Chief Technology Officer

Environment at AXA

Would you like to wake up every day driven and inspired by your mission? Here at AXA, we work together as one global team to set new standards, empower our customers to live a better life and lead the transformation of our industry. Join our team to develop yourself, learn and bring your views and competences. We are looking for people who make use of their creative space and who are ready to develop future solutions for our clients. We offer the necessary freedom of scope, as well as work models that fit your need and a corporate culture in which we welcome your ideas. Take the initiative and join a company where there is plenty of room for you to develop! We look forward to having you on board!

The headquarters of the AXA Group, based in Paris 8th and 17th, brings together the Group's corporate activities. It coordinates the various entities with the Group's strategy and is responsible for managing international projects. The headquarters has approximately 800 employees and is distinguished by its strong international culture (39 nationalities).

AXA Group Operations and Group Emerging Technologies & Data

In the last years, significant work has been done to digitize AXA’s business model so far. Nevertheless, due to massive technological changes, customers’ expectations and behaviors have evolved significantly. Thus, we are convinced that we must accelerate our technological transformation to achieve our ambition to become an innovative tech-led company. The opportunities offered by data and new technologies are massive both for our traditional insurance business and for new services to achieve our Payer to Partner ambition.

AXA Group Operations sets the tone and must play its role as one of the major catalysts of AXA’s global transformation. We are the ones triggering and empowering the evolution of our insurance business model through technology and innovation, driving its concrete implementation globally at speed, with a high quality of advisory and execution.

Within AXA Group Operations, Group Emerging Technologies & Data (GETD) explores and scales the value of data, digital, and emerging technologies (AI, IoT, Geospatial, Blockchain, Quantum Computing, etc.) with the potential to disrupt the current insurance business model and to shape future opportunities in order to better partner in our customers’ lives. GETD and its spin-offs consist of 200+ inspiring minds located in Paris, Barcelona, London, on the EPFL campus in Lausanne (Switzerland), and on Stanford campus in San Francisco (USA) incubating and deploying solutions in co-creation and collaboration with AXA operating entities and strategic partners around the world.

In particular in partnership with Stanford University, we are incubating, developing and deploying solutions “making the insurance contracts computable”. Computable Contracts are the interface of law and technology.  They represent a standardized semantic model that can be easily readable by everyone, from legal experts to regular customers – and it is a way to express the terms of contracts directly in machine executable code: contract as a code is the basis for automation, standardization and simplification which drive positive impacts both in terms of customer experience (transparency and personalization) and operations efficiency[1].

Computable Contracts are a game changer for the financial services industry and is strategic for AXA. If you are searching for an impactful job, have an entrepreneurial mindset and like challenges, join us in this new business we are launching!

Purpose of the Job

As Chief Technology Officer, you will oversee the Computable Contracts architecture working directly with stakeholders to understand the business strategy and to define the capabilities required to meet the long-term needs of the Computable Contracts solution.  You’re the primary point of engagement for Computable Contracts’ relationship with AXA Group functions (Group Technology Office, Group Technology Operations, Group Security) and with any relevant third parties such as technology and research partners. Your role will encompass several significant functions including, but not limited to: Business Architecture, Data Architecture, Technical Architecture, Security Architecture, and Cloud Infrastructure Engineering.

We expect a design and development of the Computable Contracts Software-as-a-Service products in a pragmatic way to ensure ease of implementation, industrialization as well as alignment with business needs. We don’t intend to “play” with technology, we do really seek for impact. Hence, the ideal candidate will have experience in tech-driven programs or product-oriented companies with an entrepreneur mindset, meaning a wide understanding of technologies coupled with a sense of strategy and business impact. We expect you to be autonomous and able to learn. Openness, curiosity, respect, and engagement are requested.

Main Responsibilities

• Define, document, align and promote Computable Contracts architecture and products.

• Select and manage technology life cycles of architectural components and products.

• Review designs and implementations and take part in shaping strategic paths of our software platform.

• Ensure that stability, performance, security, and platform reusability aspects are always considered.

• Evaluate the impact of different software solutions on the overall system design.

• Identify dependencies and drive requirement clarifications to ensure a consistent end-to-end solution.

• Define and communicate design rules for the overall product portfolio.

• Contribute to hands-on to software development activities (e.g., foundational research, Proof-Of-Concept implementation, system configuration contribution/review).

• Advocate, facilitate and communicate publicly on Computable Contracts and correspond concepts.

Expected Skills and Experience

• Scientific/Engineering/Computer science education (M.Sc. is a must, PhD is a plus).

• More than 7+ years of experience as Solution Architect or Lead Developer for complex software products.

• Deep understanding of architecture and engineering principles, design patterns, and other best practices.

• Experience in working with larger and/or distributed teams, including technical leadership of such teams.

• Able to work in interdisciplinary teams (infrastructure, engineering, QA, product managers).

• Comfortable with an agile environment demanding strong communication skills and a teamwork mentality.

• Excellent written and verbal English communication. Skills in French or Spanish are a plus.

• Considering new challenges as an opportunity and see solutions before problems.

• Practical experience in public cloud (AWS, GCP or Azure), virtualization and container technologies are a must.

• Practical experience in API design, data modeling and semantic modelling techniques are a must.

• Experience in NoSQL document and/or graph databases (e.g., neo4j) is a plus.

• Experience in logic programing, information retrieval and/or natural language processing is a plus.

• Experience in deep learning and language transformer models (e.g., GPT, BERT, etc.) is a plus.

• Experience in OpenAI, Docusign, Guidewire or Salesforce are a plus.

As a world-leading insurance company, we act for human progress by protecting what matters. With 153,000 employees in 54 countries working with 105 million customers, we’ve created a truly dynamic and vibrant community. Inclusion and diversity link closely with our values, and together we’re nurturing a culture of
respect, for each other, for our customers and the communities around us. Join AXA and you’ll feel like you belong, are included and can thrive. You’ll be able to shape the way you work and truly grow your potential as you seek out new opportunities, push boundaries and benefit people in critical moments of their lives. This is your chance to build the tomorrow you want. Know you can.