Head of Tech & AI - Risk Advisory and Global Chief Underwriting Office

AXA•New York, NY

10d•Onsite

About The Position

AXA XL’s Head of Technology & AI, Risk Advisory and Global Chief Underwriting Office (GCUO) is a key senior executive, leadership team role in the Technology & AI function, accountable for acting as the strategic technology and AI partner to deliver for Risk Advisory and GCUO, in cooperation with the Tech & AI organization. The role ensures business strategy is translated into a coherent technology and AI roadmaps, aligning investment, engineering capacity, operating model change, and measurable outcomes. This leader shapes demand, challenges priorities, drives decision-making, and ensures delivery accountability within the Technology & AI function for Risk Advisory and GCUO. Operating as a trusted executive peer, balancing innovation with value, risk, regulatory requirements, and operational resilience, this role reports to AXA XL’s Chief Technology & AI Officer with dotted line to Chief Executive Officer, Risk Advisory.

Requirements

Commercial Acumen: Keen understanding of business strategy, financial drivers, and operational performance levers. Able to challenge executives constructively and influence investment decisions.
Technology & AI Leadership: Keen understanding of enterprise technology including: product engineering and agile delivery, cloud platforms and modern architecture, data platforms and AI enablement, automation and workflow transformation. Outstanding ability to evaluate AI opportunities pragmatically (value, feasibility, risk).
Delivery & Portfolio Discipline: Excellent portfolio and program oversight capability. Ability to balance competing priorities, resource constraints, and dependencies. Robust governance, reporting, and delivery confidence management.
Risk & Regulatory Mindset (Insurance Context): Keen understanding of regulated environments and technology control frameworks. Awareness of Responsible AI, data privacy, and model risk management principles.
Relationship Management & Leadership: Ability to build deep trust across business and technology. Robust conflict resolution skills and ability to drive alignment across competing agendas.

Responsibilities

Act as the primary technology and AI partner to the Risk Advisory and GCUO shaping business direction through technology-led opportunities.
Provide insights on AI disruption, competitor landscape, and modern digital and AI business models relevant to insurance.
Translate complex technology concepts into commercial and operational implications for executive decision-making.
Convert business strategy into a prioritized and funded technology and AI roadmap.
Define the sequencing of initiatives based on value, feasibility, regulatory constraints, and delivery capacity.
Ensure roadmaps integrate digital, data, AI, automation, and core platform modernization.
Drive robust partnerships within the Tech & AI leadership team to ensure common principles, frameworks and guidelines are deployed and executed with effective coordination across all disciplines in the function.
Represent Risk Advisory and GCUO’s needs into enterprise technology investment forums.
Own business unit-level investment cases, ensuring clarity of ROI, outcomes, and measurable benefits.
Challenge the business on value definition and ensure initiatives meet enterprise architecture, security, and AI governance requirements.
Own the technology and AI portfolio for Risk Advisory and GCUO, ensuring delivery performance, dependencies, and risks are actively managed.
Hold delivery teams accountable for execution outcomes while ensuring the business fulfils its accountabilities (SMEs, process change, adoption).
Provide clear reporting to Global Leadership Team partner(s) on delivery confidence, risks, financial position, and benefits tracking.
Challenging and influencing senior stakeholders with poise and composure, facilitating decision-making forums, resolving prioritization conflicts and driving outcomes.
Build alignment across business functions including underwriting, claims, pricing, finance, customer operations, and distribution.
Drive enterprise AI adoption within Risk Advisory and GCUO, ensuring: high-value use cases are identified, adoption and operating model impacts are planned, workforce readiness is supported, human-in-the-loop and control frameworks are implemented.
Ensure AI is embedded into workflows rather than delivered as standalone tools.
Partner with Risk, Compliance, Legal, and Security to ensure delivery aligns to regulatory and control requirements.
Ensure AI initiatives comply with Responsible AI, privacy, and model risk expectations.
Ensure technology resilience and service continuity risks are visible and actively managed.
Partner with Procurement and Technology leadership to shape vendor strategy aligned to business unit priorities.
Support contract negotiations, supplier performance management, and strategic partnerships.
Ensure commercial outcomes align to delivery outcomes and service performance.