Senior Manager, Sustainable Investment Strategy & Oversight

This is fundamentally a strategy-and-oversight role rather than a hands-on portfolio role. You would act as a key partner to the Regional Director of Investment Management (Equities and Sustainable Investment), helping set direction for AIA's Sustainable Investment agenda while owning the design and continuous improvement of the Sustainable Investment Operating Model. In practice that means translating AIA's corporate sustainability commitments, including climate targets, into workable investment frameworks that Business Units and Asset Management Companies can actually execute against. A large share of your time would go to data and reporting. You would define group-wide data requirements, drive an integrated internal and external reporting strategy, safeguard the integrity of public disclosures, and coordinate submissions such as the Sustainability Report, Annual Report and UN PRI reporting. Reconciliation of figures against internal systems and external benchmarks sits squarely with you. You would also contribute to stewardship and integration agendas, helping embed sustainability factors into research and investment platforms, supporting thematic engagement initiatives with investee companies, and administering the sustainability components of the Investment Governance Framework. Orchestrating forums like the Group Investment Committee and the Sustainable Investment Management Working Group rounds out the strategic coordination element.

The most obvious learning curve is sustainable investment practice at genuine institutional scale. AIA invests across asset classes, multiple Asset Management Companies and 18 markets, so you would gain exposure to a far wider range of ESG integration and stewardship approaches than most single-firm roles allow. Working alongside the Listed Equity Research and Stewardship COE would deepen your understanding of how engagement with investee companies is planned, executed and governed. You would also build serious expertise in the reporting and regulatory side. Steering a group-wide data strategy, reconciling figures for public disclosure and preparing UN PRI submissions would sharpen your fluency in frameworks such as TCFD, ISSB and evolving Asian regulatory expectations. Because the role spans the Group Investment Committee, internal audit and the Board, you would develop the political and communication craft needed to influence very senior stakeholders. Exposure to platforms like FactSet RMS, BlackRock Aladdin and ISS ProxyExchange is explicitly referenced, suggesting hands-on familiarity with the tooling that underpins institutional investment oversight, a marketable skill in itself. Longer term, this combination of technical ESG knowledge, governance experience and senior stakeholder exposure positions you well for head-of-sustainability or CIO-adjacent roles.

The posting asks for six to nine years of related experience, most likely gathered in financial services, asset management, insurance or a professional services firm. What matters more than the exact sector is the nature of that experience: change management, business analysis, regulatory and market trend work, and project delivery. This is not a first ESG job: it assumes you already understand how institutional investment firms operate and where sustainability fits. Technically, you would need to be comfortable with large data sets and able to produce analysis, insights and recommendations that stand up to scrutiny from CIOs and auditors. Familiarity with research and asset management platforms such as FactSet, Aladdin and ISS would help considerably. Strong written and spoken English is essential given the reporting and regulatory drafting involved. The softer skills are arguably the differentiator. The role demands exceptional advocacy and diplomacy, the ability to handle sensitive, sometimes confidential conversations and to influence senior stakeholders without formal authority over them. AIA also signals a preference for someone creative, self-directed and comfortable juggling multiple shifting priorities, with multimedia skills seen as a bonus.

Lead with governance and data, not passion. This is a role where AIA needs evidence that you can run an operating model, reconcile numbers and survive an audit, so your CV should foreground concrete examples of frameworks you have built or improved, reporting cycles you have owned, and instances where you influenced investment or executive decisions. Quantify where possible: how many entities, what data volumes, which committees. Because the role explicitly reaches into the Group Investment Committee, internal audit and the Board, prepare to demonstrate influence without authority. A compelling cover letter would narrate one or two situations where you shifted a senior stakeholder's position on a sustainability matter, ideally in an investment context. The regulatory and industry-forum dimension is distinctive to AIA, given its pan-Asian footprint. Referencing specific frameworks such as UN PRI, ISSB or Asian regulatory developments, and showing awareness of the tension between group-level consistency and local market variance, would signal that you understand the actual texture of the job rather than the generic ESG narrative.

The role sits squarely in the 'S' and 'G' as much as the 'E'. AIA's corporate purpose of helping people live Healthier, Longer, Better Lives means its sustainability agenda leans heavily on health and financial inclusion alongside climate. The investment oversight angle suggests a focus on how AIA's assets (across equities, fixed income and other classes) align with climate targets and broader commitments, and how that alignment is measured and disclosed. A large part of the work would centre on reporting integrity: ensuring that sustainability data flowing up from Business Units and Asset Management Companies is consistent, auditable and suitable for public disclosure. This connects directly to regulatory expectations and to AIA's UN PRI commitments. Stewardship is the other pillar, supporting engagement with investee companies on thematic sustainability issues, which is where the environmental and social impact of the portfolio is most directly shaped. Underlying all of this is governance. Administering the sustainability components of the Investment Governance Framework, and orchestrating the Group Investment Committee and structured dialogues with Risk, Compliance and Audit, means this role helps determine whether AIA's sustainable investment claims are substantiated.

The hardest part is likely the sheer complexity of the operating environment. Sustainability data arrives from many Business Units and Asset Management Companies, each with its own systems, definitions and maturity levels. Establishing consistency across that value chain, and reconciling it against external benchmarks, is a genuinely difficult data and governance problem, and one where errors become visible in public disclosures. A second challenge is influence. The role carries oversight responsibility but typically no direct line authority over the investment professionals whose behaviour it seeks to shape. Persuading CIOs and portfolio managers to embed sustainability factors into mandates requires credibility, patience and a strong evidence base. The emphasis on diplomacy and handling confidential topics suggests the environment can be politically sensitive. Finally, the regulatory environment across Asia is evolving quickly and unevenly. Keeping AIA's group-level reporting coherent while individual markets move at different speeds, and while sustainability frameworks themselves continue to shift, means the role operates in permanent ambiguity. Those who need stable, fully defined parameters may find this uncomfortable.

A day might begin with data work, reviewing sustainability metrics coming in from Business Units or Asset Management Companies, checking figures against internal systems, or refining the requirements that feed AIA's group-wide reporting. Because reporting cycles are periodic, the intensity of this work would ebb and flow, spiking ahead of disclosure deadlines for the Sustainability Report, Annual Report or UN PRI submission. Much of the middle of the day would likely be meetings. You might brief or support the Regional Director, convene the Sustainable Investment Management Working Group, prepare materials for the Group Investment Committee, or join a structured dialogue with Group Sustainability or Internal Audit. Between these, there would be smaller working sessions with the Sustainable Investment Integration team or the Stewardship COE to progress specific engagement initiatives or metric definitions. There would also be an external-facing dimension (contributing to regulatory consultations, industry surveys or forum participation) plus ad hoc requests for input on investment sustainability disclosures. The variety is high, and the ability to switch context quickly is clearly part of the job description.

The visibility is the standout feature. A role that regularly engages the Group Investment Committee, the Board and senior CIOs across 18 markets places you close to decision-making in a way most sustainability roles do not. That exposure tends to accelerate progression, whether towards a regional head of sustainable investment, a broader group sustainability leadership position, or a move into investment strategy more generally. The skill set developed here is also unusually transferable. Group-wide data strategy, regulatory reporting, operating model design and stewardship governance are precisely the capabilities asset managers, insurers and regulators are competing for as Asian sustainability requirements tighten. Building a track record of auditable, well-governed disclosures is a durable credential. Within AIA itself, the pan-Asian structure offers lateral moves into Business Unit or Asset Management Company roles, potentially with a more operational or investment-adjacent flavour. The role's advocacy dimension, representing AIA externally in regulatory and industry forums, also builds a professional network that extends well beyond the firm.

Internally, your closest relationship would be with the Regional Director of Investment Management (Equities and Sustainable Investment), whom you support directly. Beyond that, you would interact regularly with the Sustainable Investment Integration team, the Listed Equity Research and Stewardship COE, and colleagues in Group Sustainability, Risk, Compliance and Audit, often through structured forums such as the Quarterly Structured Dialogue and Quarterly Connect with Internal Audit. A second tier of stakeholders sits in the Business Units and Asset Management Companies, including CIOs or their equivalents. These are the people whose investment mandates and day-to-day practices the role seeks to steer, so the interactions are advisory and diplomatic rather than directive. Expect a mix of guiding, cajoling and occasionally challenging. Externally, you would represent AIA before regulators, industry associations, market participants and initiatives such as the UN Principles for Responsible Investment, and respond to consultations and surveys. Senior governance bodies (the Group Investment Committee and its sub-committees, and ultimately the Group Board) form the apex of the stakeholder map, receiving the outputs of the frameworks and reporting you help maintain.