Head Business Architecture L&H Operations (Hybrid; m/f/x/d; 80-100%)

Swiss Re seeks a Head of Business Architecture for L&H Operations in Zürich. This hybrid leadership role focuses on driving operational excellence, governance, and process improvement across the treaty life cycle.

This position serves as a pivotal leadership role within Swiss Re's Life & Health Operations division. The incumbent will establish execution standards across the entire treaty lifecycle, from initial onboarding to final claims settlement. The primary objective is to foster operational excellence, reinforce governance structures, and enhance capabilities for global teams.

Responsibilities

• Establish a resilient and high-performing operations function that maintains trust and sustainability.
• Simplify processes and drive continuous improvement initiatives to achieve measurable execution results.
• Identify and implement operational excellence opportunities to eliminate friction and speed up delivery.
• Design, test, and roll out end-to-end process and system enhancements while defining standard operations procedures.
• Manage the governance and quality assurance framework to embed consistent risk appetite and robust controls.
• Develop frameworks to ensure portfolio data is reliable, usable, and actionable for analytics and decision-making.
• Convert standardisation and automation opportunities into delivered improvements to support scalable growth.
• Foster a global community of operations experts by defining clear roles, responsibilities, and shared standards.
• Create compelling career paths to attract, develop, and retain top operations talent.
• Lead strategic projects with clear ownership, stakeholder engagement, and collaboration with regional teams and key partners.

Requirements

• Proven experience leading large, diverse global teams with the ability to create clarity, energy, and accountability.
• Strong project and change management expertise with the ability to translate strategy into clear plans and decisive action.
• Demonstrated success in operational excellence and process improvement, simplifying complexity and raising operational standards.
• Deep experience in governance and quality assurance frameworks, including risk management, controls design, and embedding a proactive risk culture.
• Excellent communication and senior stakeholder influencing skills to build followership through transparency and credibility.

Nice to have

• Experience in Life & Health reinsurance or insurance operations, with familiarity of the treaty life cycle.
• Exposure to data strategy, portfolio data management, or analytics enablement within an operations context.
• Experience designing and executing automation or digitalisation initiatives within an operations environment.
• Familiarity with COO/CUO operating models and working across Market Units in a global reinsurance or financial services setting.
• A college degree or equivalent professional qualification in a relevant discipline.
• Multilingual capabilities — excellent spoken and written English is essential; additional languages are a plus.
• A track record of building expert communities and creating career development frameworks that attract and retain top talent.

What the company offers

• Base salary range between 164'000 CHF and 24'000 CHF for a full-time role.
• Eligibility for additional rewards and benefits including an attractive performance-based annual bonus.
• Hybrid work model with an expectation to be in the office at least three days per week.

About the company

Swiss Re stands as one of the world's leading providers of reinsurance, insurance, and other forms of insurance-based risk transfer. The company anticipates and manages a wide variety of risks, from natural catastrophes and climate change to cybercrime. Success depends on building an inclusive culture encouraging fresh perspectives and innovative thinking. The environment is inclusive and flexible, allowing employees to bring their authentic selves to work and their passion for sustainability. The company encourages experienced professionals returning to the workforce after a career break to apply for matching positions.

• Swiss Re stands as one of the world's leading providers of reinsurance, insurance, and other forms of insurance-based risk transfer.
• The company anticipates and manages a wide variety of risks, from natural catastrophes and climate change to cybercrime.
• Success depends on building an inclusive culture encouraging fresh perspectives and innovative thinking.
• The environment is inclusive and flexible, allowing employees to bring their authentic selves to work and their passion for sustainability.
• The company encourages experienced professionals returning to the workforce after a career break to apply for matching positions.