Divisional Director – Construction Claims

Who are we?

Howden is a collective - a group of talented and passionate people all around the world. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and no-limits mindset, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team comprised of 18,000 employees spanning over 100 countries.

People join Howden for many different reasons, but they stay for the same one:
our culture. It's what sets us apart, and the reason our employees have been turning down head-hunters for years. Whatever your priorities - work / life balance, career progression, sustainability, volunteering - you'll find like-minded people driving change at Howden.

This exciting opportunity is based in London with the flexibility of hybrid working.

The Role

Divisional Director - Construction Claims

We are seeking a highly experienced claims candidate with a preference to legal background to help support across the construction team to challenge our wordings, enhance our thought leadership, provide policy coverage and advocacy advice to our clients.

To support in the management of claims activities within the department in accordance with Group policy to achieve targets, develop and promote the business and deliver an excellent and comprehensive service. The job holder will have significant contacts with clients/Third Parties. This role will help manage a portfolio of complex claims, supporting the clients throughout the process and managing all relevant stakeholders. We are striving to build a business with claims at the forefront of our proposition so the candidate will require a drive to collaborate across all areas of the construction business.

What you'll be doing:

• Delivers high quality advice to the business in a practical and commercially focused way in relation to their area of subject matter expertise
• Responsible for supporting and implementing operational plans for their team in order to achieve business goals
• Drives business performance through others, facilitating effective planning, control and support mechanisms to ensure delivery of the business plan in line with stakeholder expectations
• Manages assigned projects and contribute to other projects as required
• Provides relevant management information to senior management
• Contributes to the strategic vision for their area of specialism
• Develops strong relationships with markets and contributes to the identification of opportunities and business growth
• Deals with producing brokers and clients on larger more complex accounts and claims, ensuring their needs are best met
• Create and challenge existing claims documents
• Ensure up to date records are maintained at all times on the Group systems
• Interprets instructions and issues arising, and then implement actions according to policies and procedures
• Acts as a senior referral escalation point for their team to ensure that decisions and actions taken are appropriate and any queries raised by key clients are handled effectively
• Provides for expert level technical oversight of high exposure claims to ensure files are investigated, evaluated, reserved and managed in a timely manner
• Drives a superior claims experience and ensures continuous improvement through the development and implementation of initiatives involving people, processes and technology
• Applies advanced expertise to review relevant documentation and present claims to underwriters, ensuring appropriate feedback/information and updates are provided to clients and insurers
• Lead Claims input for new business and tenders as required
• Lead internal and external technical training
• Takes the lead in ensuring the team's claims data capture is accurate and relevant
• Leads data projects across the department and ensures the team is delivering on those
• Monitors the administrative processes to ensure workflows, and systems are compliant and meet agreed service levels
• Implements and supervises internal claims procedures, risk management and regulatory requirements, ensuring these are followed and any deviations identified and investigated
• Work in conjunction with Operations to support and implement Shared Services / Milton Keynes processing functions

Who we're looking for

• Extensive experience of working within the insurance environment in a Claims capacity
• Experience of working as a claims specialist within the Lloyds and international markets
• Experience of working in a high pressure, multitask environment
• Has some experience of managing and coaching others in a team
• Detailed knowledge and understanding of the insurance sector
• Strong awareness of the regulatory environment and requirements along with how these impact on the Operating Entity's activities as well as their own business unit
• Strong understanding of Operating Entity / Group objectives and how own role/team contributes to these.
• Able to supervise and delegate work
• Customer focused approach and ensures their team adopts these behaviours
• Is confident and has good communication skills including, written, verbal and face to face
• Able to work independently and use initiative
• Strong negotiation skills
• Analytical and able to make good decisions
• Able to contribute to and develop operating strategies for the claims function.
• Able to work flexibly to achieve tight deadlines/targets
• Reacts positively to change
• Calm and resilient under pressure
• An ability to learn and share learning
• Coaching skills and the ability to manage more junior members of the team
• Computer literate

Qualifications

• Attainment of the LLMIT(Lloyd's and London Market Introductory Test)
• Working towards or has attained the ACII
• Strong understanding of the Construction insurance industry
• Preference to legally qualified candidates

What do we offer in return?

A career that you define.

Our business succeeds by allowing our people to make a mark in the areas they care about most:
personal development, volunteering, and fundraising for charity, or creating new insurance products that address society's greatest challenges.

And we know that separate home and work lives don't really exist. If you're happy and healthy at home, you're more likely to be happy and fulfilled at work - and vice versa. That's why we do our best to support our people in every aspect of their lives.

Diversity and Inclusion

At Howden we value diversity - there is no one Howden 'personality type'. Instead, we're looking for individuals who share the same values as us:

• Our successes have all come from someone brave enough to try something new
• We support each other, in the small everyday moments and the bigger challenges
• We are determined to make a positive difference, at work and beyond

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