Finance Manager

We’re a global life reinsurer operating in Europe, Asia, Australia and North America, and are part of Pacific Life, a mutual insurance group. Fuelled by our pursuit of excellence and a quest to innovate, we’re proud to do things differently. Our people aren’t afraid to disrupt and challenge industry thinking and provide the best protection, savings and retirement reinsurance products and services possible.

Role Overview

The Finance Manager is expected to assume oversight of the functions integral in maintaining our leading position in the market which include reinsurance accounting, collateral management & cash accounting. In addition, this individual will play an integral role in the cross-team deliverables between Operations, Corporate Actuarial and Finance teams; and ensuring that the finance systems infrastructure is set for optimal delivery of quarterly results.

Role Responsibilities

• Reinsurance Accounting
  • Ownership of the reinsurance accounting process including but not limited to end-to-end accounting (reviewing journals, controls and analysis) for the balances generated from the Operations team via the SAP system.
  • Building and strengthening the relationship with the operations team to enable a smooth process for migration of data from the operations system to the general ledger.
• Collateral Management & Cash Accounting
  • Oversight of the end-to-end process to meet timely delivery of the collateral obligations to counterparties, including but not limited to:
  • Daily check-in of activities of the collateral processing team
  • Reviewing outputs from team
  • Timely internal and external stakeholder management for query resolution and approvals
  • Oversight of the cash accounting process, including but not limited to:
  • Managing liquidity requirements
  • Maintenance of bank and custodian mandates
  • Provision of strategic MI relating to the above processes on a monthly and quarterly basis for the senior management team meetings
  • Ad hoc reporting arising from changing market conditions.
• Stakeholder Management
  • Main point of contact for external relationships with collateral counterparties, banks, investment managers and custodians for transaction processing.
  • Main point of contact for key internal stakeholders in relation to approvals for transaction processing, MI reporting and advisory discussions relating to above processes.
• Financial Reporting
  • Manage the execution of quarterly close process for reinsurance accounting, collateral & cash and operations processes, ensuring overall deadlines are met.
  • Review of journals and associated controls to enable quarterly submissions across all accounting basis and financial statement line items associated with reinsurance accounting, collateral & cash accounting and operations processes.
  • Preparation of journals in areas requiring complex accounting treatment.
• Cross-team collaboration
  • Being the main contact from Finance for any back-office cross-team collaboration arising from BAU activities, business expansions and project activities associated with:
  • Monthly and quarter end reporting for processes within oversight
  • Systems infrastructure
  • Building a strong relationship with peers across the back-office teams.
  • Knowledge building across teams and where possible supporting the delivery of training sessions.
  • Ensuring smooth delivery of results across teams during quarter ends.
• Other Activities/Initiatives
  • Support in new projects within the Finance Team, which includes but is not limited to a major back office transformation project.
  • Support AVPs or VP on ad hoc tasks including but not limited to accounting impact assessment for any strategic initiatives.
• Management and personal development
  • Coaching and managing of direct reports (and their reports if any).
  • Performing regular reviews and performance appraisals.
  • Participation in wider Finance, Pacific Life and Pacific Life Re initiatives around HR strategy, training, staff development and study support.
  • Personal development and training (FTC only).

Qualifications & Experience

• A qualified accountant (3–4 years post qualification experience), with some insurance background (in industry or practice).
• Advanced Excel skills.
• PowerPoint skills.

Competencies and Behaviours

• Problem solving abilities.
• Demonstrate flexible and efficient time management and ability to prioritise workload.
• Ability to communicate complex concepts and information across different disciplines and levels of seniority with the organisation, both orally and in writing.
• Ability to produce high quality work within agreed deadlines.
• Team player who can maintain good working relationships and motivate team to achieve goals/deadlines.
• Excellent documentation skills proven in the workplace.
• Ability to be pragmatic.

Benefits (Only for Permanent and Fixed Term Employees)

• Leave
  • 25 days of annual leave with option to buy/sell more days.
  • Adoption and fertility leave.
  • Generous enhanced parental leave.
• Healthcare
  • Comprehensive private insurance coverage for employee and dependents.
  • Group Life Insurance coverage of 9× basic annual salary and Group Income Protection up to 75% of basic annual salary.
  • Optical benefits.
• Savings & Retirement
  • 15% combined employee/employer contributions.
• Wellness
  • Subsidized gym membership.
  • Access to Employee Assistance Program.
  • Cycle to Work and Electric Car Salary Sacrifice Scheme.
  • Time off for volunteering.
  • Charitable matching of employee donations.

Equal Opportunity

As part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion, we will provide reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process to ensure equal access to applicants with disabilities. Please contact us about your needs so that we can discuss these with you to make sure that suitable adjustments are made, where possible.