Chief Information Officer Cle

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Canada Life Assurance Europe plc ('CLE') has been operating in Germany since 2000 supporting over 600,000 customers, advised by independent brokers, across unit-linked pension savings, retirement and protection solutions.
Its growth strategy sees an increasing focus on developing innovative propositions in Group Business, Wealth and Insurance and exploring new routes to market.
With our purpose to help more people in Germany build stronger, more inclusive, and financially secure futures, CLE is authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) and regulated by the German regulator Bundesstaat fur Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BaFin) for conduct of business rules.
As part of the Great West Lifeco group of companies, with over 175 years of history and 40 million customers, the business employs 800 people across its Irish and German offices and while still relatively young in its business lifecycle, is already a solid contributor to the Great West LifeCo European Division earnings.
Based in Dublin, we are now hiring a Chief Information Officer.
We are seeking to recruit a transformational leader who has a track record delivering scalable, innovative technology and partnering solutions that will enable CLE to win in the German market.
This exciting role will build on the modern technology and digital platform that has been delivered as part of a multi-year transformation program, to enable our growth ambition.
Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer (COO) CLE, with a matrix reporting line to the Chief Information Officer (CIO), Europe at Great West LifeCo, this role will lead a team of c125 people predominantly based in Ireland.
The successful candidate will be a change oriented and results-driven leader, with a strong track record of creating and executing digital and technology strategy to deliver Business priorities.
They will bring strong technology leadership and governance, be passionate about customer centric innovation, have a track record leading and executing organisational change and demonstrate excellent proven stakeholder, vendor and partner management skills.
The successful candidate will be a PCF role holder under the CBI regime, ensuring compliance with required standards, regulations and guidelines.
Key Accountabilities
Technology Strategy & Innovation

• Develop and own the enterprise-wide IT strategy aligned with business goals and evolving market needs.

• Champion the organisation's journey to Cloud that aligns with business needs.

• Oversee the maintenance and extension of modern systems, ensuring seamless integration with digital platforms.

• Embed a digital product mindset across technology teams, promoting a shift from project-based to product-based delivery that creates measurable customer and business value.
Champion cross-functional product teams that integrate technology, design and business expertise.

• Identify and evaluate emerging technologies and digital trends that could enhance competitiveness or improve operations.

• Contribute to the development and implementation of the broader European Technology strategy to maximise value to CLE and the wider European businesses (Ireland and the UK).

• Prepare, manage, and monitor the IT budget, ensuring all activities are delivered within agreed financial parameters and resources are optimally allocated.

• Be a key contributor to developing CLE's data capability, collaborating with stakeholders including Head of Data Products and European data leads on data maturity effort across the organisation.

• Ensure the continued delivery of excellent IT service levels and proactively identify opportunities for service enhancement and innovation.
Leadership, Culture & Organisational Change

• Lead the review and optimisation of the IT Target Operating Model to ensure it is aligned with business strategy, scalable for future growth and fit for purpose in delivering efficient, secure and value-driven technology services to all stakeholders.

• Lead a high-performing, values-driven IT team by establishing clear goals and performance measures (OKRs/KPIs) for both the team and individuals, and by engaging in joint goal setting with key business stakeholders, where relevant, to ensure alignment and deliver on both technology and business objectives.

• Establish clear development plans to accelerate talent development - focusing on skills, knowledge and experience alongside robust succession planning.

• Champion the transition to agile development methodologies to accelerate product development projects and drive organisational agility across the wider organisation.

• Ensure a collaborative culture between the IT team and partner departments to enhance efficiency and enablement, fostering a culture of accountability, innovation, learning and continuous improvement.

• Promote a customer, digital-first and data-driven mindset across teams through training and upskilling programs.

• Foster a DevSecOps and cloud-first culture to improve speed and scalability.

• Champion cross-functional innovation labs to experiment with emerging technologies.
Stakeholder, Partner & Vendor Management

• Lead, negotiate and manage IT vendor and partner contracts, ensuring value-driving, cost-effective and future-proof solutions.

• Partner with senior business stakeholders to understand key strategic priorities and objectives and translate these into the overall technology strategic direction and roadmap.

• Collaborate with Executive and Board members to align technology investments with strategic priorities.

• Build relationships with technology partners, regulators, and insurtech startups.

• Communicate complex technical topics so they can be easily understood by stakeholders and users.

• Oversee and optimise the Central Technology (Shared) Services into Canada Life Europe, including SLAs, budget, relationship management, supplier risk management, compliance, GDPR etc.
Technology Risk Management, Compliance and Governance

• Ensure IT investments support business growth, efficiency, and regulatory compliance.

• Establish strong IT governance, cybersecurity, and risk management frameworks ensuring compliance with all legal and regulatory requirements, industry standards and internal policies related to technology activities.

• Be accountable for the effective risk management of IT, ensuring oversight of IT data security, disaster recovery and business continuity processes to meet organisational requirements, including leading engagement with the Canada Life Europe Board on these topics.

• Be responsible for financial management and budgeting including the IT budget and as a key stakeholder in the annual Central Technology Services (CTS Shared Services) budgeting process.
Key Organisational Relationships
The key organisational relationships for the Chief Information Officer include the following:

• CEO, CLE

• Chief Operating Officer, CLE (Reporting Line)

• Chief Information Officer, Europe Great West LifeCo (Matrix Reporting Line)

• Commercial Director, CLE

• Chief Actuary, CLE

• Chief Financial Officer, CLE

• Chief People Officer, CLE

• CLE Board, and extended 'key players' at leadership level

• European Technology Leadership Team (who report to European CIO)

• The stakeholders that CLE delivers for and to - brokers and their customers - and strategic business partners of CLE.
What you will need to be successful in the role
The ideal candidate will bring with them:

• Proven track record in leading a large technology function to deliver scalable, secure, and innovative technology solutions, preferably in an international, regulated company.

• Strategic Visionary: Ability to align IT strategy with business goals and long-term vision and to implement a target operating model to ensure alignment, scalability and value-creation.

• Implementor: Ability to develop a roadmap to implement vision and strategy successfully.

• Business Acumen: Commercial leader who understands that technology is there to support and power the Business and drive customer value.

• Commercial with the ability to leverage business value from technology and digital capabilities and effectively manage vendor spend and technology budgets.

• Technology Expertise: Proven expertise in enterprise IT, cloud, cybersecurity, and emerging tech.

• Innovation Leadership: Track record of championing innovation and delivering market-leading technology solutions.

• Customer-Centric Mindset: Commitment to enhancing experience through tech solutions.

• Exceptional Communicator: Ability to translate tech complexity into business value.

• Collaborative Partner: Strong senior stakeholder engagement and relationship-building skills.

• People Developer: Proven leadership excellence in inspiring others; passionate about team development and fostering a culture of excellence, learning, and inclusion.

• Operational Excellence: Strong execution capability with a focus on operational resilience and efficiency.

• Change Agent: Ability to manage transformational change at scale, including culture evolution.

• Data-Driven Leader: Experience leading data and analytics programs to unlock insights.

• Risk & Security Focus: In-depth knowledge of IT risk management, cybersecurity, and regulatory compliance.

• Results driven mindset, with a passion for exceeding targets.

• The ideal candidate will have excellent communication skills.
Drive Business Growth & Resilience - Focus on areas of growth .
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