Who are we?

Sanlam was established as a life insurance company in South Africa and has since transformed into a diversified financial services group. Group Office provides strategic direction, governance and support to the Group’s business clusters, assisting them in realising their strategies and achieving their business objectives. Group Office’s central functions include Finance, Actuarial and Risk Management, Strategy, Human Resources, Market Development and Brand Services.

What will you do?

Provide executive and administrative support to the designated executive and leadership team and coordinate the day-to-day business-as-usual (BAU) operations of Group Actuarial, Risk and BSM.

The role serves as a central point of coordination for executive commitments, team operating rhythms, recurring business activities, governance processes, reporting cycles and operational actions. It supports effective planning, prioritisation, communication and follow-through across the function, helping to ensure that business-as-usual activities are delivered in a structured, timely and efficient manner.

The role coordinates and enables BAU delivery but does not assume accountability for technical actuarial, risk, regulatory or professional judgements. Accountability for the quality, content and approval of technical deliverables remains with the relevant functional owner or subject-matter expert.

What will make you successful in this role?

1. Executive and administrative support

• Coordinate complex diaries and executive commitments proactively, anticipating requirements, prioritising requests and resolving scheduling conflicts.
• Arrange logistics for internal and external meetings and executive engagements, including venues, catering, visitor access, video conferencing, technology and facilities.
• Coordinate travel, transport, accommodation and related itineraries.
• Prepare and edit executive correspondence and business documents, and provide formatting and presentation-quality support for reports and presentations, alongside the governance-pack coordination and operational reporting responsibilities set out below.
• Coordinate confidential correspondence, records and information with a high degree of discretion.
• Screen executive correspondence and enquiries, directing requests to the appropriate person and representing the office professionally.
• Process invoices, purchase requests, expense claims and other agreed administrative transactions.
• Support office infrastructure, equipment, supplies and related services.
• Provide administrative support to the broader leadership team within agreed parameters.

What will make you successful in this role?

2. BAU planning, governance coordination and reporting

• Coordinate annual business and strategy planning, quarterly business reviews and the annual, quarterly and monthly BAU planning cycles, incorporating agreed recurring activities into the BAU plan.
• Maintain an integrated BAU plan and operational calendar in the agreed work-management tool, confirming activities, accountable owners, due dates and dependencies with functional leads and team members. Include reporting cycles, governance forums and submission, agenda and pack-distribution deadlines.
• Facilitate regular planning reviews with functional leads to assess upcoming commitments, conflicting deadlines, dependencies and capacity constraints.
• Coordinate contributor inputs and the preparation, quality review and timely distribution of agendas, meeting packs and supporting documentation for leadership, management and governance forums.
• Provide secretariat support where required, recording minutes and decisions and entering agreed actions directly into the central action register.
• Consolidate BAU and operational status inputs into agreed reports, dashboards and leadership updates, drawing on the BAU plan, central action register and approved source information to highlight delivery status, capacity pressures and matters requiring decisions.
• Check reporting inputs for completeness, consistency and timeliness; resolve gaps with contributors and escalate outstanding or incomplete information to the relevant leader.
• Maintain organised governance and reporting records in the appropriate repository, including approved meeting documents, submissions, approvals, decisions, source documentation and supporting evidence.
• Maintain a central register of actions and commitments arising from executive engagements, leadership discussions, governance forums and team meetings, recording owners, due dates, dependencies and current status, with an audit trail of updates, revised deadlines and closure decisions.
• Monitor BAU deadlines and action commitments, follow up proactively with accountable owners, obtain completion evidence where appropriate and close actions following confirmation by the relevant owner or decision-maker.
• Escalate overdue commitments, material delays, unresolved dependencies, operational risks and capacity concerns to the appropriate leader through agreed channels.

What will make you successful in this role?

3. Process improvement and ways of working

• Document and maintain key administrative and BAU operating procedures.
• Identify recurring administrative bottlenecks, duplicated effort and manual workarounds.
• Work with process owners to standardise templates, calendars, trackers and routine workflows.
• Support the implementation and adoption of improved operational processes and tools.
• Promote consistent document management, information storage, naming conventions and version control.
• Support the appropriate use of Microsoft 365, automation and AI-enabled tools in routine administrative and reporting activities, in line with applicable policies.
• Coordinate feedback and lessons learned to assess the effectiveness of revised processes

4. Stakeholder and team coordination

• Coordinate cross-functional information requests between the executive, leadership team, team members and support functions, confirming the appropriate accountable contributors.
• Maintain effective working relationships with stakeholders across Group Office, business clusters and external service providers.
• Support onboarding, induction logistics and access arrangements for new team members.
• Coordinate team events and engagement activities.
• Maintain team contact information, distribution lists and other operational records, with team calendar commitments reflected in the integrated BAU operational calendar.
• Support communication of agreed operational decisions, changes and deadlines.

Role Outcomes

• Executive commitments, diary requirements and meeting logistics are managed proactively and professionally.
• BAU activities, owners and key deadlines are visible in a reliable operational view.
• Overdue actions, dependencies and delivery risks are followed up and escalated appropriately.
• Leadership and governance forums receive complete and timely information.
• Operational documentation and records are accurate, controlled and accessible.
• Routine processes become more standardised, efficient and easier to manage.
• Stakeholder requests are coordinated professionally and directed to the correct accountable owner.
• The leadership team has improved visibility of operational commitments, capacity pressures and upcoming decisions.

Qualifications, Exeperince and Knowledge

• Matric and relevant three-year qualification in business administration, office management, executive support, operations management or a related field.
• Relevant experience in executive assistance, business administration or operational coordination within a complex corporate environment.
• Experience coordinating recurring business processes, management reporting, governance activities or cross-functional deliverables.
• Experience maintaining action logs, operational calendars, trackers and management information.
• Experience working with senior executives and diverse stakeholder groups.
• Financial services or insurance experience would be advantageous.
• Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams and SharePoint.
• Familiarity with task-management, workflow, reporting or collaboration tools would be advantageous.

Key Skills

• Executive and secretarial support
• Operational planning, scheduling and cross-functional coordination
• Diary and priority management
• Meeting, event and travel coordination
• Governance, decision and action tracking
• Management information and status reporting
• Document and records management
• Process documentation and continuous improvement
• Business writing, editing and presentation support
• Problem-solving and proactive follow-through
• Planning, prioritisation and organisational capability

Personal Attributes

• Communicates effectively
• Action orientated
• Optimises work processes
• Ensures accountability
• Manages complexity
• Demonstrates sound judgement and discretion
• Maintains attention to detail

Core Competencies

• Cultivates innovation
• Customer focus
• Drives results
• Collaborates
• Being resilient

Our Commitment to Transformation

The Sanlam Group is committed to achieving transformation and embraces diversity. This commitment supports a diverse, inclusive and equitable workplace and contributes to a thriving and sustainable business in South Africa. The Group’s Employment Equity plan and targets will be considered as part of the selection process.