• Full Time Permanent position
• Hybrid role based in our City Centre offices

What we offer

We have embraced a hybrid working model for most of our positions, which means that you can enjoy a balanced approach of working from home for part of the week and working from the office for the remainder of the week.

We offer a comprehensive benefits package including competitive salaries and bonuses, robust Learning and Development support, excellent Defined Contribution pension and comprehensive Wellbeing initiatives and support to name but a few.

Further details on our benefits package can be accessed here Benefits (life-careers.com)

At Irish Life, our purpose is to help people build better futures. Our company values shape everything we do and underpin our vision of being the driving force behind Ireland’s financial, physical, and mental well-being.

We believe in doing the right thing—acting with integrity and making fair, responsible decisions. We aim high, setting ambitious goals and find better ways to innovate and improve. Our customers are at the heart of everything we do and we are dedicated to understanding their needs and exceeding their expectations. Achieving this this is only possible when we work best together—in a supportive, collaborative environment where every idea and contribution is valued.

Role Overview

Governance and Stakeholder Management is an established team within Insurance and Financial Solutions (IFS). The team champions a culture of strong governance and delivers robust, practical oversight of outsourcing, operational resilience, and business continuity across IFS’s outsourcing and services universe.

We have an exciting opportunity to join IFS as the Senior Governance Manager where you will help drive the next phase of our journey. One year into the new operating model, this role is now focused on strengthening and simplifying our frameworks, deepening our insight into risk and performance, and embedding governance disciplines across IFS and key outsourcing arrangements
This is a first-line role spanning both ILA and ILH (IFS’s regulated insurance entities), reporting directly into the Head of Governance and Stakeholder Management. You will lead and execute key elements of the governance framework to oversee the risks inherent in our model, whilst supporting high performance and delivering value to our stakeholders.

Key responsibilities include:

Strategic governance and stakeholder engagement
• Build and maintain collaborative relationships with key stakeholders across IFS, ILA, ILH and key service providers, to deliver IFS’s vision and strategy.
• Act as a trusted adviser on outsourcing, operational resilience, and business continuity matters, helping stakeholders balance commercial priorities and risk.
• Influence decision-making by providing clear, concise insight on governance, risk trends and service performance.

Outsourcing, operational resilience and business continuity oversight
• Take end to end ownership of the Outsourcing agenda for IFS, acting as the senior focal point for Critical Arrangements and ensuring a clear line of sight from Executive Committees through effectiveness reviews to Board reporting.
• Lead, energise and continuously enhance IFS’s governance frameworks for Outsourcing, Operational Resilience and Business Continuity across the services universe, ensuring they are not only compliant with regulatory expectations and internal standards but are demonstrably effective and appropriate in practice.
• Actively drive the embedding of these frameworks into business teams, providing robust challenge, practical guidance and hands on support on implementation, control design and documentation, and intervening where arrangements are not meeting required outcomes.
• Lead the identification, assessment and monitoring of outsourcing, operational resilience and business continuity risks, ensuring appropriate, timely escalation and driving remediation and improvement actions to conclusion.

Additional Responsibilities

Reporting, insight and continuous improvement
• Produce high-quality governance reporting for key stakeholders, including entity CEOs, Boards and governance committees, clearly evaluating the effectiveness and appropriateness of governance arrangements and supporting them in fulfilling their mandates.
• Monitor key performance indicators, service levels and key risk indicators, ensuring appropriate measures and monitoring are in place, and using these to assess the effectiveness and appropriateness of governance arrangements, highlighting emerging risks, trends and areas of concern.
• Partner with other teams and divisions to:
o Leverage and build on existing reporting and governance structures and control environments
o Promote simplification, standardisation, and streamlining of governance processes to achieve synergies and efficiencies.
• Track and report on remediation activities, assessing the impact and effectiveness of corrective actions.

Committee and regulatory support
• Work closely with committee members and key stakeholders within IFS and across the outsourcing universe to shape and coordinate inputs, optimise committee packs, and ensure that information is timely, robust and decision-ready, effectively supporting sound decision-making and regulatory oversight.
• Contribute to periodic and annual review cycles, including Operational Resilience and Business Continuity risk assessments, scenario testing and impact analysis.
• Stay abreast of regulatory developments and financial services governance best practice, recommending and implementing updates to frameworks, policies and processes as required.

Leadership and ways of working
• Role-model a risk-aware, customer-focused culture and promote effective governance behaviours across IFS and the outsourcing and services universe.
• Work proactively with key stakeholders to understand their needs and ensure they are met through efficient, effective and proportionate governance arrangements.
•Take responsibility for driving efficiency and effectiveness by identifying, leveraging and embedding AI and wider technology solutions, and by standardising, streamlining and simplifying processes, reporting and ways of working across IFS where appropriate

Experience and skills

• Proven experience in a manager-level role within governance, risk, compliance or a related discipline in financial services.
• Strong knowledge of governance requirements for outsourcing, operational resilience and business continuity (including regulatory expectations and industry practice).
• Excellent relationship management and interpersonal skills, with the confidence to influence senior stakeholders. The successful candidate will have proven success building relationships and working collaboratively with a broad range of stakeholders, preferable in a governance context.
• Pragmatic, commercially minded, and delivery-focused, with high levels of responsibility, ownership and attention to detail.
• A strong ability to assess facts objectively, analyse data, and solve problems to achieve successful outcomes.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to clearly convey information, listen actively, and tailor communications to different audiences, including senior management and Boards.

About us

Irish Life is one of Ireland’s largest financial institutions with a presence across a range of financial services markets. We are one of Ireland’s leading financial services groups with over 1.5 million customers. For over 80 years, we’ve been helping people to look after their life insurance, pension and investment needs, and more recently their health insurance.

It is a subsidiary of Great-West Lifeco and a member of the Power Financial Corporation group of companies.

We are proud of our culture of developing and supporting the growth and professional development of our people. The focus has resulted in a team of top talent with high standards, positioning us at the forefront of our industry.

The company reserves the right to draw up a shortlist as part of the selection process. Where Agency assistance is required the Irish Life Recruitment Team will engage directly with suppliers. Unsolicited CVs / profiles supplied to Irish Life by Recruitment Agencies will not be accepted for this role.

Irish Life is proud to be an Equal Opportunities employer. We have created an environment of inclusion and growth to help people achieve their potential, to ensure they can bring their whole selves to work and to feel valued. We celebrate diversity of thought and perspective and want all of our employees to feel valued, respected and supported.

We have built a culture that promotes equality and inclusion for all of our current and future employees and strive to ensure that our behaviours, processes and practices are aligned to this culture.

If you require any accommodations during the recruitment process please contact lifecareers@irishlife.ie and we will be delighted to ensure you are fully supported to be your best.

ILFS supports Equal Opportunity and is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.

Senior Governance Manager Irish Life

Benefits

Job Description