Kalai Kumaresan – journeying to become a tech leader of tomorrow

Kalai Kumaresan has been with us for nine years (and counting) – she started as a developer and dabbled in various roles such as Scrum Master, IT Product Manager and has recently been promoted to Tech Delivery Head for Global Digital Ecosystem (GDE) Asia Market, introducing tech enablement for the Singapore market. 

Today, she shares more about her IT/Tech career journey with Liberty Insurance – the exciting projects she has been involved in, as well as some skills she learned along the way, which helped spur her growth in Liberty Insurance. 

You’ve been with Liberty Insurance for nine years now. Tell us how your career journey has been like. 

I joined Liberty Insurance Singapore as a developer in 2013. Over the years, I have occupied various roles from developer, team lead, Scrum Master, IT PO Manager, supporting and introducing technology enablement for Singapore market and now for all 4 countries – Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam Thailand  

It’s been an interesting and fulfilling journey for me, which had given me huge opportunity to work with exceptional leaders, IT team, business partners and I was able to contribute in meaningful ways in every role and team that I was part of.  

Other than the many roles that I have undertaken, I would say that one of my biggest achievements in my career with Liberty is winning the President’s Award, which recognizes employees for their hard work, dedication and achievements.    
 

Tell us more about your current role. 

In my current role as Tech Delivery Head for Global Digital Ecosystem (GDE) Asia Market, my mission is to grow and equip the team with the right skills, resources and drive change to support business needs in a lean and agile operating model, particularly low touch and zero touch products.  

There will surely be challenges as I transition into my new role, similar to any internal or external job move but I look forward to the opportunities that lie ahead. I especially look forward to working together with the teams from Vietnam and Thailand, which have been added to my portfolio. 
 

What was the most challenging initiative you were involved in? 

The most challenging yet exciting initiative that I took part in was the InsureMyTesla SG project.  

As the exclusive insurance provider to sell Tesla car insurance policies directly to Tesla customers, we were tasked to design a brand-new digital journey to make the insurance sales journey easy and seamless, which we had to deliver within a short timeframe.  

This gave me the exposure to other teams and ways of working as we collaborated closely with cross-function teams to find efficient ways to build a solution quickly by reusing and leveraging key solutions that are already built within Liberty. The collaboration helped to unblock challenges, solve problems, and create solutions based on each other’s knowledge.  

This project pushed my program management and leadership skills to next level, which is a shift from what I used to do. However, it drew some parallels with principles I’ve dealt with in the past like establishing leadership presence, coaching, negotiating, seeking help, looking at the big picture and executing to deliver the product on time. It was a challenging project but it was surely rewarding, not only in terms of results but professional growth. 
 

Ready to take a leap and shape your career like Kalai? We’re looking to have you onboard our growing tech in Asia! Check out our careers page for opportunities to work with us. 

For opportunities based in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Vietnam, click here: https://libertyinsurance.applytojob.com/  
 
For opportunities based in India, click here: https://careersindia-libertymutual.icims.com/jobs/search?ss=1&searchKeyword=technology&searchRelation=keyword_all