About us:

Founded in the UK in 2018, YuLife has scaled into a global employee benefits business, with an initial focus on group protection. We operate across the UK, US, Japan and South Africa, and are backed by leading global venture capital funds.

YuLife is a tech-driven insurance company on a mission to transform insurance into a force for good. We work with employers and insurer partners to deliver group insurance products that people actually engage with, helping shift the industry from claims-led to prevention-focused outcomes.

Our model combines insurance, technology, and behavioural science to create hyper-engaging insurance experiences. Through our award-winning platform, employees interact with their insurance every day, building healthier habits while staying protected. This engagement benefits everyone involved. Individuals are more proactive about their health, employers see stronger engagement and retention, and insurers benefit from improved risk profiles over time.

At YuLife, we are building a game-changing insurance business with a clear commercial edge and a strong sense of purpose. Our culture reflects that ambition. We are a people-first, values-led company that believes great products are built by teams who feel trusted, supported, and inspired by the mission they are working on.

If you want to help reinvent a global industry, work on products with real-world impact, and build alongside smart, kind, driven people, YuLife is a place where you can do meaningful work and grow with the business.

YuLife South Africa and our AI-native focus:

YuLife South Africa has been live for three years, and the adoption we've seen in this market has been remarkable. In one of the world's most concentrated and established insurance markets, we've built a recognised brand from scratch and proven that the YuLife model travels. Locally, we partner with GuardRisk and global reinsurer Munich Re, giving us the carrier strength, regulatory credibility and reinsurance backing to build at pace in the SA market.

This is a role that will meaningfully help reshape the way people experience insurance and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the right individual to be part of a global shift: from insurance as a grudge purchase to insurance as a meaningful, trusted partner on your life journey.

Across the group, YuLife is going AI-native. The thesis is simple, when engagement, prevention, intelligence, risk reduction and commercial value are the chain that makes insurance valuable, AI is the multiplier that makes every link sharper. That shows up in how we build products, how we underwrite and price risk, how we serve members and employers, and how we run the business day to day. For someone coming out of a legacy insurance environment, this is one of the bigger drawcards: you get to lead growth at a company that is genuinely changing how the work gets done internally, not just how the product looks externally.

The role:

This is the most senior commercial role in YuLife South Africa, and a critical seat at a moment of real momentum. We're looking for a player-coach who will own the SA growth story end to end: setting and executing the growth strategy across distribution, partnerships and new channels; leading and growing the BDM team; personally owning the strategic broker and corporate relationships that matter most; and partnering with the SA MD on the wider business development agenda - including strategic partnership conversations.

You'll be one of the senior faces of YuLife in the SA market - equally comfortable in a broker boardroom, a partnership negotiation, a member-employer pitch, and a leadership review. You'll report into the Managing Director, South Africa and work closely with UK leadership across product, marketing and operations.

You'll also work inside a company that takes AI seriously as an internal operating advantage. We use it across the business - distribution support, claims, member engagement, operations and reporting, to multiply what our teams can do.

Day to day responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Owning the SA growth strategy across all channels: broker, partnerships, digital and any new channels worth opening up

• Driving the wider business development agenda: new strategic partnerships, distribution innovation, ecosystem plays, value-chain participation and adjacent revenue lines

• Leading, coaching and growing the BDM team: hiring, target-setting, performance management and career development, including embedding AI-first ways of working into how the team operates

• Personally owning a panel of strategic broker, consultancy and corporate client relationships, and turning those into long-term partnerships

• Owning the SA growth and revenue forecast and cadence: pipeline reviews, deal qualification, win/loss analysis and accurate reporting into the leadership team

• Partnering with SA marketing on demand generation, brand presence in SA, broker events, thought leadership and lead pipeline

• Identifying and opening up new revenue streams - embedded distribution, broker-tech partnerships, association and affinity channels

• Feeding market intelligence (competitor moves, pricing dynamics, broker sentiment, demand signals) back into product and pricing

• Acting as the senior commercial point of contact for escalated broker, client and partner queries

• Representing YuLife at industry events, conferences, broker forums and partnership conversations

The specific knowledge we need:

• A deep understanding of the SA Group Risk and employee benefits landscape, with a current, properly established network across brokers, consultancies, corporates and adjacent partners

• Track record of consistently hitting commercial targets, both as an individual contributor and as a growth, revenue or sales leader

• Strong technical grasp of group risk products (Group Life, Income Protection, Critical Illness, Disability, Group Funeral) and pension/umbrella fund mechanics. Familiarity with adjacent SA employee benefits products like Gap Cover and primary healthcare/health insurance is a plus

• Excellent presentation and negotiation skills with broker principals, corporate decision-makers and partnership counterparts

• Strong commercial judgement: able to spot the opportunities worth pursuing and walk away from the ones that aren't

• Comfortable challenging brokers, partners and clients respectfully when it matters, and equally comfortable being challenged in return

• A coaching mindset. You've built people up before, and you enjoy it

• Experience working closely with product, marketing and underwriting teams to shape pricing and proposition

The ideal candidate will have:

• 12+ years in employee benefits, Group Risk or financial services growth and revenue, with at least 5 years in a sales, growth or revenue leadership role

• RE5 (and ideally RE1) qualified, with Class of Business 3 & 4 (Long Term Insurance and Pension Fund Benefits)

• An established, current network of broker, consultancy, corporate and partner contacts in the SA market

• Demonstrable history of building and growing growth or distribution teams: hiring, ramping, and getting people productive quickly

• Strong commercial fluency: comfortable with growth and revenue forecasting, channel economics, pipeline analytics and unit economics

• A genuine bias for action and the energy to scale a high-growth business in SA

• Energised by working in an AI-first operating environment rather than a legacy insurance model. Comfortable using AI tools personally, and excited to lead a team that uses them to multiply what it can do

• Curious about new channels, technology and adjacent growth ideas: this isn't a steady-state role

• Comfort working in a lean, high-growth InsurTech rather than a large corporate insurer. You'll need to operate without all the scaffolding of a big firm

• Strong organisation and discipline. You set the standard for the team

• A team player who can also operate independently, and is happy to roll up sleeves when needed

• Excited by the wider YuLife story: a category-defining product, a refreshed global strategy, an AI-first operating model, and a SA business with a credible path to category leadership

What you'll get:

We like to give more than we take, so here are some of our benefits:

• Competitive base salary

• Performance-related short-term incentive (STI)

• Long-term incentive plan (LTIP) with equity upside

• Medical Benefit: Momentum any plan, max to R25 000 pa

• Group Cover: GLA 6 x annual salary. 75% of salary with 2 month waiting period for a term of 24 months

• Pension fund: 3% of gross salary as Cost to Company, further % contribution made by employee

• 25 days annual leave + 1 Love Being Yu day (e.g. your birthday, moving house, anything else that is for Yu) + 13 days SA Public Holiday leave

Additional Perks:

• Access to the YuLife app (which includes loads of wellbeing rewards, discounts and exclusive offers, plus access to Meditopia and Fiit)

• R400 per month towards your "be your best Yu" budget

• Generous parental leave policies

• Unlimited professional coaching sessions with More Happi

• Remote working package; includes laptop, desk, chair etc.

• Flexible working

• Access to co-working space to remain connected with the YuCrew