Senior Expense Business Partner in London

Working within the Finance Business Partnering Department of a specialty (re)insurance group. This role is responsible for the expense management and reporting across all entities of the Chaucer group, and leading a team of 2 to achieve this.

The role's main responsibility is to set the group expense budget, present and agree it with the Chaucer Management Group, and then actively report against it. The role also includes ensuring accruals/prepayments are appropriately captured and expenses are recharged or allocated efficiently for all reporting purposes. The presentations should allow senior executives to clearly see the composition of expenses, understand the fixed and variable elements, review the challenges made, and understand the variances between periods, plans and forecasts. The role is client facing, with direct interaction with all budget holders, and presentation to senior executives. Effective strong relationships with those stakeholders will be essential.

• Budget Setting and Forecasting
  • Leading the production and review of the detailed annual budget and quarterly forecasts with budget holders
  • Challenging the budget setting and producing suitable analytics to support it
  • Presentations to senior executive of the budget, with suitable analysis to understand composition, review challenges made and understand variances. The presentations should also highlight key risk areas or relevant trending of expenses
• Quarterly GAAP Accounting and Reporting Process
  • Quarterly review with budget holders to ensure YTD expenditure, accrual/prepayment decisions, and updated forecasts are appropriate
  • Continually develop current suite of reports to provide senior management with improved insight into expense variances so that they can proactively manage expenses
  • Ensure all accounting policy adjustments are booked accurately and are transparent
  • Lead the legal entity charge process and continuously review and improve as appropriate
  • Continually review and improve budget holder expense reporting
  • Embed ultimate expense reporting into the BAU quarterly reporting
• Other Duties
  • Quarterly management information on underwriting year / Year of account
  • Lead the allocation process of approved budgets or forecasts down to the required class level for the purposes of management review on an underwriting year basis
  • Ensure the allocation process is transparent, well understood and agreed with the key stakeholders
  • Track the development of the ultimate expense forecasts, to ensure it is updated with actual experience and updated expectations
  • Ensure appropriate communication of any variances, through commentary and presentation at underwriting meetings
• Regulatory reporting
  • Lead the required expense reporting within the Syndicate Business Plan (SBF)
  • Lead the required cash flow expense reporting for SII technical provision projections
  • Respond to and assist auditors with review
  • Ensuring the cost centres, ledger structure / nominal account detail and budgeting and forecast expense models are all adequate and maintained to allow efficient and effective reporting

• Relevant Experience
  • Experience in preparing budgets and expense analyses
  • Experience in expense controls and processes
  • Management experience
  • Insurance industry exposure would be desirable
• Technical Skills
  • Essential: Advanced Excel, UKGAAP
  • Anaplan (desirable)
  • Knowledge of Oracle PeopleSoft (desirable)
  • Lloyd’s of London accounting knowledge (desirable)
• Education & Experience
  • Essential: Qualified accountant
• Personal Skills
  • Able to deliver results under tight deadlines, showing flexibility when required
  • Ability to delegate and monitor
  • Ability to work with other functions/departments
  • Strong sense of accountability and ownership of the work assigned
  • Emphasis on quality of the outputs produced
  • Strong analytical and report writing skills
  • Self-starter, requiring minimum supervision, with the ability to solve problems and find solutions
  • “Can do” attitude and willing to take more responsibilities
  • Strong communication skills at every level within the organisation
  • Team player

Chaucer is a leading insurance group at Lloyd’s, the world’s specialist insurance market. We help protect industries around the world from the risks they face. Our customers include major airlines, energy companies, shipping groups, global manufacturers and property groups.

Our headquarters are in London, and we have international offices in Bermuda, Copenhagen, Dubai and Singapore to be closer to our clients across the world. To learn more about us please visit our website.

Chaucer is committed to diversity, actively values difference and respects people regardless of the protected characteristics which are outlined in the Equality Act 2010 (UK legislation) as a result of the Equal Treatment Directive 2006 (EU legislation). A diverse workforce and an inclusive workplace are core to our success as a business and integral to our winning strategy and culture. We recruit from the widest available pool of talent, and our hiring, assessment and selection process is fair, free from bias and one which ensures we select the right person for the job, based on merit. We are committed to promoting a culture that actively values difference, and recognises that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect throughout their employment.

We are open to considering flexible working arrangements for all roles and encourage you to outline your needs during the interview process.