Financial Controls Manager - Beazley

Exciting opportunity to join Beazley’s Finance Operations division. We are looking for a Financial Controls Manager for an 8-month maternity leave cover role.

Who We Are

Beazley is a specialist insurance company with over 30 years’ experience helping people, communities and businesses to manage risk all around the world. Our mission is to provide beautifully designed insurance, innovating to give our clients the maximum benefit with minimum hassle.

Our products are wide ranging, from cyber & tech insurance to marine, healthcare, financial institutions and contingency; covering risks such as the weather, film production or protection from deadly weapons.

Our Culture

We employ over 1,500 people globally, hosting a wonderful diversity of cultures, experiences and backgrounds. We are proud of our family-feel culture at Beazley that empowers our staff to work in an adult environment that’s big on collaboration, diversity of thought & personal accountability.

Our three core values inspire the way we work and how we treat our people & customers – 1) Be bold 2) Strive for better 3) Do the right thing. Upholding these values every day has enabled us to become an innovative and responsive organisation in touch with the changing world around us – our ambitious L&D & Sustainability targets are testament to this.

We encourage internal career progression at Beazley, giving you all the tools you need to drive your own career here, such as iLearn (our own learning & development platform), LinkedIn Learning, our mentorship program and external qualification sponsorship. As a Beazley employee, you also get access to our fantastic array of benefits which include commuting reimbursement, free in-office lunch, six months parental leave and a lifestyle allowance, amongst many others.

Job Title:                    Financial Controls Manager

Division:                     Finance Operations

Reports To:                As per Beazley’s organisation chart

Key Relationships:     Internal: Finance Leadership Team (FLT), Finance leads and teams, various 1^st line departments, Internal Audit, Risk Management, Compliance and IT platforms. External: 3rd party service providers, Auditors

Job Summary:            This role will support the Head of Financial Controls by being the primary point of contact for US activities (namely MAR requirements) which have a bearing on financial processes and control.  This role will also support the development of our internal controls over financial reporting (ICOFR) framework as well as contribute to strategic execution of the group's UK version of Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and Model Audit Rule (MAR) as required.

Key Responsibilities

• Support the Head of Financial Controls in the development and maintenance of Beazley’s global and MAR financial control frameworks
• Promote and communicate the expectations of the financial control framework to key stakeholders with a focus on change initiatives
• Support the progress against the annual financial controls team plan in particular with a view to change initiatives.
• Engage with key stakeholders, including the global finance team and other in scope departments, compliance, risk management, internal audit and third party auditors
• Support the preparation of regular reporting to stakeholders including the group finance leadership team, risk and regulatory committee and relevant audit and risk committees

Strategic responsibilities:

• Promote knowledge sharing across Beazley with a focus on the US by leading training sessions and focus sessions to demonstrate compliance requirements and share hot topics in SOX compliance
• Support development and transition of the evolving finance organisation structure with a financial controls lens

Assurance and other responsibilities:

• Engage with business sponsors to identify and monitor US initiatives to identify those with a financial control impact.  This includes understanding the various US initiatives and sharing updates with the wider financial controls team.
• Support the business change activities by representing the financial controls team and providing financial control subject matter expertise.
• Monitor US activities, ensuring that internal control requirements are satisfactorily addressed, designed and documented.
• Participate on projects / initiatives as appropriate, providing advice and guidance in respect of new or reengineered processes, ensuring shared awareness of new system implementations, control change implications, and testing results.
• Act as control champion across the Group to ensure that Control Framework requirements are delivered to relevant parties.

Decision-making responsibilities:

• Work within the guidelines agreed by the Head of Financial Control

General

At Beazley we are committed to doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do.  It is important that within all your interactions both internally and externally you adhere to this principle through adoption of Beazley’s core values and behaviours.

• Adopt the Beazley culture of being bold, striving for better and do the right thing. This contributes to an internal environment of teamwork and promotes a positive brand image and experience to all our external customers.
• Comply with Beazley procedures, policies and regulations including the code of conduct which incorporates the PRA and FCA Conduct Rules.  Undertake training on Beazley policies and procedures as delivered by your line manager, Culture & People or assurance teams (compliance, risk, internal audit) either directly, via e-learning or the learning management system.
• Display business ethics that uphold the interests of all our customers.
• Ensure all interactions with customers are focused on delivering a fair outcome, including having the right products for their needs.
• Comply with any specific responsibilities necessary for your role as outlined by your line manager, Culture & People or assurance teams (compliance, risk, internal audit) and ensure you keep up to date with developments in these areas.  This may include, amongst others, Beazley’s underwriting control standards, Beazley’s claims control standards, other Beazley standards and customer relationship management.
• Carry out additional responsibilities as individually notified, either through your objectives or through the learning management system.  These may include membership of any Beazley committees or working groups.

Person Specification:

Education, Qualifications, Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Qualification in Accounting or Internal Auditing with strong working knowledge of balance sheet and income statement dynamics and ability to develop appropriate risk measurement techniques.
• Significant experience in public accounting, internal audit, control, risk or other activities that directly align with the specific responsibilities for this position.
• Sound understanding of risk management and audit principles and practices with particular focus on financial reporting, operational and business process risks.
• SOX control experience and comprehension of end-to-end finance business processes.
• Knowledgeable with current industry standards such as COSO, and has strong relationships with private sector counterparts.
• First-hand operational experience at system and process levels, including process re-engineering, root cause and business analysis.
• Analytical approach with ability to work systematically and unsupervised, to tight deadlines and with multiple competing priorities.
• Pragmatic problem-solver with commercial awareness and a flexible, collaborative approach.
• Self-motivated, organised and able to assimilate, manage and communicate salient details relating to large volumes of information, including technical issues and data.
• Practical experience with financial risk model development, implementation, and governance.
• Diverse professional or internal audit experience, including international exposure (US & APAC).
• Demonstrable ability to communicate with project teams and advise on operational implications of business requirements and change delivery risks.
• A self-starter and independent learner who takes the initiative to challenge the status quo and is creative and comfortable with ‘blank sheet of paper’ assignments.
• Strong written and oral communication skills. Influencing and excellent report-writing experience with a high standard of English is a pre-requisite.
• IT-literate with good numerical skills. Good knowledge of database management.
• Extensive knowledge of Microsoft Office applications (particularly Visio, Excel, PowerPoint, Word and SharePoint.

Aptitude and Disposition

Active listening; Customer focused; Options definition and analysis; Problem solving; Creative thinker; Drive and delivery orientation; strong confidence and ability to manage dialogues; ability to empathise and collaborate with stakeholders across functions.

Competencies

Business acumen; Commercial awareness; Strategic thinking, Analytical; Planning; Documenting; Purposeful communication; Technical competence/expertise; Organisational and project management; Managing talent; Embracing diversity; Business performance and delivery; Relationship management; Corporate governance and compliance.