Head of Direct Retail Strategy & Performance

Lead the strategy, transformation, and performance agenda for Direct Retail at AXA Ireland. Reporting to the Director of Direct Retail, you will play a key role in shaping the future direction of our Direct Retail business. You will lead the development and execution of strategy, drive large-scale transformation initiatives, and enhance business performance to support sustainable growth, operational excellence, and outstanding customer outcomes. Working closely with senior leaders across AXA Ireland and the wider AXA Group, you will identify opportunities to modernise our customer journeys, accelerate innovation, and ensure the Direct Retail function is equipped to deliver on its growth ambitions. At AXA, we work smart empowering our people to balance their time between home and the office in a way that works best for them, their team, and our customers. This role can be based in Dublin, Derry, or Belfast with hybrid working in place. What You'll Be Doing You will lead the strategy, transformation, performance, and governance agenda for Direct Retail, ensuring the function is positioned to deliver sustainable growth, operational excellence, and exceptional customer outcomes. Strategic Leadership & Planning Lead the development, refinement, and communication of the Direct Retail strategy, ensuring alignment with business objectives, customer needs, and market opportunities. Translate strategic priorities into clearly defined projects and initiatives, establishing delivery milestones and performance measures. Monitor market trends, customer behaviour, competitor activity, and technological advancements to identify opportunities for growth and innovation. Provide strategic recommendations and insights to senior leaders to support effective decision-making and long-term planning. People Leadership Lead, motivate, and develop the Strategy & Performance teams, including First Line Risk and Product Owners across ROI and NI. Foster a culture of accountability, innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement. Support talent development through coaching, mentoring, succession planning, and capability-building initiatives. Promote effective cross-functional collaboration and communication to deliver strategic priorities and operational excellence. Customer & Project Delivery Oversee Product Owners in defining and managing product development roadmaps aligned to business strategy, customer needs, and risk management standards. Lead key transformation and change initiatives from concept through to implementation, ensuring delivery within agreed timelines, budgets, and benefit expectations. Prioritise projects that support modernisation, operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, and business growth. Ensure customer needs remain central to decision-making, shaping initiatives that improve customer journeys and experiences. Operational Performance & Governance Drive continuous improvement across processes, systems, and tools to optimise performance and maximise business value. Ensure the Direct Retail function remains focused on strategic objectives and delivers measurable business outcomes. Collaborate with senior leaders across HR, IT, Compliance, and other business areas to ensure strategic initiatives are fully supported and successfully embedded. Act as a trusted advisor to senior management, providing performance reporting, strategic insights, and recommendations. Lead transversal projects of strategic importance, working with AXA Group and external partners where required. Monitor external trends and emerging innovations, including the evolution of the "contact centre of the future", conducting research and development activities to identify opportunities for AXA Ireland. Ensure all supporting processes comply with CPC and other relevant regulatory requirements, working closely with Compliance teams. Lead the Direct Retail Risk function, ensuring projects and operational activities comply with regulatory, legal, risk, and governance requirements. Proactively identify, assess, and mitigate risks associated with strategic initiatives, operational processes, and transformation programmes. Financial Management Develop robust business cases for proposed projects and strategic initiatives, providing detailed analysis, recommendations, and financial rationale to support investment decisions. Support the delivery of growth and performance objectives through effective evaluation and prioritisation of strategic opportunities. What We're Looking For 10+ years' experience within insurance, financial services, or a related industry, including 5+ years in senior leadership roles, with a track record of delivering strategic change, transformation, and business performance improvement. Significant experience leading complex transformation programmes, operational change, or innovation initiatives within customer-focused organisations. Demonstrated success in strategy execution, programme delivery, and leading teams through change. Commercial acumen, including experience in business planning, budgeting, performance management, and business case development. Good understanding of customer journeys, market dynamics, risk management principles, and the regulatory environment within insurance or similarly regulated industries. Awareness of emerging technologies, market trends, and innovations relevant to customer engagement and retail insurance. Ability to influence and engage stakeholders at all levels, building trusted relationships and working collaboratively to achieve results. Leadership experience, with the ability to develop high-performing teams and foster an inclusive and collaborative culture. Excellent analytical, communication, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to translate strategic priorities into meaningful business outcomes. Highly organised and adaptable, with the ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced environment. Qualifications Essential Third-level degree or equivalent qualification Desirable APA and/or CIP qualification Agile Product Owner or related Agile certification Regulatory Requirements This role is allocated CF1 role under Fitness & Probity Regime, which means the successful candidate will be subject to an enhanced level of background screening requirements. You can find more information on axa.ie/careers. As a precondition of employment for this role, you must be eligible and authorized to work in Ireland and/or the United Kingdom. This recruitment campaign will be used to support permanent, temporary and/or extension for any upcoming similar positions.