Divisional Director – Casualty Claims

Howden is a collective – a group of talented and passionate people all around the world. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and no-limits mindset, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team comprised of 18,000 employees spanning over 100 countries.

People join Howden for many different reasons, but they stay for the same one: our culture. It’s what sets us apart, and the reason our employees have been turning down headhunters for years. Whatever your priorities – work / life balance, career progression, sustainability, volunteering – you’ll find like-minded people driving change at Howden.

The Role

To lead the Care and Bioscience/Clinical Trials claims teams in London and Milton Keynes and to deal with own assigned, larger clients, ensuring excellent and efficient client service in relation to claims. Involved in winning new business, including being part of tenders, alongside the placing team. They are regarded as a senior member of the claims department, contributing towards functional operating plans and strategic vision.

Key Responsibilities

1. Delivers high quality advice to the business in a practical and commercially focused way in relation to their area of subject matter expertise.
2. Responsible for implementing operational plans for their team in order to achieve business goals.
3. Drives business performance through others, facilitating effective planning, control and support mechanisms to ensure delivery of the business plan in line with stakeholder expectations.
4. Manages assigned projects and contributes to other projects as required.
5. Provides relevant management information to senior management.
6. Contributes to the strategic vision for their area of specialism.
7. Develops strong relationships with markets and contributes to the identification of opportunities and business growth.
8. Deals with producing brokers and clients on larger more complex accounts and claims, ensuring their needs are best met.
9. Creates comprehensive claims documents.
10. Ensures up to date records are maintained at all times on the Group systems.
11. Interprets instructions and issues arising, and then implements actions according to policies and procedures.
12. Acts as a senior referral escalation point for their team to ensure that decisions and actions taken are appropriate and any queries raised by key clients are handled effectively.
13. Provides for expert level technical oversight of high exposure claims to ensure files are investigated, evaluated, reserved and managed in a timely manner.
14. Drives a superior claims experience and ensures continuous improvement through the development and implementation of initiatives involving people, processes and technology.
15. Applies advanced expertise to review relevant documentation and present claims to underwriters, ensuring appropriate feedback/information and updates are provided to clients and insurers.
16. Leads Claims input for new business and tenders as required.
17. Takes the lead in ensuring the team’s claims data capture is accurate and relevant.
18. Leads data projects across the department and ensures the team is delivering on those.
19. Monitors the administrative processes to ensure workflows, and systems are compliant and meet agreed service levels.
20. Implements and supervises internal claims procedures, risk management and regulatory requirements, ensuring these are followed and any deviations identified and investigated.
21. Works in conjunction with Operations to support and implement Shared Services / Milton Keynes processing functions.

Skills & Attributes

1. Extensive experience of working within the insurance environment in a Claims capacity.
2. Experience of working as a claims specialist within the Lloyds and international markets.
3. Experience of working in a high pressure, multitask environment.
4. Has some experience of managing and coaching others in a team.
5. Detailed knowledge and understanding of the insurance sector.
6. Strong awareness of the regulatory environment and requirements along with how these impact on the Operating Entity’s activities as well as their own business unit.
7. Strong understanding of Operating Entity / Group objectives and how own role/team contributes to these.
8. Able to supervise and delegate work.
9. Customer focused approach and ensures their team adopts these behaviours.
10. Is confident and has good communication skills including, written, verbal and face to face.
11. Able to work independently and use initiative.
12. Strong negotiation skills.
13. Analytical and able to make good decisions.
14. Able to contribute to and develop operating strategies for the claims function.
15. Able to work flexibly to achieve tight deadlines/targets.
16. Reacts positively to change.
17. Calm and resilient under pressure.
18. An ability to learn and share learning.
19. Coaching skills and the ability to manage more junior members of the team.
20. Computer literate.

Qualifications

1. Attainment of the LLMIT(Lloyd’s and London Market Introductory Test).
2. Working towards or has attained the ACII.
3. Strong understanding of Liability and Property insurance required.

What do we offer in return?

A career that you define. At Howden, we value diversity – there is no one Howden type. Instead, we’re looking for individuals who share the same values as us:

1. Our successes have all come from someone brave enough to try something new.
2. We support each other in the small everyday moments and the bigger challenges.
3. We are determined to make a positive difference at work and beyond.

Reasonable adjustments

We're committed to providing reasonable accommodations at Howden to ensure that our positions align well with your needs. Besides the usual adjustments such as software, IT, and office setups, we can also accommodate other changes such as flexible hours* or hybrid working*.

If you're excited by this role but have some doubts about whether it’s the right fit for you, send us your application – if your profile fits the role’s criteria, we will be in touch to assist in helping to get you set up with any reasonable adjustments you may require.

*Not all positions can accommodate changes to working hours or locations. Reach out to your Recruitment Partner if you want to know more.