Assistant Vice President, System Operations Manager

This is an opportunity to join Ascot Group - one of the world’s preeminent specialty risk underwriting organizations.

Designed as a modern-era company operating through an ecosystem of interconnected global operating platforms, we’re bound by a common mission and purpose. Our greatest strength is a talented team who flourish in a collaborative, inclusive, and entrepreneurial culture, steeped in underwriting excellence, integrity, and a passion to find a better way, The Ascot Way.

The Ascot Way guides our people and our organization. Our underwriting platforms collaborate to find creative ways to deploy our capital in a true cross-product and cross-platform approach. These platforms work as one, deploying our capital creatively through our Client Centric, Risk Centric and Technology Centric strategies

Built to be resilient, Ascot offers clients leading financial security while delivering bespoke products and world class service — both pre- and post-claims. Ascot exists to solve for our clients’ brightest tomorrow, through agility, collaboration, resilience, and discipline.

Position Overview:

We are seeking an experienced System Operations Manager to join our team within the insurance industry. The ideal candidate will have at least 10 years of experience in insurance and will be responsible for overseeing management and support for multiple systems, managing cross-functional teams, and maintaining strong relationships with the business, vendors, and development teams. This role requires a leader who can drive the ongoing systems management, oversee the successful implementation of fixes, enhancements and projects, while serving as a key point of contact for business stakeholders.

Reporting to the VP, IT Systems, this critical role manages the day-to-day operations for several systems, managing business demand, overseeing system enhancements and projects, troubleshooting issues, ensuring system stability through monitoring, and working closely with the business, systems, infrastructure and vendor teams to ensure the systems are operating effectively.

Responsibilities:

• Systems Product Owner for multiple business facing systems supporting P&C Specialty Insurance, ensuring clear communication between business stakeholders, vendors, and internal technical teams
• Manage business demand through regular business reviews and use of Service Now tickets as well as DevOps delivery of fixes and enhancements
• Proactively assesses future system needs, forecasting resource requirements, and planning for infrastructure upgrades or scaling to accommodate growing demands
• Build and maintain strong, collaborative relationships with business teams, third-party vendors, and technical teams to ensure alignment of technical strategies against business needs
• Actively monitoring system performance, identifying potential issues through alerts and logs, and taking corrective actions to maintain system uptime and stability
• Lead the response to system outages or critical incidents, coordinating with Service Management and Systems teams to diagnose problems, implement solutions, and communicate updates to stakeholders
• Working with the Security team, ensure adherence to security policies and procedures, managing access controls, and collaborating with security teams to mitigate potential risks
• Overseeing relationships with external IT vendors, managing contracts, and ensuring service level agreements are met
• Leading and mentoring a team of Business Systems Analysts and Technical Specialists, assigning tasks, providing technical guidance, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement 
• Creating and presenting regular reports on system releases, improvements, performance and operational status to senior management
• Commitment to The Ascot Way: Embody the Ascot Way in their daily interaction with colleagues, fostering colleague engagement and development, collaboration, inclusivity, and individual accountability
• Strong business acumen, with excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Familiarity with IT service management frameworks like ITIL would be beneficial

Requirements:

• 10+ years of progressive technology leadership experience, with a strong focus on system management and application support ownership
• Proven experience in managing technical projects and overseeing the delivery of complex applications within the insurance sector, preferably in specialty/commercial insurance
• Knowledge of specialty insurance practices, such as Bordereau processing, would be beneficial
• Demonstrated ability to think strategically and develop creative solutions, and to understand