Canada Life and Irish Life
Customer Services Director
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About Canada Life UK
Canada Life UK looks after the retirement, investment and protection needs of individuals, families and companies. We help to build better futures for our customers, our intermediaries and our employees by operating as a modern, agile and welcoming organisation.
Part of our parent company Great-West Lifeco, Canada Life UK has operated in the United Kingdom since 1903. We have hundreds of respected and supported employees committed to doing the right thing for our customers and colleagues.
Canada Life UK is transforming to create a more customer-focused business by providing our customers with expertise on financial and tax planning, offering home finance and annuities propositions, and providing collective fund solutions to third party customers.
Shape the future of customer service
We are looking for an exceptional Customer Services Director to lead customer service across our Wealth, Group Protection and Retirement businesses.
This is a pivotal executive role with the opportunity to set the vision, strategy and standards for a large, complex function during a significant period of transformation. You will unite internal teams and strategic service partners behind one seamless operating model, ensuring outstanding outcomes for customers and advisers whilst delivering sustainable improvements in performance, resilience and value.
The opportunity
You will lead the end-to-end customer and adviser service journey, combining strategic leadership with a clear focus on safe, stable day-to-day delivery. You will be accountable for embedding and continually improving an outsourced service model, strengthening operational excellence and creating a high-performing, inclusive culture across multiple teams and locations.
Working closely with senior leaders across Technology, Change, Risk, Compliance, the Chief Customer Office and the business lines, you will turn customer insight, operational data and strategic priorities into meaningful action.
What you will do
- Set and deliver the Customer Services strategy, transformation roadmap and target operating model.
- Lead the successful mobilisation, integration and optimisation of internal and outsourced service teams.
- Drive performance across service, quality, productivity, complaints, customer outcomes, risk, controls and operational resilience.
- Provide executive leadership to Customer Services delivery teams, the Service Management Office and the Operational Excellence Team.
- Establish clear performance standards, governance, service measures and accountability throughout the function.
- Deliver process simplification, automation, continuous improvement and measurable benefit realisation.
- Champion fair customer and adviser outcomes, using service and complaints insight to identify and resolve systemic issues.
- Own Customer Services budgets, workforce costs and third-party expenditure, ensuring strong commercial discipline and value.
- Serve as the senior escalation point for material service issues, leading effective recovery plans where required.
- Build leadership capability, talent pipelines and an engaged, accountable culture through ongoing transformation and business-as-usual activity.
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About you
You will be a credible, resilient and customer-focused senior leader with experience of operating in a large, regulated customer service or operations environment. You will bring:
- A strong track record of leading major transformation without compromising service stability or customer outcomes.
- Experience designing, governing and improving outsourced or strategic third-party service arrangements.
- Proven ability to bring diverse teams together through shared standards, operating rhythms, governance and culture.
- Deep expertise in operational excellence, process improvement, automation and benefits realisation.
- Sound understanding of conduct, operational risk, controls, regulatory obligations and operational resilience within financial services.
- Commercial and analytical judgement, with the ability to translate customer, service, people, risk and cost insight into timely decisions.
- The confidence to influence and constructively challenge at executive level.
- A demonstrable commitment to developing talent, setting high expectations and leading with empathy, pace and clarity through change.
Relevant qualifications in operational excellence, service management or change are desirable.
Why this role matters
This is more than a customer service leadership role. It is an opportunity to shape a function that is central to customer trust, business performance and regulatory confidence. You will lead meaningful change, build lasting capability and create a service experience that customers and advisers can rely on.
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Benefits of working at Canada Life
We believe in recognising and rewarding our people, so we offer a competitive salary and benefits package that’s regularly reviewed. As a Canada Life UK colleague, you’ll receive a competitive salary and comprehensive reward package including a generous pension and bonus scheme, along with, income protection, private medical insurance and life assurance. We have a fantastic number of other benefits and support services as well as regular personal and professional development.
How we work at Canada Life
Our culture is unique and incredibly important to us. We care about doing the right thing for our people, customers and community and helping others to build better futures. Our blueprint behaviours shape and influence how we work, and are central to the relationships we have with others. Every day we are encouraged to be more curious, own the outcome, face into things together and find a way forward.
We want colleagues to have rewarding careers with us so we invest in the development of our people, technology and workplaces. That’s why we offer a range of training, flexible working and opportunities to grow and develop.
Diversity and inclusion
Building an inclusive workplace with a diverse workforce where everyone can feel they belong and achieve their potential regardless of gender, ethnicity or any other characteristic is a key commitment for us. We are proud of the progress we’re making in DEI, and we continue for it to be a significant focus.
“At Canada Life we believe in the power of great people from different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives coming together to build better futures. Emerging talent is crucial to our growth and creating an environment that continues to inspire us all.” Nick Harding, Chief People Officer, Canada Life UK
We appreciate that everyone has different work and life responsibilities. We’re happy to discuss flexible working arrangements, including part time, for any of our roles should this be a requirement for you.
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