Application Support Manager

Willis Re is expanding its Global business in 2026 and developing its own applications whilst leveraging industry leading business applications to support business operation and growth.

The Application Support Manager is a key role and is accountable for the operational support stability performance availability and continual improvement of the organisations Front Office applications.

The role is responsible for the full application delivery lifecycle is managed effectively and in accordance with agreed service levels and business expectations. The role acts as the primary interface between the business technology teams and third-party suppliers to ensure the Front Office application services remain secure compliant and aligned to business objectives.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide key stakeholder ownership for Front Office Application Support and liaise with the Support function to manage the application through the full lifecycle whilst ensuring all issues are addressed in a timely manner.
• Own the operational support and service performance of the Front Office business-critical applications.
• Ensure applications are stable available secure performant and fit for business use.
• Maintain clear ownership of application support processes escalation paths service documentation and operational procedures.
• Ensure application services are delivered in line with agreed SLAs OLAs KPIs and business expectations.
• Work with business stakeholders to understand application usage business criticality and operational risk.
• Maintain visibility of application dependencies including infrastructure databases integrations APIs third-party services and downstream systems.

2. Incident and Major Incident Management

• Lead resolution of application incidents acting as the senior escalation point and coordinating teams vendors service desk and business users to minimise disruption.
• Ensure incidents are logged prioritised resolved and communicated effectively with timely business updates during service disruption.
• Support major incident processes including impact assessment stakeholder updates post-incident reviews and service improvement actions.

3. Defect/ Problem Management

• Lead the analysis and remediation of recurring or high-impact issues ensuring root cause analysis and corrective actions are completed.
• Track known errors workarounds remediation plans and incident trends to reduce repeat failures and service risk.
• Work with technical teams and vendors to deliver long-term fixes and maintain records through governance forums.

4. Change Release and Deployment Support

• Ensure application changes are assessed tested approved and implemented through agreed change processes.
• Assess operational readiness for releases upgrades patches and deployments including documentation and rollback planning.
• Represent support in change forums coordinate release communications and support post-implementation reviews.

5. Application Monitoring and Service Performance

• Provide oversight of application monitoring for availability performance capacity alerts and transaction health.
• Use dashboards service reports and operational metrics to identify risks degradation and improvement opportunities.
• Work with technical teams to resolve performance bottlenecks and improve monitoring logging observability and reporting.

6. Leadership and Management

• Contribute to the development of the Application Support team contributing to setting standards processes and performance expectations.
• Manage escalations and matrix orientated team capability through reviews coaching and training plans where applicable in close collaboration with mangers and the leadership team.
• Build a customer-focused accountable support culture and promote collaboration across technology and business teams.

7. Stakeholder and Business Relationship Management

• Act as the primary operational contact for business stakeholders application owners and senior management.
• Translate technical issues into clear business impact providing regular updates on performance risks incidents and changes.
• Facilitate service reviews manage expectations during disruption and use feedback to improve support services.

8. Supplier and Vendor Management

• Assist with managing vendors and support providers to ensure contractual service obligations SLAs and KPIs are met.
• Provide insight in supplier reviews escalations and performance improvement discussions challenging poor performance where required.
• Support renewals license reviews commercial evaluations and ensure vendor dependencies and escalation paths are documented.

9. Governance Risk and Compliance

• Ensure application support complies with IT policies security standards audit requirements and regulatory obligations.
• Maintain operational controls for access change incidents releases service continuity and compliance reporting.
• Manage risks audit evidence remediation actions access reviews vulnerabilities and governance escalations.

10. Application Lifecycle and Documentation

• Oversee the development and maintenance of accurate runbooks knowledge articles support models dependency maps and escalation procedures.
• Support lifecycle planning for features upgrades patching rationalisation migration retirement and end-of-support risks.
• Ensure new and changed applications are supportable documented monitored and operationally ready for live service.

11. Service Reporting and Operational Governance

• Produce service reports covering incidents SLA performance availability changes problems risks and improvements.
• Provide clear insight dashboards and management information to support service decisions and prioritisation.
• Support service reviews governance forums and action tracking through to completion.

12. Continuous Improvement and Automation

• Identify opportunities to improve service quality efficiency stability automation and user experience.
• Reduce avoidable incidents through proactive maintenance knowledge management tooling training and problem resolution.
• Promote continual improvement operational maturity application modernisation and industry best practice.

13. Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

• Ensure supported applications have appropriate continuity recovery and operational resilience arrangements.
• Maintain recovery objectives recovery procedures business impact requirements and tested support readiness.
• Support disaster recovery testing continuity planning resilience exercises and post-change plan reviews.

About You

Core Skills & Experience

Essential: Degree in IT ComputerScienceor equivalent experience; ITIL Foundation Certification Desirable: ITIL Managing Professional Microsoft Azure AWS Agile or Scrum certifications.

Experience

• Proven experienceinApplication Development Application Support or IT Operationsrole
• Experience leading technical support teams.
• Experience supporting business-critical enterprise applications.
• Proven supplier and stakeholder management skills
• Experience of supporting trading applications/ high value applications

About Willis Re

We combine specialist broking with analytics modeling and research to help insurers optimize risk transfer strengthen balance sheets and achieve sustainable growth. Our approach is relationship-driven transparent and outcome-focused.

At the heart of Willis Re is a focus on delivering the most cutting-edge analytical solutions to enable more informed better decision-making for risk selection portfolio optimization and capital management.

The launch of Willis Re brings a strategic advantage of being unhindered by legacy an ability to leverage data statistical models and advanced technologies with the best knowledge and expertise to deliver more efficient and effective reinsurance outcomes. This places Willis Re in a unique position to build a truly analytically driven business focused on creating solutions for the reinsurance industry that are future led and forward thinking.

Willis Re will also leverage recognized technical expertise from WTWs Insurance Consulting & Technology business including their advanced modeling and analytical capabilities. Alongside this will be WTWs Research Network an award-winning business supporting and influencing science to improve the understanding and quantification of risk.

Willis Re is committed to embracing a diverse inclusive and flexible work environment. We provide equal opportunity to all qualified individuals regardless of race colour religion age gender gender expression national origin veteran status disability orientation or any other legally protected categories. If you have a need that requires accommodation please email us at