Operations Lead (Toronto, ON)
About the role
A leading global insurance provider is seeking an Operations Lead to oversee and manage day-to-day underwriting operations for its Canadian business. This high-impact role will lead a team of underwriting support professionals serving a wide range of insurance lines, including Large Commercial (Property, Casualty, Professional, Specialty, and Multinational) and Middle Market P&C. The Operations Lead will also play a key role in driving strategic and operational initiatives across the broader Americas operations organization.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead end-to-end underwriting operations for Canadian business lines, covering all administrative and support functions from submission through to cash collection.
- Serve as a key member of the Americas Underwriting Operations leadership team.
- Act as a strategic business partner to operational leaders across all insurance lines.
- Identify opportunities to streamline underwriting by shifting non-core tasks to operations and leveraging shared service centers.
- Translate global middle-office strategies into regional execution tailored to the Canadian context.
- Recruit, develop, and retain a high-performing team aligned to business needs.
- Build and scale operational capabilities to support growth, while driving standardization and flexibility across lines of business and geographies.
- Own and manage risk controls, including risk registers specific to underwriting operations.
- Define and maintain performance measurement frameworks for operational activities.
- Conduct performance evaluations and coach team members to support development and succession planning.
- Monitor and act on operational KPIs and metrics (quality, timeliness, productivity).
- Ensure compliance with internal policies, regulatory requirements, licensing, and accounting standards.
- Act as the primary point of escalation for operational issues.
- Provide regular updates to department leadership on progress, risks, and key performance indicators.
- Champion change initiatives to evolve the underwriting operations function.
What You Bring
- 5+ years in insurance operations with team leadership experience, including managing teams / developing talent
- Strong understanding of commercial P&C processes and policy admin
- Experience in process improvement, operational transformation, or target operating model implementation
- Proficiency in operational metrics, controls, and regulatory compliance ( Canadian regulatory landscape)
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills; comfortable interacting with senior executives and cross-functional stakeholders.
- Proven change management skills and ability to lead teams through organizational transformation.
- Strategic thinker with strong analytical and decision-making capabilities.
About Oliver James
We introduce talented people to great organisations so that both may grow and benefit from each other’s experiences, helping to fulfil their potential.
We understand that each client’s mix of people, culture, and objectives is unique, so our approach and solutions are flexible and adapted to each person, team, company, and situation.
Although your relationship with OJ is with your local consultant(s), their network, relationships, and knowledge of diverse local candidate pools are backed by those of their local permanent, contract, and temp team colleagues.
When working with international markets, we can access the market maps and relationships of the global OJ collective, giving you access to the best-suited talent in the market (not just the best talent available at that time).
As such, you can come to expect a consistently high level of service and delivery, placing up to C-suite talent in permanent and contract positions, as well as project-based consultancy and temp solutions worldwide from our 12 global locations.
Our current areas of specialisation include:
• Accountancy & Finance • Technology • Actuarial • Risk & Compliance • Transformation & Change Management • Underwriting & Claims
Our additional services:
OJ Professionals | Flexible resourcing solutions across secondment, project-based sourcing and temp-to-perm recruitment | https://www.oliverjames.com/professionals
OJ Consulting | Unrivalled access to a network of highly qualified, contracting professionals across the world| https://www.oliverjames.com/consulting
OJ Executive | Specialising in senior, commercial appointments at the forefront of business transformation, technology, digital and data-driven delivery| https://www.oliverjames.com/exec
Work with OJ - https://www.oliverjames.com/work-with-oj
Work for OJ - https://workforus.oliverjames.com/
License number: Oliver James Associates - #63797 | OJ Consulting - #65136 | Astral - #65211
Operations Lead (Toronto, ON)
About the role
A leading global insurance provider is seeking an Operations Lead to oversee and manage day-to-day underwriting operations for its Canadian business. This high-impact role will lead a team of underwriting support professionals serving a wide range of insurance lines, including Large Commercial (Property, Casualty, Professional, Specialty, and Multinational) and Middle Market P&C. The Operations Lead will also play a key role in driving strategic and operational initiatives across the broader Americas operations organization.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead end-to-end underwriting operations for Canadian business lines, covering all administrative and support functions from submission through to cash collection.
- Serve as a key member of the Americas Underwriting Operations leadership team.
- Act as a strategic business partner to operational leaders across all insurance lines.
- Identify opportunities to streamline underwriting by shifting non-core tasks to operations and leveraging shared service centers.
- Translate global middle-office strategies into regional execution tailored to the Canadian context.
- Recruit, develop, and retain a high-performing team aligned to business needs.
- Build and scale operational capabilities to support growth, while driving standardization and flexibility across lines of business and geographies.
- Own and manage risk controls, including risk registers specific to underwriting operations.
- Define and maintain performance measurement frameworks for operational activities.
- Conduct performance evaluations and coach team members to support development and succession planning.
- Monitor and act on operational KPIs and metrics (quality, timeliness, productivity).
- Ensure compliance with internal policies, regulatory requirements, licensing, and accounting standards.
- Act as the primary point of escalation for operational issues.
- Provide regular updates to department leadership on progress, risks, and key performance indicators.
- Champion change initiatives to evolve the underwriting operations function.
What You Bring
- 5+ years in insurance operations with team leadership experience, including managing teams / developing talent
- Strong understanding of commercial P&C processes and policy admin
- Experience in process improvement, operational transformation, or target operating model implementation
- Proficiency in operational metrics, controls, and regulatory compliance ( Canadian regulatory landscape)
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills; comfortable interacting with senior executives and cross-functional stakeholders.
- Proven change management skills and ability to lead teams through organizational transformation.
- Strategic thinker with strong analytical and decision-making capabilities.
About Oliver James
We introduce talented people to great organisations so that both may grow and benefit from each other’s experiences, helping to fulfil their potential.
We understand that each client’s mix of people, culture, and objectives is unique, so our approach and solutions are flexible and adapted to each person, team, company, and situation.
Although your relationship with OJ is with your local consultant(s), their network, relationships, and knowledge of diverse local candidate pools are backed by those of their local permanent, contract, and temp team colleagues.
When working with international markets, we can access the market maps and relationships of the global OJ collective, giving you access to the best-suited talent in the market (not just the best talent available at that time).
As such, you can come to expect a consistently high level of service and delivery, placing up to C-suite talent in permanent and contract positions, as well as project-based consultancy and temp solutions worldwide from our 12 global locations.
Our current areas of specialisation include:
• Accountancy & Finance • Technology • Actuarial • Risk & Compliance • Transformation & Change Management • Underwriting & Claims
Our additional services:
OJ Professionals | Flexible resourcing solutions across secondment, project-based sourcing and temp-to-perm recruitment | https://www.oliverjames.com/professionals
OJ Consulting | Unrivalled access to a network of highly qualified, contracting professionals across the world| https://www.oliverjames.com/consulting
OJ Executive | Specialising in senior, commercial appointments at the forefront of business transformation, technology, digital and data-driven delivery| https://www.oliverjames.com/exec
Work with OJ - https://www.oliverjames.com/work-with-oj
Work for OJ - https://workforus.oliverjames.com/
License number: Oliver James Associates - #63797 | OJ Consulting - #65136 | Astral - #65211