General
This role is pivotal in supporting the North American Head of Finance in driving strategic, operational and governance priorities for all entities within the North American platform. This role provides a unique opportunity to gain senior exposure, develop a commercial perspective, and engage closely with the North American Management & Leadership committees, alongside the various boards across the entities.
Job Title: Business Manager to the Head of Finance
Division: Finance
Reports To: North America ("NA") Head of Finance
Key Relationships: Global finance functional teams, North American Management Committee, North American Leadership Committee, Platform/Group CFOs, North America governance forums, External Auditors, Risk and Compliance teams, Project teams, Operations, Underwriting teams, Internal Audit
Job Summary:
The Senior Analyst will play a pivotal role in supporting the NA Head of Finance in driving strategic, operational, and governance priorities for North America. This role provides a unique opportunity to gain senior exposure, develop a commercial perspective, and engage closely with the North American leadership and other senior stakeholders, fostering a well-rounded understanding of the North America business and regulated entity operations.
The Senior Analyst will act as a strategic sounding board to the Head of Finance, helping triage competing demands, manage priorities, and drive forward critical decisions.
This role is separate from Group Shared Services, offering focussed support to the NA Head of Finance in enhancing governance effectiveness, driving efficiency in decision-making, and ensuring a strong focus on delivering measurable outcomes.
The Senior Analyst will also provide ad hoc support to the Group CFO, where group-impacting activities intersect with the platform. You will also contribute to cross-entity finance initiatives, such as transformation, regulatory change, and governance design.
Key Responsibilities:
- Strategic and Operational Support - Driving the Three-Platform Model
- Support the Head of Finance in managing North America's entity-led responsibilities within the three-platform structure, ensuring effective financial governance across platforms.
- Monitor intra-group service provider performance and escalate issues as needed.
- Translate Head of Finance and board-level strategic decisions into operational outcomes, ensuring alignment with entity and platform priorities.
- Provide flexible capacity to support finance-wide or cross-functional initiatives that impact the North American entities.
- Financial Decision Support and Oversight
- Provide timely and relevant decision support to the Head of Finance by ensuring access to accurate, comprehensive financial and operational information.
- Work closely with the Finance Business Partner and other finance functions (incl. reporting, operations, and actuarial) to ensure high-quality MI across financial performance, cost, efficiency, and capital.
- Ensure and challenge the quality of outputs from intra-group service providers, providing oversight to ensure insights are clearly articulated and translated into meaningful messaging.
- Maintain oversight of the integrity and controls of financial information and MI used for entity-level and platform-level decision-making.
- Support investment cases, cost allocation, and capital & funding decisions aligned with North America's commercial strategy and entity priorities.
- Governance and Board Support
- Lead the preparation and coordination of high-quality board and committee papers, ensuring clarity, alignment, and timeliness.
- Act as a delegate for the Head of Finance in selected meetings and forums, supporting effective communication and follow-through on actions.
- Maintain awareness of regulatory and governance requirements relevant to North America.
- Track key governance and action points, ensuring timely delivery and alignment with entity responsibilities.
- Governance, Regulations and Control Environment
- Act as Finance's strategic liaison for regulatory oversight-ensuring proactive engagement and high standards across North America's finance deliverables.
- Provide challenge and follow-through to ensure teams deliver timely and accurate regulatory submissions, governance actions, and documentation.
- Support the Head of Finance in maintaining a robust risk and control culture, including clarity on roles, governance structure, and oversight of finance processes and deliverables.
- Provide input to governance design and control effectiveness reviews, promoting continual improvement across the NA entities and driving consistent ownership and control expectations across functions
- Stakeholder Management and Liaison
- Act as the primary link between the Head and key stakeholders across Finance, Risk, Compliance, Actuarial and other functions across Beazley.
- Engage with the Group CFO as needed to support activities linked to North America but with broader group-level implications.
- Support cross-entity coordination, particularly during finance transformation, regulatory projects, and governance change.
- Leadership, Transformation, and Process Improvement
- Act as a strategic sounding board to the Head of Finance, offering insights on finance, strategy, operating model enhancements, and governance maturity
- Support delivery of finance transformation initiatives, such as Workday Financials and TOM implementation.
- Identify opportunities for process automation, efficiency gains, and clearer accountabilities.
Personal Specification:
Qualifications and Experience
Essential:
- CPA (or equivalent) qualified.
- Proven experience in finance, corporate governance, reporting, or executive-level support within a regulated financial services environment.
- Strong working knowledge of financial and operational frameworks in complex, multi-entity or matrixed organisations.
- Experience supporting senior leaders with board reporting, governance processes, regulatory documentation, or cross-functional delivery.
- Strong commercial acumen with the ability to interpret financial and operational data to support strategic decisions.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills, with a proven ability to influence at senior levels and synthesise complex information clearly and concisely.
- Analytical and structured thinker, capable of connecting detailed insight to broader business and strategic priorities.
- Demonstrated ability to navigate ambiguity and operate effectively in uncertain or evolving environments, identifying what matters most and progressing action with clarity.
- Strategic mindset with the ability to anticipate challenges, connect operational activity to organisational goals, and enable alignment across teams.
- Comfortable working across platforms, governance layers, and functions, with the confidence to challenge appropriately and facilitate constructive alignment.
- High initiative and ownership, with a track record of independently identifying improvements and driving delivery through to resolution.
Desirable:
- 5-10 years prior experience in the US insurance market.
- Familiarity with regulatory frameworks and governance expectations relevant within the US & Canada.
- Exposure to enterprise-wide change or finance transformation initiatives, including operating model design, data/reporting enhancements, or technology enablement.
- Experience preparing or reviewing Board and Committee materials, or supporting senior governance forums.
- Understanding of finance data and MI systems (e.g. Workday, Oracle, Hyperion) and their role in performance management and business partnering.
- Experience in public accounting.
Key Skills and Attributes
- Strategic thinker with the ability to connect the dots across finance, strategy, and regulatory priorities, enabling senior decision-making.
- Exceptional stakeholder management and relationship-building skills, with confidence to engage, challenge, and influence across diverse functions and seniority levels.
- Highly organised and detail-oriented, capable of managing multiple workstreams and deadlines while maintaining discretion and resilience under pressure.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to draft concise Board-level outputs and translate technical or operational matters for broader audiences.
- Independent and proactive, with sound judgment to know when to escalate, align, or act autonomously.
- Collaborative team player who contributes to a positive and inclusive culture, while also holding high expectations of delivery and accountability.
- Curious and commercially aware, with the ability to understand business drivers, financial levers, and interdependencies influencing performance.
- Comfortable working in fast-paced, complex environments with shifting priorities - able to stay focused, adaptable, and outcome-driven.
- Open to feedback and self-development, with a growth mindset and willingness to evolve in role.
- Able to support and challenge intragroup service providers, clearly articulating expectations, monitoring service delivery, and resolving issues constructively.
