Senior Specialist: Financial Risk Strategy and Appetite

**Who are we?**

Sanlam was established as a life insurance company in South Africa but has since transformed into a diversified financial services group that operates across the African continent, India, Malaysia and selected developed markets, with listings on the Johannesburg, A2X and Namibian stock exchanges. In 2018 the Group celebrated its centenary as well as 20 years since demutualisation and listing in South Africa and Namibia. Sanlam is one of the largest internationally active insurance groups in the world with a presence in 31 countries and has the biggest non-banking financial services footprint on the African continent.

The Group's five business clusters (Sanlam Fintech, Sanlam Life and Savings, Sanlam Investment Group, Sanlam Allianz and Santam) house the Group's business operations. The Group Office provides strategic direction and support to the five clusters, assisting them in realising their strategies and meeting their business objectives. The Group Office is responsible for governance and for the Group's centralised functions, which include: Finance, Actuarial and Risk Management, Strategy, Human Resources, Market Development and Sustainability.

**What will you do?**
- Responsible for oversight of Liquidity, Market and Credit risk across the Sanlam Group. The role is responsible for setting policies, risk management strategies and developing risk appetite and metrics to track appetite utilisation. Provides management with accurate risk information for effective decision-making on internal controls. Collect risk information and assist in drafting reports giving insight to senior management and board subcommittees on the Group’s risk profile over time.
- Provide risk oversight on all balance sheet optimisation, capital allocation, Asset Liability Management (ALM) and treasury activities.
- Responsible assisting the Chief Actuary in understanding and analysing the risks borne by the insurance activities on the balance sheet, and interaction of these with Market, Liquidity and Credit risk exposures, including the impact of hedging strategies on the residual risks on the balance sheet. May also be involved in product development in a risk advisory capacity.
- Responsible for engaging with regulators and other industry bodies to ensure risk management policies, strategies and activities remain in line with latest and upcoming regulations, and best practice across the industry.

**What will make you successful in this role?**

**Risk Governance**:

- Policies and Framework
- Development and implementation of financial risk management policies, frameworks, and procedures ensuring alignment with local and international regulatory and corporate governance standards.
- Liaise with regulators such as Prudential Authority, SARB and FSCA, and industry bodies such as ASISA and stay up-to-date with evolving regulatory requirements, industry guidance, and assess their impact on organizational risk management processes.
- Strategy and Appetite
- Developing and driving the implementation of the risk strategy and risk appetite framework, defining which risks the organisation will retain and seek to monetize, and which risks to minimise, aligned with overall business strategic objectives and capabilities.
- Stay up-to-date with emerging risks, regulatory changes, and market trends, and adjust the risk policies and strategies as necessary.
- Cluster Implementation
- Support Clusters and Businesses across the Group to understand and implement the risk management policies and strategies in their respective arears, ensuring consistency across the Group, while relevant to the specific cluster/business.

**Risk Appetite Models Design and Development**:

- Risk Metrics and Insights
- Developing, implementing, and managing risk appetite models, covering the entire Group’s balance sheets (across IFRS, EV, SAM and Economic basis), including developing risk metrics and setting risk appetite.
- Drive insight-led analysis to ensure the organization’s risk profile aligns with its strategic objectives.
- Work cross-functionally with stakeholders in Risk, Finance, and Clusters, providing leadership in translating risk appetite into actionable metrics and insights.
- Develop key risk indicators (KRIs) and key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor and report on the organization's risk profile.
- Model risk management
- Build robust models to assess and quantify risk appetite across various risk categories (credit, market, liquidity, operational, etc.).
- Ensure models incorporate both quantitative and qualitative factors, reflecting the organization’s evolving risk environment, and clearly documented.
- Stress Testing and Analytics
- Lead the development of stress testing frameworks to assess risk under different economic and operational scenarios.
- Use predictive analytics to model the potential impact of changes in market conditions or business operations on the organization’s risk appetite.

**Qualification and Expe