Head: Product Development | Asset Management | Centurion

Responsibilities:

• Drive the design, development and implementation of profitable and competitive products that support the growth of the company. The company business includes the local retail investment platform, the international retail investment platform and structured solutions.
• Take the lead in the design and ongoing management and maintenance of the company local and international platform products to ensure they support clients and advisers in achieving their goals and are future fit from a business perspective.
• The product development team includes various capabilities including product design, product management, pricing and profitability management, revenue optimization, data analytics and insights and product structuring.
• Take the lead in identifying future differentiating capabilities to ensure that the Wealth offering remains ahead of competitor offerings and the preferred platform for meeting financial adviser needs and retail clients’ investment outcomes.
• Provide thought leadership and oversight for new and existing Wealth retail investment products from conceptualisation to launch, ensuring that the various stakeholders and governance processes are incorporated into the product development or maintenance process.
• Management and coordination of the ongoing review of products and platform capabilities to ensure regulatory compliance and competitiveness in relevant markets.
• Close collaboration with internal investment business units to unlock opportunities for vertical integration through the platform capability set and distribution network.
• Take the lead in presenting solutions and proposals to governance forums including the product management committee, business management committees, and divisional Excos, as required.
• Provide leadership for the content design of the product and platform-related aspects for marketing material, and adviser and client documentation including Terms and Conditions, statements, brochures, client letters, etc.
• Take the lead in ensuring the Wealth product development team stays abreast of local and global Wealth Management trends, research, and analysis to timeously identify opportunities in the market to develop new products, capabilities, and new areas of growth or to streamline or adjust the existing product offering.
• Close collaboration with the independent and tied distribution teams to ensure that market needs are well understood and incorporated in product design and maintenance decisions.
• Develop and oversee the implementation of competitive pricing strategies to drive short-term profitability and long-term business growth and shareholder value.
• Close collaboration with the Wealth propositional lead that will leverage the capability sets designed and implemented by the Retail Investment Product team, to wrap into marketable and fit-for-use propositions into the various advice segments in South Africa and the various international jurisdictions where the company has a presence.

Effectively lead a team:

• Create a positive work climate and culture to energize employees, give meaning to work, minimize work disruption, and maximize employee productivity.
• Demonstrate exemplary leadership behavior, through personal involvement, commitment, and dedication in support of the company Investment GRITx values.
• Drive a culture that guides and directs best practices, fostering an environment of continuous learning, improvement, and cohesiveness.
• Enable a learning and growth culture whereby information regarding successes, issues, trends, and ideas are actively shared between team members.
• Effectively manage performance within the team to ensure business objectives are achieved.
• Encourage innovation, change agility, and collaboration within the team.
• Self-management and teamwork (People)
• Develop and maintain productive and collaborative working relationships with peers, financial advisers’ clients, and internal and external stakeholders.
• Positively influence and participate in change initiatives.
• Continuously develop own expertise in terms of professional, industry, and legislation knowledge.
• Contribute to continuous innovation through the development, sharing, and implementation of new ideas.
• Take ownership of driving career development.
• Effectively manage time and ensure optimal productivity.
• Ensure technical product and legislative knowledge is always current in order to propose the most relevant and innovative client solutions and comply with governance requirements.

Competencies:

Business Acumen:

• Experience and in-depth knowledge of the LISP (platform) industry, including regulatory landscape, products and pricing.
• Understands the drivers of embedded value and the financial drivers of retail investment products.
• Ability to deal with high levels of complexity in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability and experience to lead a senior team with diverse skills and competencies to reach a common outcome.
• Drive a sense of urgency, focus, accountability, agility, and execution to deliver business results.
• Collaboration and the ability to consult broadly with internal and external stakeholders as input to the design and management of the Wealth platform product suite.
• Persuades, convinces influences, and inspires others, both within the company and externally to win support, and loyalty and gain commitment to the purpose of the Wealth business and the broader organisation.
• Manages self and relationships with others effectively, deals with ambiguity uncertainty, and pressure, and provides perspective in difficult situations.

Qualifications:

• Postgraduate degree in Actuarial Science.
• Fellow of the Actuarial Society of South Africa (ASSA).
• CFP or CFA qualification would be considered.

Experience:

• 8-10 years of retail investment LISP product development and management experience.
• 5 years of leadership experience.

Knowledge:

• Solid understanding of the regulations of the investment and LISP industry.