Careers

Position: Manager: Actuarial Services Capital (4D)                                

Closing Date: 16 April 2019

Reporting: Executive Actuarial Services

Department: Actuarial Services

Location: Parktown, Johannesburg

Purpose of the Job:

Provide effective leadership and management to the Actuarial Services Capital team and will be responsible for capital management, investment management, adequacy of reinsurance programmes, solvency reporting and statutory reporting. 

This position will have interaction with other teams within the Actuarial Services department, as well as with other departments within the PPS Group.  It is also expected that the incumbent will interact with the Statutory Actuary and the Group’s external auditors. 

Main duties and responsibilities:

• Direct and develop goals for the Actuarial Services Capital team
• Responsible for regular actuarial investigations, including asset liability matching investigations, reinsurance structure appropriateness, stress & scenario testing and risk appetite
• Monitor solvency and demonstrate capital optimisation through the development and calculation of accurate economic capital metrics for decision-making in developing strategy, setting budgets and allocation capital
• Regular (re)development of economic capital calculation models to ensure alignment to, PPS policies & frameworks as well as regulatory and business requirements
• Ensure all assets and investments are managed optimally to ensure investment objectives are met, either to maximise risk adjusted returns or to match liabilities effectively, this includes monitoring fund manager performance, setting mandates and implementing asset-liability matching procedures
• Provide actuarial inputs into the ORSA and related reports
• Responsible for the completion of statutory returns, particularly the SAM Qualitative return.
• Ensure of PPS Corporate Actuarial Department output with published ASSA Guidance notes, PPS policies & framework and other regulatory requirements
• Responsible for adherence to PPS SAM policies and frameworks
• Alignment to proposed regulatory and best practice changes in South Africa and Namibia
• Support reporting to the Boards, Risk Committee and Actuarial Committee.
• Management of Capital in the group

Formal Qualifications:

• Matric
• Honours degree majoring in Actuarial Science
• Have attained or en-route to obtain a Fellowship within the Actuarial Society of South Africa (ASSA) or Institute or Faculty of Actuaries (UK), i.e a nearly-qualified or recently qualified Actuary 
• PROPHET (actuarial software) knowledge is preferable

Experience and Knowledge:

• Must have at least 3 to 5 years’ experience in the Life Insurance actuarial environment and experience of SAM and Economic Capital principles will be preferable
• Attention to detail is critical
• Good verbal and written communication skills and the ability to lead a team of 3-5 actuarial resources 
• Knowledge of actuarial principles and retail insurance products
• Knowledge and background of the financial services industry

Computer Literacy:

• Latest MS Office package, particularly Excel, Word and Power-point and some PROPHET (actuarial software) knowledge is preferable

Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Skills:

• Confident
• Self-starter
• Assertive
• Persuasive and influential
• Target-driven
• Manages expectations
• Self-awareness
• Resilient
• Responsible & accountable

Preference will be given to Employment Equity candidates

Please send your applications to  recruitment@pps.co.za

Position: Intermediate Claims Assessor (3D)            

Closing Date: 16 April 2019

Department: Claims

Reporting: Team Manager: Claims

Location: Johannesburg, Parktown

Purpose of the Job:

Assessing sickness or short-term income disability benefits, as well as critical illness and disability claims. 

Main duties and responsibilities:

• Assessing very complex sickness claims within agreed authority limits as determined by the Delegation of Authority policy
• Identifying non-disclosures, liaising closely with forensics and acting in line with protocol
• Justifying decisions that are not in line with the claims manual/MD guidelines
• Analysing and synopsising current and additional information
• Communicating with brokers, members and internal staff both verbally and written when the need arises to discuss the progress of claims, claims process, confirm information or request additional information
• Following the claims communication matrix
• Ensuring claims are assessed in line with the documented processes
• Mentoring junior staff members
• Adequately preparing and analysing cases for discussion with the Team Manager/Medical Officers when required
• Independently draft final decision correspondence

Formal Qualifications:

• Matric
• Degree in Health Sciences is essential (preferable nursing degree)

Experience and Knowledge:

• At least 3 - 5 years’ experience in insurance claims or medical aid environment assessment
• 2 years’ clinical experience
• Sound knowledge of the Insurance industry will be advantageous
• Knowledge of PPS Claims System
• Good negotiation, analytical and numerical skills
• The candidate must be results-orientated
• Ability and interest in mentoring junior staff
• Strong team player who is able to pull the team together when required
• Able to delegate work
• Displays competency in assessment and decision making in disability claims
• Able to stand in for team manager when required

Computer Literacy:

• Computer literacy (Microsoft word, Excel)

Skills and competencies:

• Keen interest in the field of claims assessing
• Identify flaws in the process and suggest improvements
• Confident in decision-making and capable of dealing with appeals
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and Afrikaans
• Planning, administrative and organisation skills
• Successful participation and completion of the R&D mentoring programme is compulsory
• Mentor junior and intermediate assessors
• Excellent working knowledge of general claims principles
• Good negotiation, analytical and numerical skills
• The candidate must be results-orientated
• Ability and interest in mentoring junior and intermediate assessors
• Strong team player and pull the team together when required
• Able to delegate work
• Displays competency in assessment and decision-making in disability claims
• Able to stand in for team manager when required
• Able to follow instructions
• Able to communicate clearly and effectively both verbally and in writing
• Demonstrate good telephone etiquette
• Self-Management
• Meticulous attention to detail
• Highly motivated individual
• Researching Information
• Team player

Preference will be given to Employment Equity candidates

Please send your applications to recruitment@pps.co.za

Position: Senior SQL Developer (3E)                    

Closing Date: 16 April 2019

Department: IT

Reporting: Team Manager: Applications and Communicator

Location: Johannesburg, Parktown

Purpose of the Job:

PPS is looking for an Senior SQL Developer who will be able to designs tables, write queries, create ETL packages and SSRS reports. The incumbent will also work with other developers in the application optimization of SQL statements as necessary, and the establishment or best practices. The individual will also help solve all database usage issues and come up with ideas and advice that can help avoid such problems in the future.

Main duties and responsibilities:

• Perform impact analysis on proposed Database changes
• Analyse/problem solving to identify data issues arising from faulty system functionality
• Support the business in all Data Related Issues / Queries
• Create and maintain scripts for 3rd Party Imports
• Create and maintain scripts for Data Extracts
• Create and maintain scripts for related applications
• Set up automated processes where applicable for handover to Deployment Team
• Support and assist the Business Analysts / Deployment Team in issues relating to System Processes
• Assist in Projects relating to Application Support
• Produce business and executive reports as per SLA 
• Setup and maintain automated SQL scheduled tasks 
• Documentation of current or new processes  
• Mentoring of junior staff 
• Investigating and solving report and data related queries
• Read and understand data Requirements/Technical Specification
• Review of Documentation (SOPS)
• Production Support (being able to handle and fix production issues)
• Translate use cases and technical specification into functional applications
• Design, build, and maintain efficient, reusable, and reliable code
• Ensure the best possible performance, quality, and responsiveness of applications.
• Designs, develops, maintains and enhances SQL applications/ETL, databases, reports and programs
• Performs data analysis by writing relational and multidimensional database queries

Formal Qualifications:

• Matric
• IT Related Degree / Higher Diploma
• ITIL Foundation Certificate
• Microsoft SQL Certifications

Experience and Knowledge:         

• Minimum 6 -9 years’ knowledge and experience with SQL Server as well as SSRS (2005 & 2008), SSIS (ETL development) and SSAS
• Minimum 6 -9 years’ experience with SQL queries, stored procedures, functions and triggers
• Knowledge and experience in data warehousing and data analytics
• Experience in other BI technologies such as MS Power BI or Qlikview
• Have a full understanding of all database structures and relationships in the database structures
• Must have extensive knowledge of SQL Reporting and Integration services
• Have a full understanding how and when the business applications write to the database and what relationships are set up between database structures
• Basic understanding of Common Language Runtime (CLR), its limitations, weaknesses, and workarounds

Strategic Orientation:

• High standard of integrity, service excellence and a passion for the industry
• Ability to think strategically, execute quality proposals under multiple and competing deadlines and work extra hours as needed (evenings and weekends)
• High level of creativity, inspiration, innovation and ability to think "outside the box"
• You will be a driven and ambitious experienced self-starter with excellent negotiation skills and business acumen

Communication:

• Articulate and communicates in a logical way and structures information to meet the needs and understanding of the stakeholders

Computer Literacy:      

• Good computer literacy (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio/Aris, Project)

Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Skills:

• Self-motivated and ability to use own initiative, with ability to work without supervision
• Quality Orientation
• Analytical thinking & decision-making ability in a moderately complex environment.
• Problem solving skills (analysis and business / process solution design).
• Interpretation of information in a clear and concise manner
• Interpersonal communications skills and presentation skills.
• Service delivery focussed with great interpersonal skills to interact with clients 
• Excellent communication skills to work closely with the team
• Attention to detail and methodical work method 
• Ability to work accurately and thoroughly 
• Organized (ability to plan, organize & control own work) 
• Ability to work towards deadlines 
• Adaptability to new challenges 
• Having exceptional analytical skills

Preference will be given to Employment Equity candidates

Please send your applications to recruitment@pps.co.za

Position: Intermediate Java Developer (3D)        Jerusha Meldrum                Closing Date: 18 April 2019

Department: IT

Reporting Line: Manager: Applications Development

Location: Johannesburg, Parktown

Purpose of the Job:

The Intermediate / J2SE & J2EE Developer will be responsible for designing and implementing executable source code of high quality according to the functional specification, maintainability and efficiency in line with the development standards of PPS. The role encompasses understanding, implementing, supporting, upgrading, training and maintaining the technology aspects that support project deliverables. The candidate has to have a team spirit and display openness to innovation and keeping up to the latest technology trends. The role includes developing data rich applications within a scrum development framework. The incumbent will be required to fix defects and develop, test and release Java applications as per the defined architectural and design standards.

Main duties and responsibilities:

• Engaging in technical scoping sessions with a clear mandate of defining and agreeing the technology, design & tools
• Producing working implementation (code) from functional / technical documents such as the functional specification
• Ensuring the appropriate use of tools and applications that are in place to support the development process and the SDLC
• Interacting and maintaining good relationships with business stakeholders (business users, project management resources, testing and training teams)
• Engaging with leadership on performance management
• Engaging with leadership and take initiative around career growth & training
• Software development and testing
• Database administration & manipulation to create SQL statement, etc
• Unit testing
• Integrating testing of code
• Demonstrating knowledge of best practice and project standards for coding

Formal Qualifications:

• Matric
• B.Comm, B.Eng, BSC Eng, BSC Informatics or related degree / diploma 
• Linux operating environment is an advantage
• Web: HTML, HTML5, XML, CSS will be advantageous

Experience and Knowledge:

• Minimum 3 – 5 Years’ experience on Java 7 and JEE (Servlets, JSP, EJB, REST and SOAP , JPA/Hibernate), JBOSS, Tomcat and MS SQL Server
• 3 - 5 years experience with the J2EE application server i.e. JBoss & Tomcat
• 3 years’ in-depth knowledge and experience of using UML
• 2 years’ experience using XML, LDAP, Design Tool i.e. XDE, Servlets, Internet development
• 3 – 5 years’ experience with Build tools ie. Maven & ANT
• Experience working in a multi-project environment
• Knowledge of and exposure to SDLC / Change Control / Release Management
• Solid understanding of versioning software ie. SVN and GitLab

Strategic Orientation:

• High standard of integrity, service excellence and a passion for the industry
• Able to think strategically, execute quality proposals under multiple and competing deadlines and work extra hours as needed (evenings and weekends)
• High level of creativity, inspiration, innovation and ability to think "outside the box"
• Driven and ambitious experienced self-starter with excellent negotiation skills and business acumen 

Communication:

• Articulate and communicates in a logical way and structures information to meet the needs and understanding of the stakeholders

Commercial Acumen:

• Demonstrates awareness of market trends and opportunities and keeps up to date with competitor developments that impact areas of responsibility

Computer Literacy:

• Good computer literacy (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio/Aris, Project)

Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Skills:

• Self-motivated and able to use initiative and work without supervision
• Quality Orientation
• Analytical thinking & decision-making ability in a moderately complex environment
• Problem-solving skills (analysis and business / process solution design).
• Interpreting information in a clear and concise manner
• Interpersonal communications skills and presentation skills
• People networking and good, rapid relationship & team building
• Innovative thinking and approach to work
• Troubleshooting
• Delivery focused
• Able to conduct oneself professionally
• Strong personal characteristics, energy, drive, focus, motivation, responsibility
• Strong aptitude for teamwork (contributes to the team’s success)
• Service delivery orientated (possesses sense of urgency)
• Outcomes-driven

Preference will be given to Employment Equity candidates

Please send your applications to recruitment@pps.co.za

Position: Short Term Legal & Compliance Manager (4C)    Winton Goliath   Closing Date: 19 April 2019

Department: Short Term

Reporting Line: STI Chief Financial Officer

Location: Johannesburg, Parktown

Purpose of the Job:

The incumbent is responsible for the full legal function in the PPS Short Term business. This will include developing and implementing a legal risk management strategy for PPS STI. He/she will be responsible for proactively and constructively assisting the business in identifying and interpreting applicable legislation and minimising legal risks through the providing of legal advice and assistance to the business.

From a compliance perspective, the successful incumbent will be responsible for proactively and constructively assisting the business in managing its responsibility to comply with all regulatory items and minimise compliance risks through the providing of advice and guidelines to operational management through the application of risk management principles, policies, processes and procedures. 

Duties include developing compliance risk management solutions within strategic guidelines and policies and to facilitate the management of compliance risks and breaches within the Business Unit through application of accepted risk management principles.

Main duties and responsibilities:

• Leading and being accountable for the legal and compliance function
• Identifying applicable legislation, provide commentary, performing impact analysis and giving advice and guidance to the business
• Drafting legal contracts, policy documents, etc and reviewing standard business communications
• Providing legal support to all areas of the business
• Litigation management
• Complaints management, including complaints received from different Ombudsman offices.
• Liaising with key stakeholders in the business, the FSCA, PA and other regulatory bodies when required
• Demonstrating effective management by setting objectives for team member, facilitating work prioritisation and performance management
• Implementing mechanisms to ensure the development of team member, including enhancing skills and knowledge. This includes the effective dissemination of compliance knowledge amongst the team

Formal Qualifications:

• LLB degree
• Admitted as an attorney of the High Court
• Completed practical legal training at an accredited law school preferred

• Completed a postgraduate diploma / degree with a commercial application preferred
• Sound academic track record

Experience and Knowledge:

• 8+ years overall post-articles experience and a minimum of 4 years Financial Services experience, preferably at a large corporate or a bank, but alternatively in legal practice dealing with insurance and/or financial services matters
• Minimum of 3 years of overall experience must be in a Short-term Insurance role at a large corporate or a bank
• Extensive experience working with financial services legislation for example LTIA, STIA, FAIS, FICA, CISCA, etc
• Comprehensive expert knowledge of Financial Services Regulatory Environment
• Demonstrated knowledge of Compliance Risk Management Methodology
• Expert Legislative Knowledge

Strategic Orientation:

• Able to implement various strategic compliance requirements
• Anticipates and responds appropriately to the needs, reactions and feedback of various stakeholders internally and externally

Communication:

• Confident in conceptualising, building and presenting plans, and implementing legislation changes
• Articulate and communicates in a logical way and structures information to meet the needs and understanding of intended audiences
• Expresses opinions, information and key points of view clearly and assertively

Commercial Acumen:

• Formulation of Legal & Compliance strategies and plans
• Ability to independently draft legal documents, for example contracts, policy documentation etc. which are of a complex nature
• Able to write, communicate and interpret legislative requirement at the appropriate level

Computer Literacy:

• Latest MS Office packages, particularly Excel, Word and Power-point

Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Skills:

• Able to independently solve complex legal problems in a systematic and logical manner
• Able to collate information and to draft legal reports, for example Exco & Risk Committee reports
• Able to partner with customers and/or colleagues (up to ExCo level) to deliberate and discuss complex and/or sensitive issues with the aim of finding an appropriate solution

• Good verbal and written communication skills, including report writing skills
• Able to conduct legal research
• Good facilitation and conflict handling skills
• Able to prioritise and work under pressure
• Able to meet strict deadlines
• Managing process and people to meet strategic objectives
• Functioning proactively and strategically with a holistic view on compliance
• Able to implement annual compliance plan
• Able to advise business on complex compliance matters

Preference will be given to Employment Equity candidates

Please send your applications to recruitment@pps.co.za