{"id":3515070,"url":"https://alion.io/job/guard-risk-data-ai-product-manager","title":"Data & AI Product Manager","company":{"id":3023500,"name":"Guard Risk","domain":"guardrisk.co.za","url":"https://alion.io/company/guardrisk","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"eRecruit","truth_index":null},"role":"Product","role_family":"Product","seniority":null,"employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Sandton, South Africa"],"countries":["ZA"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":26000,"max_usd":59000,"period":"year","method":"role_country_seniority_unknown","sample_n":14},"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Agile","optional":true},{"name":"AI Agents","optional":true},{"name":"Azure","optional":true},{"name":"Azure DevOps","optional":true},{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":true}],"status":"closed","first_seen_at":"2026-10-30T10:00:41Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-30","last_verified_at":"2026-11-09T00:14:46Z","board_verified":false,"closed_at":"2026-11-09T00:14:46Z","days_open":9,"trust":{"level":"not_scored","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":9},"description":"Introduction\nGuardrisk is the undisputed market leader in cell captive insurance and risk solutions. We are renowned for our innovative approach to cell captive structures and other alternative risk transfer solutions for our clients. Guardrisk offers clients custom designed cover and is registered in South Africa as an insurer for all statutory classes of non-life and life insurance business.\nDisclaimer\nAs an applicant, please verify the legitimacy of this job advert on our company career page.Role Purpose\nOwn a portfolio of data and AI products within the Data CoE, from discovery through rollout, adoption, value realisation and continuous improvement, built on trusted, AI-ready data.\nWhat makes this different\nEmbedded with business teams, not waiting for requirements\nUnderstands how data is created, used and trusted in each business workflow\nDistinguishes stated requests from the underlying problem\nShapes data, analytics, ML and AI opportunities on Guardrisk’s data platform\nOwns data and AI product vision, roadmap, backlog, releases and lifecycle\nWorks closely enough to engineering to make credible trade-offs\nDrives data and AI products into real operational use\nMonitors usage, value and feedback after launch\nConverts local needs into reusable, certified data and AI products where appropriate\nThis is closer to a Forward Deployed Product Manager than a traditional internal Product Owner. The role is embedded with stakeholders and accountable for product outcomes, deployment into production, adoption and turning operational reality into product direction.\nExpected seniority: A mature hire who has already taken complex data, analytics or AI products from problem discovery into production and adoption.\nScope boundary: AI and automation in the Data CoE means solutions whose inputs, outputs or runtime sit on Guardrisk’s data platform and data products, such as analytics, reporting, data operations, models, insight agents and natural language access to data. Automating business workflows owned by a business unit, such as claims handling, underwriting intake or finance operations, sits outside this role and is coordinated through the CDTO Front Door.\nRequirements\nQualifications\nBachelor’s degree in Business, Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Data/Analytics or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.\nSignificant product-management experience with data, analytics or AI-enabled products.\nDemonstrated experience taking complex products from problem discovery and definition through delivery and into operational adoption.\nStrong product discovery skills, including the ability to work with users and stakeholders to understand workflows, problems and desired outcomes.\nExperience developing product strategies, roadmaps, prioritised backlogs, requirements and release plans.\nStrong understanding of the product lifecycle and experience managing products beyond initial launch.\nExperience defining product success measures and using adoption, usage, customer/user feedback and business outcomes to drive product decisions.\nSufficient technical fluency to work credibly with data engineering, architecture, data science and AI teams and understand the implications of technical trade-offs.\nStrong stakeholder-management skills and the ability to bring together people with different business and technical perspectives.\nStrong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to make complex problems understandable and create clarity from ambiguity.\nCommercial and analytical thinking, with the ability to prioritise opportunities according to expected value rather than stakeholder volume or enthusiasm.\nGuardrisk’s data product model makes lifecycle management substantive rather than administrative. Data products have named consumers, dependencies, adoption metrics and a certification level (Certified, Fit for purpose or Provisional), and move through Idea ? Discovery ? Build ? Live ? Deprecated ? Retired.\nPreferred Qualifications\nExperience managing data products, analytics products, ML models or AI products, particularly where the end product changes a business decision.\nExperience working in a mature digital product environment such as digital banking, fintech, telecommunications, e-commerce, SaaS or data and analytics consulting.\nExperience operating in a forward-deployed or highly business-embedded product role, working directly with users while remaining closely connected to engineering teams.\nUnderstanding of modern data-product concepts, including data quality, lineage, semantics, certification, APIs, analytical products and reusable data assets.\nPractical understanding of machine learning, generative AI and agentic AI, sufficient to shape AI products on data and spot where better data unlocks AI value.\nFamiliarity with agile product-development practices and tools such as Azure DevOps or equivalent product-delivery platforms.\nExperience managing a portfolio of related data and AI products, not only a single application or delivery project.\nExperience establishing product adoption, usage and value measurement and using those measures to make investment, improvement or retirement decisions.\nExperience turning business-specific requirements into scalable or reusable data and AI products that can serve multiple user groups.\nExperience in financial services, insurance or another regulated environment.\nExperience working across organisational boundaries where successful delivery requires coordination between business, product, engineering, architecture and governance teams.\nDuties & Responsibilities\nWe’re building practical Data & AI capability within Guardrisk’s Data CoE, turning real business problems into trusted data products, analytics and AI solutions that people actually use.\nWe’re looking for an experienced Data & AI Product Manager to own data and AI products from initial discovery through delivery, rollout, adoption, value realisation and continuous improvement.\nThis is not a traditional internal Product Owner role where requirements arrive ready to be put into a backlog. You will work closely with business teams, understand how decisions are made and where data is created and used today, uncover the real problems behind requests, and determine where data products, analytics or AI can make a meaningful difference.\nYou will then bring business and technology teams together around a clear product vision, make prioritisation and scope trade-offs, and stay accountable after launch to ensure products are adopted and deliver the intended value.\nWithin Guardrisk’s Data CoE, the Product Manager runs the CoE’s data door. Requests come in through the CDTO Front Door, and once they’re routed to the CoE, the Product Manager shapes, sizes, prioritises and owns them, ensuring products address business needs, support adoption and deliver measurable value.\nWhat you will do\nBuild trusted relationships with business teams and work alongside them to understand their processes, decisions, pain points and opportunities.\nLead product and problem discovery, distinguishing a stakeholder’s initial request from the underlying business need.\nTranslate business needs into compelling opportunities for data products, analytics, ML models and AI solutions on Guardrisk’s data platform.\nDevelop clear product visions, strategies and value cases that connect investment to business outcomes.\nOwn a portfolio of data and AI products and maintain coherent roadmaps across discovery, build, launch, growth, improvement and eventual retirement.\nOwn and prioritise product backlogs, balancing business value, strategic fit, reuse, risk, dependencies and delivery effort.\nDefine product requirements, outcomes and acceptance criteria with enough clarity for data engineering, analytics and AI teams to deliver effectively.\nWork closely with data engineers, architects, analysts, data scientists and AI engineers to make informed trade-offs between user need, technical complexity, speed and long-term reuse.\nPlan releases and work with business teams to drive rollout, adoption and operational change, rather than treating technical deployment as the finish line.\nDefine how product success will be measured and monitor usage, adoption, feedback and realised value after launch.\nUse evidence from live products to determine what should be improved, expanded, consolidated or retired.\nIdentify where a requirement initially raised by one part of the business can become a reusable, certified data or AI product rather than a one-off solution.\nMaintain clear product documentation and ensure stakeholders understand product direction, priorities, decisions and progress.\nHelp establish mature data product-management disciplines across Guardrisk’s growing Data CoE.\nMake sure data products are AI-ready, meaning documented, governed, certified and fit for use by the analytics, ML and AI solutions that consume them.\nWork with Technology, and with the teams across Guardrisk that lead process automation and enterprise AI, so that trusted data products are consumed rather than rebuilt.\nEach product is linked to a recorded business use case. The Product Manager shapes CoE demand by resolving overlaps, product dependencies, sizing and delivery alignment. The role focuses on data and AI products built on Guardrisk’s data platform. Automation of business workflows owned by individual business units is led elsewhere in Guardrisk.\nCompetencies\nCore Outputs\nData and AI product portfolio and strategy\nProduct visions and value cases\nDiscovery findings and workflow maps\nProduct roadmaps and prioritised backlogs\nProduct requirements and acceptance criteria\nRelease, rollout and adoption plans\nUsage and value dashboards\nCertification status for each data product (Certified, Fit for purpose, Provisional)\nContinuous-improvement priorities","description_format":"text","description_chars":9860,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Life insurance"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Financial Services","Property & Casualty Insurance","Life Insurance & Annuities"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-30T10:00:41Z"},{"event":"close","at":"2026-11-09T00:14:46Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":null,"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/guard-risk-data-ai-product-manager","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/guard-risk-data-ai-product-manager.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-09T02:59:10Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":695,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-10T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":3023500},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=3023500"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fguard-risk-data-ai-product-manager"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":2,"usd":0.2},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fguard-risk-data-ai-product-manager"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fguard-risk-data-ai-product-manager"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/guard-risk-data-ai-product-manager\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fguard-risk-data-ai-product-manager"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":3515070}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"guardrisk.co.za","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":3515070},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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