Manager, Business And Underwriting

The opportunity
MVI Life is building its life insurance operation in Vietnam from the ground up, and the New Business Unit sits at the centre of that build. As NBU Manager you lead the unit's administrative engine - case administration, requirement handling, third-party administrator and vendor coordination, correspondence and documentation - so that every submitted application moves to issuance accurately, on time and in good order, with a hands-on contribution to assessing straightforward cases within delegated authority when volumes peak. You will help set the operating standards, service levels and controls the unit will run on for years, rather than inherit them. It is a rare opportunity to design a new business operation instead of administering an existing one, in a company grounded in Japanese standards of precision, discipline and long-term commitment to its customers and to this market.
Responsibilities
· Lead the NBU administration team in delivering the day-to-day administrative work of the unit, ensuring cases move from receipt to policy issuance within agreed service levels and turnaround times.
· Allocate daily workload across the team, monitor case ageing and pending inventory, and re-prioritise resources to keep the pipeline clear during peak submission periods and campaign launches.
· Oversee case administration end to end: application intake and registration, document checking and indexing, data entry accuracy, e-KYC, pre-issuance verification call (PIVC) completion and quality, premium checking support, file completeness and record retention.
· Manage the pending and requirement cycle administratively - issue requirement notices, monitor pending inventory and ageing, and follow up with distribution and customers until outstanding documents and information are received and the case can be cleared.
· Act as the main operational contact for the third-party administrator and other outsourced service providers covering new business administration - data entry, scanning and indexing, printing and delivery of policy packs and correspondence: monitor service levels and output quality, verify invoices, and escalate service failures.
· Act as the primary point of contact for distribution, agency support and customer service on case status and pending cases; follow up promptly on pending applications, resolve escalations, and drive case placement to reduce not-taken-up (NTU) and cases withdrawn or closed before issuance.
· Prepare and complete case files for review, record decisions and requirements accurately in the system, and issue decision, requirement and other case correspondence to distribution and customers.
· Carry out basic underwriting assessment on standard, clean cases within the delegated authority granted to the role during peak volumes and coverage gaps, and refer any case outside that authority in line with the referral matrix.
· Own the accuracy and dispatch of NBU correspondence and documentation, including policy packs, welcome letters, notices and templates; maintain version control and ensure wording remains aligned with approved templates.
· Oversee new business money movement administration - premium suspense, initial premium allocation, refunds on declined, postponed or withdrawn cases, and reconciliation with Finance - within the agreed control framework.
· Maintain and improve NBU standard operating procedures, checklists, work instructions and user guidelines; identify manual steps that can be simplified, automated or absorbed into the system.
· Support system enhancements affecting NBU administration: raise and follow up on requirements and defects, participate in user acceptance testing, and roll out changes to the team.
· Perform quality checks on administrative output and issued policies, analyse recurring errors, and close gaps through coaching, procedure updates or system change.
· Produce daily and monthly NBU management information - production, pipeline, pending ageing, TAT and vendor performance - and flag bottlenecks and risks to management.
· Recruit, train, coach and supervise team members; set performance standards, build the team as volumes grow, and ensure adequate cross-training and back-up coverage.
· Ensure all NBU administration complies with insurance regulation, data privacy requirements, anti-money-laundering obligations and internal audit and control standards.