Assistant Vice President, GenAI Digital Delivery

About FWD Group

FWD Group is a pan-Asian life and health insurance business with more than 12 million customers across 10 markets, including some of the fastest-growing insurance markets in the world. The company was established in 2013 and is focused on changing the way people feel about insurance. FWD’s customer-led and digitally enabled approach aims to deliver innovative propositions, easy-to-understand products and a simpler insurance experience.

For more information, please visit www.fwd.com

PURPOSE

• The AVP, Generative AI Digital Delivery is a senior technical role focused on the delivery of GenAI digital software development, solutions architecture and deployment of Generative AI applications at FWD. This position requires a unique blend of deep technical expertise, leadership, and collaborative skills to lead assigned development teams. This role will also work in collaboration with Digital Platform managers leading GenAI Initiatives, Group Technology teams, country technology teams, and functional business leaders across the organisation to ensure the successful delivery of Gen AI projects that align with our strategic objectives, digital and operational needs.
• The AVP, GenAI Digital Platforms role will require a focus on Generative AI technologies as a senior leadership role critical to driving digital transformation and innovation within the organization. The role demands a blend of strategic vision, hands-on expertise in digital technologies, and a profound understanding of how Generative AI can be leveraged to enhance business outcomes. The ideal candidate will not only excel in their own area of digital expertise but will also contribute significantly to the broader business goals by integrating Generative AI solutions that deliver competitive advantages. This leader will play a pivotal role in aligning AI-driven strategies with organizational objectives, while continuously monitoring and adapting to the competitive landscape.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Lead multiple teams of GenAI development squads assigned to specific GenAI Portfolios. The responsibility will include managing multiple development teams working on multiple GenAI streams, for multi-markets for both new initiatives and maintenance of ongoing GenAI Platforms.
• Define and develop technical solution plans for their Gen AI portfolios
• Focus on achieving the delivery plan via transformational solutioning, leveraging up-to-date technical knowledge and services which enable efficiency, code quality and user-centric experiences for FWD across all relevant markets.
• Translate FWD business strategy to digital strategy, policies and governance portfolio to ensure seamless execution and implementation of Gen AI use cases.
• Lead and support the execution of Gen AI awareness, culture building and insights extraction programs with all BUs in populating the Gen AI use case pipeline, as well as the prioritization and iterative development of the Gen AI ideas.
• A Key contributor to the development of the FWD’s long-term Generative AI strategy, aligning it with the overall business objectives to ensure competitive advantage and innovation in products and services. This is done by continuously monitor the competitive landscape to understand how rivals are leveraging Generative AI technologies, conduct in-depth analysis of competitors’ products, services, and strategies, benchmarking them against the organization’s offerings, and identify gaps and opportunities where the company can outperform competitors using innovative AI solutions.
• Stay abreast and sharing thought leadership of cutting-edge developments in the field of Generative AI, ensuring FWD is leveraging the most advanced technologies and methodologies to solve complex problems and create value.
• Recruit, mentor, and lead a high-performing team of GenAI Developers, fostering a culture of excellence, innovation, and continuous learning.
• Be a key leader in the ethical implications of Generative AI projects, ensuring compliance with all legal and regulatory requirements and addressing potential risks associated with AI technologies.
• Lead and nurture strategic partnerships with technology providers, academic institutions, and industry groups to enhance the organization's capabilities and influence in the Generative AI space.
• Initiate and lead research and development initiatives in Generative AI, translating cutting-edge research into practical applications that drive business value.
• Guide the integration of Generative AI technologies into FWD Digital Products and services, ensuring they meet customer needs and exceed customer and market expectations.
• Manage budgeting and resource allocation for their respective teams’ Gen AI projects, ensuring the efficient use of resources and the maximisation of return on investment.
• Provide the leadership for technical compliance with GenAI deployments ensuring they meet our Group standards for scalability, security, and compliance.
• Manage and expand a team of Gen AI technical specialists, including machine learning engineers, prompt engineers, architects, and software developers, fostering a culture of technical excellence and innovation.
• Coordinate with product and project management teams to align Gen AI technical delivery timelines with business needs and objectives.
• Drive the adoption of best practices in Gen AI software development lifecycle management, including Agile methodologies, DevOps practices, and CI/CD pipelines, specifically tailored to GenAI project development.
• Ensure the technical architecture of Gen AI solutions is robust, scalable, and designed to meet the future needs of the business.
• Facilitate knowledge sharing and technical collaboration across teams to build Gen AI capabilities throughout the organization.
• Track and monitor the technical effectiveness and impact towards the digital Gen AI initiatives.
• Provide leadership and decisioning on core GenAI Architecture and Gen AI solution applications
• Provide technical guidance to the software engineering delivery teams and support the skillset growth of the digital delivery members
• Provide thought leadership on technical solutions that are empathetic to customer-led outcomes to develop the next generation of digital platforms at FWD to disrupt the insurance sector.
• Responsible for driving the timely delivery of FWD’s GenAI applications by working with multi-disciplinary teams including Developers, QA Engineers, Testers, Designers, Platform Managers (Product Managers), Technical Architects, Business/Product Owners, and Business Subject Matter Experts.
• Responsible for managing development and infrastructure costs and analysis with the purpose of pursuing for efficiency in development and running costs of Gen AI software and hardware.
• Accountable for the overall GenAI digital platforms application code quality and the QA process to ensure low to zero bug leakages for the global platform roll outs for FWD across the multiple countries
• Responsible for the Integration architecture with multiple large scale systems (including OWB, Life Policy/Admin systems/GO Data Platform/third party integrations that is compliant and enabled to be efficiently deployed across multiple markets, including HK, KH, ID, MY, VN, JP, PH, SG, MC, TH in accordance with their country specific requirements and tech compliance needs
• Engage and intimately involved in technical leadership decision-making and collaboration with other key Technology leaders within Group and country organisation - including Group IT, CTOs, Group Data, in relation to the digital platform technologies impacting their portfolios.
• Build a compelling technology solutions architectural vision and be accountable for execution of the operational plans that build toward that vision.
• Accountable to maintain and comprehensive understanding of the multi facets and disciplines that underly the success of the Gen AI Digital Platforms and systems being delivered. This will require an underlying understanding of business principles, related to the digital solutions, regulatory compliance, and data security compliance.
• Develop and bring to life an Gen AI engineering culture that guides, energises, and inspires our platform, design and digital delivery  teams in their successful delivery of our ambitious roadmap agendas.
• Deeply understand and contribute to our business and product strategies, while developing an engineering approach that best positions us to deliver those strategies.
• Work closely with the other Digital Platform Portfolio leads, to manage and align with the preferred digital platform delivery approach
• Plan for future proofing through anticipation of the intersection of technology advancements, evolving customer preferences, and business outcomes to ensure our platforms are positioned for the future.
• Demonstrate strong business acumen, alignment with business strategy, and be competent to make data driven decisions to support strong understanding and decisions, which will result in:
   

Productivity Gains in Distribution: Implement Generative AI tools to enhance sales productivity, such as intelligent lead generation, sales coaching, and customer engagement automation. Collaborate with distribution leaders to design AI-driven solutions that improve advisor performance and customer satisfaction. Enable digital tools that streamline policyholder interactions, ensuring seamless experiences across channels.
 

Efficiency Gains in Operations: Leverage Generative AI to automate and optimize claims processing, underwriting, and other core operational workflows. Reduce turnaround times for claims and policy issuance while improving accuracy and customer satisfaction. Introduce predictive AI models for risk assessment and fraud detection to minimize operational losses.
 

Cross-Market Enablement: Partner with regional and local teams to adapt AI solutions to specific market requirements while maintaining a unified Group Digital vision. Share best practices and insights across markets to ensure knowledge transfer and continuous improvement. Monitor market adoption rates and impact metrics, ensuring alignment with Group Digital’s strategic priorities.

• Advocate for improvements in code and culture, and to support your colleagues in the same.
• Lead, coach and mentor a team of engineers so that they grow in technical excellence as well as strategic and business thinking.
• Support, build and present related technical topics as part of business case(s) for digital initiatives using industry trends, business needs and a scalable growth philosophy. This includes the analysis and assessment of existing platforms, competitor platforms/solutions, better use and improvements of current platforms/solutions, and/or introduction and implementation of completely new platforms or solutions.
• Support the determination of the viability of new digital Gen AI initiatives, identify the technical requirements, resource constraints, provide possible options/solutions to execute new ideas, and ensure a project is technically and operationally feasible as well as economically justifiable while mitigating risk
• Lead the development and maintenance of all digital initiatives documentation and manage internal and external process methodologies to achieve the necessary artefacts
• Define and implement metrics to measure platform technical progress against performance and business objectives.
• Exemplify Technical Acumen, Change Leadership, Business acumen, Digital Experience Alignment, and Strategic Thinking competencies

QUALIFICATIONS / EXPERIENCE

• Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, AI, Machine Learning, or a related field preferred.
• 10+ years of experience in technology development and leadership, with a focus on GenAI technologies (i.e. LLMs), and machine learning technologies.
• Proven track record of leading the delivery of enterprise GenAI projects in a multi-country setting, preferably in the insurance or financial services industry.
• Expertise in Generative AI technologies and frameworks, with hands-on experience in implementing scalable GenAI solutions.
• Strong leadership skills with the ability to manage high-performing technical teams across multiple disciplines.
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills, capable of working effectively with cross-functional teams and senior leadership.
• Deep understanding of software engineering practices, LLMs, DevOps, MLOps, and Agile methodologies, with specific experience in managing AI development projects.

KNOWLEDGE & TECHNICAL SKILLS

• Generative AI and Machine Learning: Deep understanding of Generative AI models LLMs, LLMs tools, machine learning algorithms, neural networks, and their applications. Familiarity with the latest research and trends in the field of Gen AI.
• Foundations of LLMs: Deep understanding of the principles behind LLMs, including architecture, training methodologies (e.g., supervised, unsupervised, reinforcement learning), and the nuances of transformer models.
• LLM Deployment Strategies: Insights into efficient deployment strategies for LLMs, including considerations for scalability, latency, and cost, as well as the use of APIs for integration into existing systems.
• Creativity in leveraging LLMs to develop innovative applications, such as automated customer service chatbots, policy document generation, and personalized customer communication, that enhance customer engagement and operational efficiency.
• Comprehensive knowledge of SDLC methodologies, including Agile and DevOps practices, as well as Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, tailored to AI development.
• Expertise in cloud services (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) especially those related to AI and machine learning services, to support scalable, efficient AI model training and deployment.
• Understanding of data engineering practices, data pipelines, big data technologies, and database management systems necessary for supporting GenAI models.
• Programming Languages: Proficiency in programming languages commonly used in GenAI/AI and machine learning, such as Python, R, and Java, along with libraries and frameworks like TensorFlow, PyTorch, and Keras.
• Knowledge of ethical AI use, bias mitigation, and AI governance frameworks to ensure responsible AI development and deployment.
• Security and Compliance: Awareness of cybersecurity principles, data privacy laws (e.g., GDPR, CCPA), and industry-specific compliance standards relevant to AI implementations.
• Significant experience and knowledge in design and development of GenAI frameworks and components (LLMS, RAG, Fine Tuning, Prompt Engineering) with high volumes of data 
• LLM Training and Fine-tuning: Knowledge of the processes involved in training LLMs from scratch, as well as fine-tuning pre-trained models for specific applications or domains, considering aspects like dataset preparation, model selection, and hyperparameter optimization.
• Natural Language Processing (NLP): Comprehensive understanding of NLP techniques and challenges, including text generation, sentiment analysis, named entity recognition, and language translation, as they apply to LLMs.
• Ethics and Bias in LLMs: Awareness of the ethical considerations and potential biases in LLMs, including strategies for bias detection and mitigation, and ensuring fairness and transparency in model outputs.
• Regulatory Compliance: Understanding of regulatory considerations specific to LLM applications, particularly in sensitive areas such as data privacy, intellectual property, and content generation.
• Model Evaluation and Testing: Skill in evaluating LLM performance using appropriate metrics and tests, ensuring models meet accuracy, relevance, and coherence standards for their intended applications.
• Customization for Domain-Specific Needs: Ability to customize LLMs for domain-specific requirements in the insurance industry, enhancing their ability to understand and generate industry-specific content accurately.
• Integration of LLMs with Other Systems: Proficiency in integrating LLMs with existing IT systems and platforms, enabling seamless interactions between AI-generated content and business processes.
• Engagement with the academic and research community to stay ahead of the latest advancements in LLM technology, potentially contributing to proprietary research efforts.
• Ability to produce clear technical documentation and training materials for LLM-based systems, facilitating the adoption and effective use of these technologies across the organization.

• Proven experience in Frontend and backend development frameworks and languages (e.g., Python, Java, Angular, Vue, React, ReactNative, NodeJS)
• Hands-on knowledge of key testing frameworks and tools (i.e. Spring Boot. Java, Selenium, Cucumber)
• Proven of experience in designing, building, refactoring and releasing native apps and web applications
• Experience with solutions integrations and management of NoSQL DBs and Vector Databases
• Experience with Docker/Kubernetes
• Proficient in API solutions and optimisation within the solutions architecture for improved experiences
• Integration/Solutions architect capabilities related to the applications responsible
• Proficient in data analysis and applying insights into tangible outcomes that improve relevant technical and business performances
• Able to lead native applications (iOS, Android, or hybrid) and develop it fully - preferred
• Experience with TDD, pairing, code reviews, and other techniques to maintain high-quality code and resiliency.
• Familiarity with Security, Accessibility, Site Speed optimization, Cross-browser /Cross-platform UX Design is desirable
• Strong relationship management skills, particularly in building and communicating & delivering messages to senior leadership