length of service, up to a maximum of 38 days (including banks holidays). You also have the option to buy or sell up to five days of annual leave in addition to your allocation.

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