Operational Readiness Stream Lead

Goal of the mission:
Lead the end-to-end operational readiness of us for VERDI Phase 4 ensuring that Operations and all impacted internal functions can safely administer service control and support the migrated Classic Life and remaining Unit-Linked portfolios from Day 1. The role converts migration product system legal risk and finance changes into executable processes trained and adequately staffed teams controlled cutover activities business-continuity arrangements and a stable transition to Business as Usual while protecting policyholders brokers regulatory compliance and agreed service levels.

Expected deliveries:
Approved Operational Readiness including impact and gap assessment
Updated operational procedures and controls for policy servicing premiums commissions claims/benefits buybacks disability covers complaints documents AML/sanctions and legal declarations.
Operational requirements and acceptance criteria for Testing including mass-data testing and exception-handling requirements.
Training & Knowledge Transfer Document role-based curriculum user guides attendance and competency evidence.
Change Management Plan covering stakeholder impact deployment adoption and support.
Organizational Set-Up Document defining target operating model RACI capacity skills access rights and segregation of duties.
Operational Transition Plan and runbook aligned with the integrated cutover plan and covering operations.
Business continuity fallback and manual-workaround plans.
Operational readiness dashboard and evidence pack supporting COO/business-owner sign-off and Go/No-Go.
Post-go-live hyper care incident-support and controlled BAU handover model.

Expected role & responsibilities during the mission:
1. Planning & Governance
Build and maintain the detailed readiness plan milestones dependencies owners and gates for each migration wave.
Chair weekly stream governance and provide evidence-based status to Cross-Stream validation change-control and Go/No-Go forums.
Assess the operational impact of change requests and maintain decision traceability.

2. Operational Impact Process & Control Design
Lead end-to-end impact and gap assessments across Operations Finance IT Legal/Compliance Risk Actuarial and Customer Service.
Translate other stream outputs (features/gaps) and historical data into executable processes and exception paths.
Ensure procedures preserve policy terms customer rights audit trails data protection AML/sanctions complaints handling and legal declarations.
Define KPIs reconciliations control points maker-checker controls and accountable process owners.

3. Requirements Testing & Acceptance
Provide operational requirements for migration target-system behaviour documents interfaces reporting access and support tooling.
Define operational scenarios and acceptance criteria; mobilize SMEs for Test support and dry runs
Ensure defects data-quality exceptions and reconciliation breaks have resolved or formally accepted operational mitigations.

4. People Organization Training & Change
Design the target organization RACI capacity model skill matrix access profiles and segregation of duties.
Assess workload and staffing impacts including manual processing transition peaks and hyper care demand.
Own training-needs analysis knowledge transfer role-based curricula user guides and readiness attestations.
Drive adoption and ensure teams understand the change execution model and support channels.

5. Cutover Continuity & Hypercare
Own the operational runbook and connect it to the integrated migration/cutover plan.
Coordinate freeze windows backlog management TSA handoffs staffing rosters command-centre coverage and Day-1 activation.
Define fallback and manual workarounds for delays instability data defects and unavailable calculations/documents.
Lead hypercare support incident triage and stabilization until agreed exit criteria and BAU acceptance are achieved.

6. Risk Compliance & Customer Protection
Escalate blockers with quantified customer regulatory financial SLA and schedule impacts and a credible path to green.
Ensure operations align with approved product/POG decisions and Onboarding outputs are operationally usable.
Secure review and sign-off from COO/business owners and relevant Legal Compliance Risk Finance Actuarial IT and Data stakeholders.

7. Reporting Resources & Vendors
Report weekly RAG reporting on milestones readiness indicators risks defects training staffing and cutover.
Track resource demand availability and budget implications and escalate capacity or skill gaps.
Coordinate operational dependencies and knowledge transfer

Knowledge:
Strong knowledge of Belgian life insurance operations policy administration and customer/broker servicing.
Understanding of Classic Life and Unit-Linked products reserves premiums commissions benefits buybacks disability
Knowledge of Solvency II IDD GDPR AML/sanctions product governance complaints and regulatory/legal reporting is a plus.
Experience with portfolio/data migrations cutover hyper care business continuity and BAU transition.
Proficiency with hybrid delivery and MS Project Azure DevOps Excel Teams/SharePoint and PPM/RAID tooling.

Competencies:
Proven leadership of cross-functional business readiness in insurance or financial services.
Excellent planning dependency risk issue decision and action management.
Strong stakeholder management across business technology control functions vendors and executives.
Ability to structure ambiguity challenge constructively and escalate with impact and recommendations.
Experience designing operating models RACI capacity plans training scorecards and Go/No-Go evidence.
Strong cutover and incident-management capability; calm and decisive under pressure.
Clear executive communication and workshop facilitation.

Mindset:
Customer- and policyholder-first with a strong control and regulatory mindset.
Hands-on structured and delivery-oriented; owns outcomes rather than only coordinating.
Proactive and transparent; surfaces weak signals and drives pragmatic paths to green.
Collaborative but appropriately challenging across business and technology.
Detail-conscious while retaining an end-to-end view of readiness and BAU sustainability.
Resilient and comfortable with changing priorities and incomplete information.

Skills
CrossFunctional Operational Readiness Leadership
Deep Expertise in Belgian Life Insurance Operations
Migration Cutover & Hypercare Delivery Capability
Process Control & Acceptance Design
Stakeholder Governance & Executive Communication Mastery

Languages
Dutch or French - Level Professional working proficiency
English - Level Full professional proficiency