Head of Data and AI

The Head of Data & AI is a senior manager responsible for defining and executing the company’s end‑to‑end Data and AI strategy, with a clear mandate to embed AI across the organization, drive material automation and efficiency gains, and future‑proof the business for an AI‑native insurance landscape. This role balances strategic leadership, execution rigor, and change leadership, ensuring AI delivers tangible business outcomes while remaining compliant, trustworthy, and scalable in a highly regulated insurance environment.

Your role

As Head of Data & AI your main responsibilities will involve: 

1. AI for Everyone – Enterprise AI Enablement

Make AI accessible, safe, and impactful for all employees

• • Define and lead an enterprise-wide AI enablement strategy, ensuring AI tools are embedded into day‑to‑day workflows across functions (Distribution, Operations, Claims, Underwriting, Finance, HR, Marketing)
  • Establish AI literacy, governance, and engagement frameworks so business teams can ideate, own, and scale AI use cases responsibly
  • Build a federated AI operating model with clear roles (AI Product Owners, Data Stewards, Business Owners)
  • Drive adoption through training programs, internal communities, and measurable engagement KPIs
  • Ensure strong responsible AI, compliance, and risk management aligned with insurance regulations and internal controls
  • Train our staff to use our Microsoft 365 copilot stack to deploy AI applications

2. AI for Automation – Efficiency, Scale & Cost Impact

Use AI to materially improve productivity, speed, and cost efficiency

• • Identify, prioritize, and deliver high‑impact AI automation use cases across different functions
  • Own the AI delivery lifecycle: use case pipeline, business casing, experimentation, production rollout, and benefit realization
  • Partner closely with IT and Operations to ensure production‑grade architectures, scalability, security, and observability
  • Track and report hard business benefits (cost savings, cycle time reduction, accuracy improvements)

3. AI for the Future – AI‑Native Insurance & Growth

Position the company to win in an AI‑led insurance distribution and servicing model

• • Define the long‑term AI vision for insurance, including:
    • AI‑native customer journeys
    • Conversational and agent‑based insurance experiences
    • AI‑ready products, data, and APIs
  • Lead experimentation and partnerships in emerging areas such as:
    • Agentic AI and autonomous workflows
    • AI search, discovery, and “AI‑to‑AI” commerce
    • Knowledge graphs, RAG, and reasoning systems
  • Ensure the company’s data and AI capabilities remain future‑proof, modular, and ecosystem‑ready
  • Represent the organization externally with partners, vendors, and industry forums on AI innovation

4. Data & Platform Accountability

• Own enterprise data strategy, including data architecture, governance, quality, lineage, and accessibility
• Ensure strong foundations across cloud, analytics platforms, AI tooling, and security
• Balance innovation speed with regulatory and risk requirements typical of the insurance industry

Your Skills and Experience

As Head of Data & AI, your skills and qualifications will ideally include:

• Master degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, or a related field. or degree in actuarial science with a data proven records
• Minimum 15 years of professional experience, with a significant portion in insurance or financial services
• Proven track record leading enterprise data and AI transformation at scale
• Deep understanding of:
  • the insurance industry, including underwriting, claims management, actuarial science, risk assessment, distribution, policy administration and pricing.
  • Applied AI/ML, automation, and analytics, AI agents, agentic AI
  • Data platforms, cloud ecosystems, and AI architectures
• Demonstrated ability to move beyond pilots and deliver production AI with measurable business impact
• Strong executive presence with the ability to influence senior stakeholders and boards
• Experience operating in highly regulated environments with strong governance expectations
• Proven experience (10+ years) in data strategy, data management, or a related field, in the insurance industry
• Strong leadership and team management skills, with the ability to inspire and guide a team of AI data engineers
• A strategic thinker with problem-solving skills and results oriented with a proven ability to analyse situations, diagnose problems, identify the key issues, establish and weigh up alternative courses of action and produce a logical, practical and acceptable solution
• Excellent communication and presentation skills; ability to convey complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders and collaborate effectively across teams
• Excellent command of both written and spoken English and Chinese (Cantonese and/or Mandarin)

Why Zurich

At Zurich, we like to think outside the box and challenge the status quo. We take an optimistic approach by focusing on the positives and constantly asking What can go right? 

We are an equal opportunity employer who knows that each employee is unique - that’s what makes our team so great! 
Join us as we constantly explore new ways to protect our customers and the planet. 

• Location(s):  HK - Hong Kong, CN - Shen Zhen, Futian 
• Remote working: Hybrid