Product Excellence Lead

Southern Cross Health Insurance is shaping a healthier Aotearoa New Zealand. Our purpose is simple: empowering our members to live well for longer. We're here to give peace of mind through timely access to quality care, inspire healthier living, and lead positive change across the health system. As a New Zealand-owned, member-based organisation, we're building a future where wellbeing is at the heart of everything we do -- delivering exceptional value for our members and creating an environment where our people thrive.

Now is an exciting time to join us. You'll be part of a high-performing, values-driven team where people are at the heart of everything we do -- and in return for your talent, you'll have the opportunity to grow, make an impact, and be proud of the difference your work makes.

About The Role

In this role, you’ll make our health insurance products better — every day.

We’re looking for a Product Excellence Lead to own the health and performance of our in‑life health insurance products. This role is all about lifting quality, consistency and outcomes across the portfolio — keeping products relevant, compliant and valuable over time.

If you love turning complexity into clarity, setting high standards, and driving continuous improvement that sticks — you’ll thrive here.

Key Responsibilities Include

• Own the performance of our product portfolio and take accountability for the health, maturity and sustainability of our in‑life products — ensuring they continue to deliver for members and the business over time.
• Set the standard for how we manage products
• Define and embed clear product standards, governance and ways of working that lift consistency, simplify decision-making, and reduce risk.
• Drive continuous improvement at scale
• Identify and lead opportunities to simplify products, improve value, and strengthen performance.
• Lead product lifecycle management
• Oversee how products are monitored, maintained, optimised and evolved — ensuring we actively manage performance rather than react to issues.
• Keep products compliant and future-fit
• Ensure our products remain aligned to regulatory requirements, operational realities, and changing customer needs — without overcomplicating the offer.
• Create clarity on performance and risk
• Lift visibility of product performance, risks, and trade-offs so better, faster decisions can be made at all levels.

What You Bring

You’ll be the person who ensures our products keep delivering — for members and for the organisation — by raising the bar on quality, discipline and continuous improvement across the portfolio.

You’ll Also Bring

• Strong product management experience in a complex, regulated environment
• A track record improving in‑life products — not just launching new ones
• Confidence setting standards and running governance without creating bureaucracy
• Sharp stakeholder skills: you can influence, align and get decisions made
• A practical, data-informed mindset and a bias for action

Our values who we are and what’s important to us.

Ngākau nui. Āhurutanga. Tikanga.

Join a team that's always there, always real, always true. If you thrive in a purpose-driven, diverse and supportive culture, we think you’ll love working with us.

What We Offer You

• five days of wellbeing leave per year (pro-rated for part-timers)
• health insurance for you and your immediate whānau
• life insurance cover and discounts on pet and travel insurance
• extra parental leave benefits and financial wellbeing support
• ability to participate in our workplace wellbeing programme.

But that’s not all. If you need more time to support your whānau, we offer work-life balance, a hybrid environment and each year you have a volunteer day to spend with your team contributing to a cause or community of your choice.

This role is Auckland based, and while we appreciate interest from candidates in other locations, we’re unfortunately not able to consider remote options for this position.

We are proud to have taken the Pride Pledge, reflecting our commitment to inclusion and belonging. We also facilitate an active, employee‑led Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Forum, which includes our Rainbow Network, Māori Network, Pasifika Collective, and Neurodiversity and Whānau Support networks.

If you share our commitment and passion, we'd love to hear from you.