AI & Innovation Manager

The AI & Innovation Manager is one of Athora's primary change agents. They are someone who brings people along, is in their element in various places within the Athora organization, and is a true connector between business and IT. This role is strongly focused on realizing concrete value from AI and innovation initiatives; moving from ideas to solutions in management by other teams that realize value for Athora NL.

We are Athora Netherlands, an insurance company with the well-known brands Zwitserleven and Reaal. We primarily focus on pensions and life insurance in the Dutch market. We do this as part of a European group with offices in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, and Italy. We are a strong company with over one million customers and we want to grow into one of the most important players in the rapidly changing pension market in the coming years. Therefore, we are looking for people who do not shy away from change, who know how to take action, who have the ambition to deliver results, and who therefore know how to get the best out of themselves and their team. Smarter together, we call that.

The AI & Innovation Manager reports to the Director Digital Strategy, Architecture & Innovation and leads approximately 7 AI & Innovation professionals. Together with the Data & AI Office and Architecture, the AI & Innovation team is part of Digital Strategy, Architecture, Innovation (DSAI). Whereas the Data & AI Office is responsible for data and AI governance and Architecture provides direction, coherence, and frameworks for the future design of Athora, AI & Innovation focuses on realizing innovation and value creation. The team develops, facilitates, and accelerates AI and innovation initiatives across the entire innovation lifecycle: from idea and experiment to Proof of Concept (PoC), Minimum Viable Product (MVP), and scaling to production. Additionally, the team stimulates and guides the adoption of AI and innovation within Athora and helps the organization to successfully apply new technologies.

The responsibilities:

- Directly leading and coaching a team of driven, talented professionals focused on AI (GenAI developers, data scientists) and innovation specialists.

- Leading and supporting projects undertaken by the AI & Innovation team, so that these result in actual business value.

- Alignment with various stakeholders to safeguard the stage-gates of the innovation funnel process, where attention is paid to both business ownership, IT security & continuity, and transferability to Solution teams for managing successful AI & Innovation solutions.

- The successful transfer of AI initiatives to structural ownership within platform, solution, and business teams, so that these are sustainably managed, further developed, and structural business value is realized.

- Driving force behind the Athora NL AI Ramp Up program and the further adoption of AI.

- Inspiring with the latest ideas and trends applied to our reality, by both (helping to) create targeted presentations for ExCo and Senior Management as well as facilitating hackathons, workshops, demos, and inspiration sessions Athora-wide.

- Supporting the definition of an Athora-wide AI roadmap in collaboration with Architecture, also part of DSAI.

- Ensuring that the team develops according to Athora policy and according to the standards developed by the Data & AI Office.

- WO work and thinking level, preferably in AI, data science, mathematics, computer science, or a similar field
- At least 7 years of relevant experience with AI and Innovation, and a consulting background is a plus
- Demonstrable value realization through AI initiatives in the past
- Experience with (project-based) management of a team of comparable size
- Strong stakeholder management towards business, security, IT platform and solution teams, risk, legal, and compliance
- Demonstrable experience with Agile working, increment planning, sprint cadence, and backlog management

You will join approximately 900 colleagues who all believe they work for a special company. You will get the opportunity to make an important contribution to the socially relevant theme of pensions. We ensure that your pension is well-arranged, so that you can enjoy your old age without worry.

You will get the chance to truly make a difference when it comes to sustainability, because we have been setting the tone in our business operations and our investments for years. Naturally, you will get a (flexible) workplace at our office in Amsterdam that belongs to the top 7% in the world, truly. And because you will also work from home regularly, you will receive a budget to properly equip your home workspace.

In exchange for your commitment, talent, and skills, you will receive, in addition to your salary plus a holiday allowance and a thirteenth month, 27 vacation days (based on a 36-hour contract) and a public transport card or travel expense allowance for the days you come to the office. And, not unimportantly, you will receive a good training budget so that you can continue to develop yourself. This gives you the chance to grow, within our company or beyond.

Salary per month:
Based on collective labor agreement (cao) scale 18 HAY, the range is € 7,060.37 to € 9,413.82 based on 36 hours.

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