Head of Third Party Damage

Overview

Grade: 2

Reporting to: Head of Claims, ERS

Location: London

About us

ERS Syndicate 218 at Lloyds is managed by Starr. We are the UK's largest specialist motor insurer with an A+ rating and have been making motoring passions and livelihoods possible since 1946. We work exclusively with motor insurance brokers to help get under the skin of the most difficult insurance risks, helping build products to meet their customer's needs. Starr is a global insurance and investment organisation providing property and casualty insurance solutions to business and industry. Starr has grown into one of the world's fastest expanding insurance organisations, writing business in 128 countries across six continents. Our talented and experienced associates manage risk and ultimately support the profitable growth of organisations in a dynamic, competitive and ever-changing marketplace. Join us and become part of our talented and passionate workforce.

The role

The Head of Third Party Claims is responsible for leading, developing, and managing the end-to-end third-party claims journey. This includes strategic oversight of operational performance, technical excellence, and service delivery across all third-party claims functions, from Agriculture to Prestige vehicles.

Key responsibilities

• Ensuring fair customer outcomes and compliance with internal policies, legal standards, and regulatory requirements.
• Driving cost control throughout the claims lifecycle across all elements of Third Party claims spend.
• Identifying and developing commercial opportunities through market, legal, and technical insight.
• Owning and influencing key elements of the third-party claims supply chain costs.
• Driving claims digitalisation and automation initiatives.

This role sits within a market-leading central technical function focused on customer outcomes, indemnity control and case reserving adequacy. It requires the ability to develop and implement strategy based on detailed financial analysis, with a focus on performance improvement and proactive management of risks, threats, and opportunities related to claims leakage.

Key responsibilities

• Develop and deliver the strategic vision for third party motor claims to align with the overall claims strategy.
• Drive innovation using data analytics, technology and process optimisation.
• Oversee and support the effective management of complex and high value claims and processes with technical, regulatory or financial implications.
• Build influential relationships with external partners including repair networks, solicitors, the General Terms of Agreement (GTA) committee, Credit Hire Organisation's (CHO's) and third party insurers.
• Monitor management information, analyse and manage performance.
• Additionally ensure partners represent the ERS values and that the ERS brand is protected in relation to their actions including but not limited to Consumer Duty, Operational Resilience, Lloyds Oversight principles and other legal and regulatory requirements.
• Manage claims budgets, expense ratios and indemnity spend to ensure financial targets are met.
• Initiate indemnity control and operational effectiveness initiatives with sound business cases, tracking post implementation performance.
• Engage, lead and coach the third-party claims management team to achieve operational excellence and seek opportunity for continuous improvement.
• Ensure effective management of case reserving in accordance with the company's published reserving policy.
• Contribute to review of reserving philosophy and technical reserve allocation, ensuring that Actuaries are provided with a good understanding of working practices and developments in the Claims function.
• Collaborate with internal business partners to improve insight of performance using management information and identify and deploy remedial and opportunistic actions.
• Use analysis to draft reports, support the preparation of executive and board packs and provide insight to financial performance of the portfolio to Underwriting, Actuarial and Finance.
• Provide proactive diagnosis of trends and areas for improvement with a focus on clarity, accuracy and strategic relevance.
• Counter the impact of fraud on claims by developing and adopting appropriate strategies in conjunction with the Fraud Team.

Essential qualifications, skills, and experience

• Extensive experience in motor claims management, with a thorough understanding of claims processes and current market trends.
• Proven ability to deliver on key goals and drive measurable performance improvements within tight timeframes.
• In-depth technical expertise in motor liability, credit hire, personal injury, and relevant legal and regulatory frameworks.
• Experience of working with actuarial development triangles.
• Skilled in producing professional, well-structured, and accurate reports suitable for formal committee review, within set deadlines.
• Track record of delivering a strategic review of credit hire controls and initiatives to improve the customer experience and enhance controls on indemnity spend.

Desirable qualifications, skills, and experience

• Demonstrable experience in leading claims automation initiatives or driving digital transformation within a claims environment.

Desirable behavioural attributes

• High level of numeracy and analytical skills, with the ability to interpret data and identify underlying trends that support sound judgment within decision-making.
• Innovative approach to problem solving.
• Maintains a strategic perspective.
• Strong commercial awareness with a clear understanding of portfolio performance across both Claims and Underwriting functions.
• Flexible leadership style, with a passion for coaching and developing team members to support personal growth.
• Ability to build effective internal and external relationships.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and stakeholder engagement capabilities.
• Results-driven, with a focus on identifying opportunities for improvement and delivering enhanced outcomes.

Starr is an equal opportunity employer, which means we will consider all suitably qualified applicants regardless of gender identity or expression, ethnic origin, nationality, religion or beliefs, age, sexual orientation, disability status or any other protected characteristic. We recruit and develop our people based on merit and we're committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We offer first class training and development opportunities to all employees. Our aim is to grow our own talent and bring out the best in people.