Journey Lead: Retail Claims

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Job Description

You will form part of the Mass Foundation Cluster which is one of the largest customer-facing business segments in Old Mutual. Our vision is to be our customers' most trusted financial partner, passionate about helping them achieve their lifetime goals. Our mission is to enable positive futures for our customers, by bridging the gap between their resources and their financial service’s needs. Our primary goal is to facilitate access to financial solutions for our customers and to keep pace with their changing needs. Our target market is the low and emerging-middle income segment.

The Journey Lead is responsible for leading and delivering transformational customer journeys across Retail shared services Servicing. This role involves aligning strategic objectives, driving collaboration across cross-functional teams, and ensuring the execution of innovative solutions to enhance customer experiences. The Journey Lead plays a pivotal role in identifying opportunities for improvement, fostering a customer-centric culture, and embedding agile practices within the organization.

The Journey Lead for Retail Claims will support the Journey Owner in developing and executing a strategy to deliver an exceptional claims experience for policyholders, beneficiaries, advisers, and other third parties across all channels – Digital, Branch, Email and Call Centre. This role involves the end-to-end management of the claims process, optimising customer satisfaction, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements, mitigating risks, and driving operational excellence. The Journey Lead will focus on identifying opportunities, implementing process improvements, supporting digital innovation, and collaborating with stakeholders to enhance operational performance and customer satisfaction. Additionally, the Journey Lead will contribute to the change enablement team, driving continuous improvement to achieve the best claims journey in the market.

Journey Management

• Lead the design and implementation of customer journeys, ensuring alignment with business objectives and customer needs.

• Utilize data and insights to identify pain points and opportunities for journey improvement.

• Collaborate with stakeholders to define success metrics and monitor progress.

Agile Implementation

• Embed agile methodologies within teams to enable iterative development and faster delivery of improvements.

• Act as a champion for agile practices and facilitate agile ceremonies such as stand-ups, retrospectives, and planning sessions.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Develop a deep understanding of external stakeholders (including policyholders, beneficiaries, advisers, and third parties) by building trusted relationships, anticipating their needs, and analysing behavioural patterns to inform service design, communication, and journey improvements.

• Build strong relationships with cross-functional teams, including product, technology, operations, and marketing.

• Act as a liaison between teams to resolve conflicts, address dependencies, and maintain alignment on goals.

Technical Process Delivery

• Ensure compliance with legislative requirements such as the AML, Income Tax Act, and POPI Act.

• Identify and implement best practices consistently.

• Follow and enforce technical policies, SOPs, and fund rules.

• Manage service delivery, ensuring adherence to service promises, case management, and SLAs.

• Monitor and react to feedback to maintain quality assurance.

• Conduct gap and root cause analysis to drive process improvements.

• Oversee business plans and special projects, ensuring smooth execution.

• Allocate resources effectively, assigning the right jobs to the right individuals.

• Adapt quickly to changing circumstances and implement agile execution strategies.

• Resolve complex technical and administrative issues.

Control Environment

• Maintain and update control libraries to prevent non-compliance.

• Identify, log, and mitigate risks within the operational framework.

• Ensure strict adherence to standard operating procedures and protocols.

• Track, raise, and resolve audit-related issues to maintain compliance.

Communication

• Manage inbound and outbound communications effectively.

• Handle enquiries, escalations, and complaints efficiently.

• Develop and deliver presentations and workshops as needed.

Data (MIS) and Reporting

• Monitor and act upon management information for performance improvement.

• Diagnose and resolve workflow issues effectively.

• Plan and allocate work based on skills and competency matrices.

• Generate accurate statistical and progress reports to support decision-making.

People Leadership

• Define key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure productivity, quality of work and efficiency of the journey.

• Manage direct reports in accordance with internal policies and procedures.

• Full suite of people management (i.e. capacity planning, recruiting, goal setting, performance management, coaching, employee wellbeing, employee skills matrix and learning, recognition, ad hoc items etc).

Performance and Capability Building

• Set performance objectives for teams and provide feedback to ensure alignment with strategic priorities.

• Identify capability gaps within teams and implement development plans to address them.

• Mentor and coach team members to enhance their professional growth.

Risk and Compliance Management

• Proactively identify risks associated with customer journeys and implement mitigation strategies.

• Ensure compliance with organisational policies, procedures, and relevant regulatory requirements.

Role requirements:

• Matric, and or Degree, or a related field.

• Minimum of 5 years’ experience in a leadership role with a focus on customer journey management, customer experience, or technical operations.

• Proven track record of implementing agile methodologies within teams, with experience leading cross-functional squads.

• Experience in stakeholder management, including both internal teams and external partners.

• Demonstrated ability to use data-driven insights to improve processes, customer satisfaction, and the efficiency and effectiveness of processes.

• Product knowledge in the Retail Segments i.e. PF, & MFC.

• PAS proficiency: Craft, Bancs, Omega.

• Workflow proficiency: AWD, Bizagi and EMS.

• Experience of call center and back-office line management in financial service industry.

• Strong background in customer service management, with a focus on enhancing customer experience.

• Ability to handle escalations and resolve complex customer issues effectively.

• Ability to manage cross-functional teams and drive process improvement.

Additional requirements:

• Subject Matter Expertise in Customer Experience & Service Design: Strong knowledge of customer experience design, operational transformation, and service design principles, with proficiency in journey mapping tools such as Miro, Smaply, or Lucidchart to visualise and improve service delivery processes.

• Experience in driving digital transformation initiatives.

• Systems Thinking: Proven ability to understand and optimise complex, interdependent systems and processes across multiple customer and operational touchpoints.

• Design Thinking & Human-Centred Design: Experience applying design thinking methodologies to solve customer pain points and co-create meaningful journey experiences.

• Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) or similar: Experience working within or leading scaled agile environments to enable enterprise-wide transformation.

• Agile or Scrum certification.

 

Skills

Agile Implementation, Communication, Compliance Management, Management Information System (MIS) Reporting, People Leadership, Risk Control, Stakeholder Engagement, Technical Processes

Competencies

Builds Effective Teams

Communicates Effectively

Customer Focus

Directs Work

Drives Engagement

Drives Results

Ensures Accountability

Financial Acumen

Education

NQF Level 7 - Degree, Advance Diploma or Postgraduate Certificate or equivalent

Closing Date

30 October 2026 , 23:59

The appointment will be made from the designated group in line with the Employment Equity Plan of Old Mutual South Africa and the specific business unit in question.

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