Lead Finance Business Partner

Oliver James is currently partnered with a well-established specialty insurance organization seeking a Lead Financial Business Partner to join its growing team. The company operates across the property and casualty insurance market and is recognized for its specialized underwriting expertise and disciplined approach to risk management.

Position Overview

The Lead Financial Business Partner will serve as a strategic individual contributor responsible for financial planning and analysis, management reporting, and business insight generation.

This individual will work closely with senior finance leadership and cross-functional stakeholders to improve forecasting, analyze financial performance, and provide actionable insights that support enterprise decision-making. The position will also play a leading role in building out the FP&A function and enhancing the company’s budgeting, reporting, and data capabilities.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the development of the FP&A function, including assuming ownership of the budgeting and planning process.
• Drive the implementation and adoption of analytics tools for budgeting, forecasting, and management reporting.
• Prepare quarterly budget-to-actual and variance analysis across premiums, losses, and expenses.
• Incorporate actuarial data and loss assumptions into forecasts, budgets, and performance reporting.
• Analyze financial close results and explain key movements across premiums, losses, and expenses.
• Coordinate financial close schedules, flux analysis, and consolidated FP&A reporting.
• Partner with actuarial, accounting, technology, and business intelligence teams to improve reporting accuracy and data integration.
• Serve as a key liaison with the controllership team, ensuring ledger activity is properly interpreted and reconciled.
• Manage quarterly reporting and reconcile results to the general ledger, Schedule P, and supporting loss data.
• Develop management reporting that clearly compares actual results against budget and forecast.
• Deliver finalized financial reporting and actionable insights to senior leadership.
• Oversee balance-sheet and suspense-account reconciliations, ensuring discrepancies and aged items are resolved promptly.
• Monitor outstanding balances, including items aged more than 90 days and unresolved bank-reconciliation items.
• Support oversight of accounts receivable, accounts payable, expense reporting, and allocation methodologies.
• Manage audit deliverables, including information requests and supporting documentation for external auditors.
• Enhance business intelligence reporting through collaboration with technology teams and the use of Microsoft Fabric and Power BI.
• Integrate loss data, legacy-system reports, and other financial information into centralized planning and reporting platforms.
• Contribute to broader finance-transformation initiatives by developing scalable reporting, budgeting, and analytical solutions.