Senior Retrocession Specialist (12 Month FTC)

The Ceded Reinsurance department at AXA XL plays a critical role in shaping and executing the reinsurance strategy, while ensuring the effective administration of reinsurance treaties throughout their lifecycle. The Ceded Re team operates under the leadership of the AXA XL Chief Underwriting Officer. The Retrocession Operations team is responsible for the administration of all retrocession covers placed within AXA XL Re. The team is composed of a Business As Usual team, responsible for contract set-up, bordereaux settlement, cash flow management and regulatory reporting, and a project team currently focused on the implementation of a new ceded reinsurance operating system.

This fixed-term role will form part of the Retrocession Operations project team and will support the successful delivery of the new ceded reinsurance operating system. The role is focused on supporting system testing, User Acceptance Testing, data and contract reconciliation, issue resolution, go-live readiness and post go-live stabilisation, working closely with project, operations, finance, data and segment teams.

As a Senior Retrocession Specialist, you will contribute to the end-to-end delivery of the Retrocession workstream within the system implementation programme. You will help ensure that retrocession contracts, balances, bordereaux, claims, data feeds and operational processes are accurately migrated, tested, reconciled and ready for go-live. The role requires a robust operational understanding of reinsurance, attention to detail, proactive issue management and the ability to work effectively across multiple stakeholder groups.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Support system testing and User Acceptance Testing for retrocession processes, ensuring test scenarios are complete, clearly evidenced and aligned to business requirements.
• Validate contract set-up in the new system, including key treaty attributes, retrocession structures, financial terms and related operational data.
• Perform reconciliations of inbound data feeds, outbound feeds to the Reinsurance Data Warehouse and subsequent downstream feeds to the Finance Data Mart.
• Support the back-loading and reconciliation of legacy contracts, identifying data gaps, exceptions and remediation actions.
• Test and validate billing processes, including bordereaux creation, settlement outputs, cash flow impacts and related controls.
• Support claims monitoring activities and ensure claims-related data is accurately reflected in the new operating system.
• Track, investigate and elevate open items, defects and reconciliation breaks to support timely resolution ahead of go-live.
• Work closely with Reinsurance and Insurance Segment Teams, Finance, Data, Technology and project stakeholders to support delivery milestones.
• Contribute to go-live readiness activities, including operational readiness, handover to BAU, process documentation and post go-live stabilisation.

You will report to the Ceded Re Operations Journey Owner, who is responsible for the overall delivery of the project and reports to the Head of Ceded Re Operations.

What you’ll bring

We’re looking for someone who has these abilities and skills:

Required Skills and Abilities:

• 5–10 years’ experience within the reinsurance or insurance industry, ideally with exposure to ceded reinsurance, retrocession or technical accounting operations.
• Robust understanding of reinsurance contracts, treaty structures, bordereaux, settlements, claims and related operational processes.
• Delivery-focused mindset, with the ability to work through complex operational issues, propose practical solutions and drive items to closure.
• Effective written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to engage effectively with internal stakeholders across operations, finance, data, technology and segment teams.
• Highly organised, detail-oriented and able to manage multiple priorities, tight deadlines and dependencies in a project delivery environment.
• Proactive approach to issue identification, investigation, escalation and resolution, with the ability to use sound judgement in day-to-day activities.
• Outstanding MS Excel skills and confidence working with large volumes of data, reconciliations and exception reporting.

Desired Skills and Abilities:

• Experience supporting system implementation, User Acceptance Testing, data migration, operational readiness or process transition activities.
• Experience working with distributed or remote teams and collaborating across functions, geographies and time zones.