Senior Expense Analyst; Actuals - FTC

Job Description & Person Specification Senior Expense Analyst (Actuals)

Division: Finance – Financial Performance

Reports To: Expense Manager (Actuals)

Key Relationships: Executive Management, Finance Leadership Team, Platform Management Committees, Finance (incl. Financial Performance team), Chief Underwriting Office, Underwriting Teams, Group Actuarial and Strategic Finance, Support Functions, and other Business Users.

Support & actively contribute to the accurate and timely delivery of the expense actual process – with specific focus on delivering period end reporting and analysis requirements across the Beazley group of companies.

Controls and governance principles need to be embedded across the process ensuring robust numbers are reported with commentary to support, but also that balance sheet reconciliations & controls are attested to.

To conduct oneself in line with core & partnership competencies noted below

• Understand the key drivers (systems & processes) behind the different views of reported expense results
• Collaborate with the Expense Planning Team to ensure consistent alignment of methodologies and reporting formats
• Lead the delivery of the expense actuals process, ultimately under the remit of the Expense Actuals Manager, in accordance with pre-approved timetables
• Communicate month end expense timetable deliverables to business and track actual delivery against expectation (escalate issues and ensure remediated)
• Oversee the monthly close of expense processes within Finance sub-systems
• Ensure accurate completeness of all month end ledger entries (includes prepayments, accruals, fixed assets)
• Lead variance analysis for Direct Cost Reports ensuring meaningful insightful commentary provided to end users
• Ensure a complete and accurate view of Direct Costs is available to the business in accordance with committed deadlines
• Prepare full drafts of expense reports for Executive Committees and Boards for presentation and review with Expense Management Team
• Oversee completion of Expense Team owned Balance Sheet reconciliations in accordance with Group defined requirements
• Ensure delivery of expense MI to support Reporting Team requirements including provision of suitable commentary where required
• Ensure process documentation for expense actuals processes is accurately maintained (amendments to be updated in a timely manner)
• Participate in external audit reviews through interaction with Audit Teams focussed on expense related activity
• Continuously striving to develop expense capabilities for process efficiency, reporting effectiveness & robustness of control framework
• Manage and mentor Expense Analysts including defining objectives and priorities, reviewing work, providing feedback and identifying development opportunities

Core competencies in addition to those noted as specific requirements for the role and which are considered to be pertinent to the Expense team are as follows:

• Financial planning and analysis expertise:
  Expert knowledge of expense actuals; budgeting; and forecasting processes, including the ability to drive continuous improvement in these areas.
• Strategic thinking and business acumen:
  Deep understanding of revenue drivers, sales optimization, margin management, and metrics cascades to provide insightful, performance inflecting decision support to business leaders.
• Communication and storytelling:
  Excellent storytelling, communication and presentation skills to effectively convey financial insights, analysis and recommendations to decision makers.
• Advanced technology literacy/proficiency:
  Ability to exploit digital technologies to drive better outcomes for finance and the business.
• Problem-solving:
  Ability to challenge assumptions, identify root causes and develop effective solutions.
• Relationship building and collaboration:
  Proven ability to build strong relationships with business unit leaders and stakeholders. Ability to collaborate with FP&A and technology teams to design intuitive reports, analyses and dashboards
• Continuous improvement:
  Ability to define success criteria and establish measurable metrics for monitoring tool utilization and…