One of the most prestigious names in the Yorkshire insurance market is seeking a Risk Manager to join its Head Office operation. This firm has been trading for many years, and having gone through a recent major rebranding exercise is enjoying a sustained period of growth, both organically on the renewal book and via new business.
Reporting directly to the board, you will form part of the Head Office Management Team (totaling 15 individuals, typically ‘Heads of’ from other Departments), so you will be sure of a high profile within the business. You will be accountable for overseeing the risk management systems and be granted a great deal of autonomy in how you ensure the company has effective strategies, processes and reporting procedures in place to accurately identify, measure, monitor and report the risks the company may face. This includes creating early warning or trigger systems for breaches of the company’s risk appetite. When monitoring risk taking activities and exposures, you will ensure they are in line with approved risk limits and corresponding capital or liquidity needs (i.e. capital planning).
You will be responsible for developing and embedding a company risk framework and culture that reflects its appetite / risk tolerance, as well as creating a system that continuously monitors and identifies risks. This includes challenging the first line where these show undue risk exposures. This company is highly innovative and regularly develops new products and offerings, so you will be expected to provide risk management advice / due diligence in regards to these.
You will also ensure appropriate business continuity and disaster recovery plans are in place, ensuring that these are communicated to the relevant departments and that regular testing is undertaken.
Your unwavering focus on ensuring your job is carried out compliantly and exposures to risks are mitigated means that you will have to, on occasion, challenge senior colleagues (at board level), as to the best way forward for the business – ‘wall flowers’ need not apply! As you will be required to challenge the status quo in a professional fashion, you must have excellent communication skills, confidence, and a sense of gravitas and authority. You must also have excellent stakeholder management skills, and be able to secure ‘buy in’, influence and engage with colleagues at all levels from across the business.
You will have a good understanding of the Financial Services industry. Ideally, but by no means essential, this will include some knowledge of the general insurance market. Knowledge of the regularity frame work in which our client operates, alongside Solvency II, would add significant value to your application.
You should have excellent project management and organisational skills, alongside the ability to juggle a varied workload. You must be analytical, numerate and pride yourself on the accuracy of your work. You should also have excellent problem solving and decision-making skills.
To fit into the culture, you must be entrepreneurial, with a commercial mindset and able to come up with creative solutions to problems. You must be a self-motivated team player and enjoy working to shared goals and objectives.
In return, you will receive a generous basic salary (entirely negotiable), and a fantastic benefits package including generous pension and holiday allowances. It is particularly worth noting that this firm has one of the most impressive ‘flexi-time’ offerings that Aston Charles has seen in years. Encouragingly, our client was quick to point out it has a really friendly and supportive environment, with very low staff turnover, citing that “people stay for a reason.” It also operates an in-house creche and has free on-site parking, making this commutable for candidates from across Yorkshire and surrounding locations.
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General Insurance & Financial Services Recruitment