Group Claims Manager - Marine Freight in Basildon

Company Overview: Our client is a long-established global shipping and logistics group with a strong presence across Europe and North America, operating as a neutral transport intermediary and freight services provider. The organisation has grown steadily over multiple decades and now operates a wide international office network across numerous countries, supporting customers with multimodal transport solutions and associated documentation and compliance requirements. The Group's central claims function is UK-based and works closely with colleagues across Europe and North America, supporting several group entities and business lines.

The Role: This role leads the Group's central claims function, with responsibility for the end-to-end handling of freight transport liability and marine cargo-related claims across multiple modes of transport.

Key Responsibilities:

• Manage the Claims function and liaise with group offices, insurers, lawyers, surveyors and clients.
• Investigate and handle freight liability claims from first notification through to settlement, including negotiation, adjustment and recovery actions against third parties where applicable.
• Provide ongoing training to relevant staff and group offices on claims, risk and related topics.
• Produce progress, workflow and renewal statistics and reporting for senior stakeholders.
• Be proactive in systems development and continuous improvement of claims processes and controls.
• Negotiate and manage the Group freight liability insurance programme and support renewal activity.
• Provide advice and input on contracts (with group offices) where risk exposure or insurance issues may arise.
• Advise on risk types for higher-risk or higher-value cargoes and support monitoring of acceptance in line with internal prohibited/restricted cargo requirements.

Reporting Line & Stakeholder Management: The role reports into a senior claims leader based in North America and requires confident communication at board and senior management level.

Candidate Requirements: Applicants should be able to demonstrate extensive experience in shipping and transport liabilities, including freight transport and marine cargo insurance, carrier legal liabilities across all modes, warehousing/logistics exposures and broader risk management.

Technical Knowledge & Experience:

• Strong working knowledge of contract and carriage regimes relevant to multimodal transport (including CMR, Hague/Hague-Visby, Warsaw/Montreal, US COGSA and CIM), and familiarity with industry standard trading conditions (e.g., FIATA, BIFA, FTA and UKWA) and Incoterms.
• Experience with shipping documentation and practices, including Bills of Lading, air waybills, Letters of Credit and related supporting documentation.
• Ability to interpret insurance policy wordings and client/supplier contracts to identify coverage issues, including freight transport liability wordings and cargo clauses (including ICC and bespoke clauses).
• Knowledge of relevant UK insurance legislation and principles, including the Marine Insurance Act 1906 (as amended), Insurance Act 2015 and Third Parties (Rights Against Insurers) Act 2010.

Qualifications & Capability:

• Proven people management experience.
• Comfortable operating with senior stakeholders and influencing across multiple sites/functions.
• High competency with Microsoft 365 (Office) applications.
• Professional insurance qualification (e.g., ACII) and/or a law degree would be advantageous.

Location & Working Pattern: UK-based. The central claims team is based in the South East (Essex area), and the wider function works collaboratively with colleagues across Europe and North America. Working pattern and any required travel to be discussed.

Salary: Circa £70,000 pa