Function / Area: Finance
Reporting to: AVP Financial Controller
Position Summary
The position will take charge of managing, motivating and developing experienced accounting teams: leading the monthly, quarterly and annual underwriting results for the Syndicate and company; and the other leading strategic delivery of finance transformation.
This person will be a key senior liaison point in Finance, working with other Finance functions, Actuarial, Reinsurance and IT senior stakeholders to forge relationships which will form the foundation of collaborative working practices. Their drive and energy will lead to significant enhancements in financial controls, all aspects of financial close, and efficient delivery and prioritisation of system changes.
This role will be able to perform meaningful analysis of the technical underwriting result from an income statement and balance sheet perspective, identifying any anomalies and opportunities to improve accounting practices, and championing their two teams to put initiatives into practice.
Key Responsibilities
Leadership
- Leadership position responsible for management and motivation of two teams of accountants; who will look to this role for coaching, career development and technical expertise.
- Part of the Finance leadership team, proactively seeking opportunities with other CFO functions to leverage close process improvements impacting Tax, Treasury, FP&A and Credit Control.
- Risk and control owner collaborating with Financial Control team to design and implement financial controls, and urgently identifying and remediating control exceptions.
- Acts as a key point of contact for the CFO and AVP on financial close matters in reporting and analysing the entities’ underwriting results at a group and individual entity level.
- Leads the team in developing, enhancing and automating required financial systems, processes and controls.
- Works closely with the external auditors in the provision and explanation of all relevant information and schedules.
- Ownership and development of all financial controls, reconciliations and schedules related to technical account balances including premiums, losses and acquisition costs.
- Works closely with the Application Support and IT infrastructure teams to ensure effective performance and maintenance of the financial systems environment.
Financial Close and Transformation activities
- Responsible for the timely and accurate production of the monthly, quarterly and annual underwriting results for the Syndicate and Company financial close.
- Conducts analytical review and commentary for financial results following initial review by close team, developing checkouts for each line, branch and legal entity.
- Ownership and development of all financial controls, reconciliations and schedules related to technical account balances including premiums, losses and acquisition costs.
- Drive continuous improvement of the financial close process activities with the aim of improving efficiency, review and controls related to the underwriting results production.
- Oversight of team managing finance transformation and automation projects, enabling the team to continue the enhancement of financial systems and processes.
- Ownership of the effective utilisation of the Phinsys suite of financial systems and data owner of MDS tables relating to financial data.
- Oversees and manages the team in making continuous improvements to automate manual journals in the financial system.
- Work with the IT Business Relationship Director to manage the relationship with the software provider of the financial systems.
Other Duties
- Spearhead continuous process improvement with key stakeholders who feed into the underwriting result, including Actuarial, Reinsurance and FP&A.
- Escalation point and authorised approver for IT tickets and change prioritisation, working collaboratively with IT Business Relationship Director and Application Support to troubleshoot systems issues and drive IT change management processes.
- Key escalation point for audit requests and queries, advocating their teams to develop complete, accurate and consistent datasets.
- UK and Europe point person for the Chicago head office technical accounting function, keeping them abreast of monthly close progress and mutually liaising on any projects or developments which impact either team.
- Comply with all applicable legal and regulatory requirements and ensure, at a level appropriate to Director position, that appropriate measures are in place to ensure this compliance for this role and for their teams.
- May perform additional duties as assigned.
Skills, Knowledge & Experience
- Experienced qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA) or qualified by experience with at least 10 years working in an insurance finance function
- Strong knowledge of insurance technical accounting (company market and Lloyd’s), reserving, reinsurance and related accounting principles
- Ability to analyse financial results against expectations in order to identify anomalies and, where necessary, areas for correction
- Ability to identify opportunities for process and control improvements, and to lead the charge with boldly driving and delivering change
- Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, including at a senior level, to persuade and challenge management in order to improve finance processes
- Excellent organisational and time management skills
- Experience of managing a team of ambitious accounting professionals
- Experience of leading and successfully delivering complex finance transformation programmes
- Demonstrates excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
- Collaborative and can-do attitude when troubleshooting and managing projects
- Accomplished and confident communication skills
- Ability to plan, organise and own role effectively
- Advanced Microsoft Office suite user skills
Additional Information
CNA Hardy is an equal opportunity employer.
The Company
CNA Hardy is a leading specialist commercial insurance provider for clients within the Lloyd’s and company markets. We offer a highly specialised and comprehensive portfolio of innovative and market leading products. Coverage is available to businesses of all sizes for domestic, international and global exposures.