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⚡ Source: ReedRef: 56777455

Head of FP&A - HFG

eFinancialCareers·London·Posted 2 weeks ago
⭐ Senior
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Job description

Original text imported from Reed

Head of FP&A

A senior leadership opportunity for an experienced FP&A professional to shape financial strategy in a fast-paced, margin-sensitive environment.

HFG are supporting a general insurance provider who are looking for a commercially driven finance leader to own budgeting, forecasting, and performance management, partnering closely with the CFO, CEO and Executive team. You'll translate complex data into clear, actionable insight - influencing pricing, growth, retention and long-term value creation.

Key Responsibilities

  • Lead annual budget, rolling forecasts and multi-year planning
  • Analyse and explain performance, with particular focus on trading outcomes, loss ratio, expense ratio, combined ratio, and underwriting results
  • Develop financial plans incorporating core value drivers such as volumes, retention, pricing, inflation, cost trends, and commission structures
  • Deliver Board-ready reporting and forward-looking analysis
  • Enhance FP&A models, dashboards and forecasting capability
  • Build and lead a high-performing FP&A team
  • Act as a trusted finance partner to the CFO and CEO

Experience Required

  • 10+ years' FP&A or senior finance leadership experience
  • Strong background in personal lines motor insurance or similar margin-driven sector
  • Professionally qualified (ACA, ACCA, CPA, CFA or equivalent)
  • Advanced modelling and commercial analytics capability
  • Confident influencing senior stakeholders

This is a high-impact role with real strategic visibility and the opportunity to shape a best-in-class FP&A function. If you're a proven leader who can operate both remotely and in the office then please get in touch.

Please note, only applicants from a personal lines insurance background will be considered.

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Key skills

AI-extracted from the job advert

Must-have skills
Personal lines motor insurance experienceACA qualificationACCA qualificationCPA qualificationCFA qualificationFP&A leadership experienceFinancial modellingCommercial analytics
Nice-to-have
Board reporting experienceTeam leadershipStakeholder influenceDashboard development
Soft skills
LeadershipStrategic thinkingStakeholder influenceCommunicationCommercial acumenAnalytical thinking
SpeedCV AI

Application advice

5 AI-generated recommendations to maximise your chances.

1

⭐ Highlight your personal lines motor insurance experience prominently as the advert explicitly states only candidates from this background will be considered

2

📊 Quantify your FP&A achievements: 'Led budget process for £180M portfolio, improving forecast accuracy by 15%'

3

🎯 Emphasise your professional qualification (ACA/ACCA/CPA/CFA) as this is a stated requirement for the role

4

🤝 Showcase examples of influencing senior stakeholders including CFO/CEO level interactions

5

📈 Detail your experience with insurance metrics like loss ratios, combined ratios and underwriting performance analysis

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Suggested CV bullets

3 bullets our AI drafted for this specific advert, mirroring its ATS keywords.

How to tailor your CV

Add these 3 bullets under your most recent experience:

  • Led annual budgeting and rolling forecasts for £240M personal lines motor portfolio, improving forecast accuracy by 18% through enhanced loss ratio modelling
  • Developed comprehensive FP&A dashboards tracking combined ratios and underwriting performance, enabling CFO to identify £3.2M cost reduction opportunities
  • Built and managed 6-person FP&A team delivering Board-ready analysis on retention rates, pricing elasticity and multi-year strategic planning

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Dear Hiring Manager,

HFG's Head of FP&A opportunity represents exactly the strategic finance leadership role I've been seeking, combining my personal lines motor insurance expertise with advanced FP&A capabilities to drive commercial performance.

My background in leading FP&A functions within margin-sensitive insurance environments has equipped me with deep expertise in loss ratio analysis, combined ratio optimisation, and translating complex underwriting data into Board-ready insights that influence pricing and retention strategies.

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Interview questions

10 questions generated from this advert.

Technical

  • How would you approach building a rolling forecast model for a personal lines motor insurance portfolio?
  • Explain how you would analyse and improve a deteriorating combined ratio
  • What key performance indicators would you focus on for motor insurance underwriting results?
  • How do you incorporate retention rates and pricing changes into multi-year financial planning?
  • Describe your experience with insurance-specific financial modelling and analytics

Behavioural

  • Tell me about a time you had to influence senior leadership to change strategic direction based on your financial analysis
  • Describe a situation where you built and led a high-performing FP&A team through a period of change
  • Give an example of when you translated complex financial data into actionable insights for non-finance stakeholders
  • Tell me about a time you enhanced FP&A processes or systems to improve forecasting capability
  • Describe how you've partnered with a CFO or CEO to shape financial strategy
SpeedCV AINEW

STAR answer examples

Model answers using the Situation-Task-Action-Result framework. Adapt to your own experience.

1Question

Tell me about a time you had to influence senior leadership to change strategic direction based on your financial analysis

Situation: At my previous insurer, our motor portfolio was showing declining profitability with a combined ratio of 103%, but leadership wanted to maintain aggressive growth targets. Task: I needed to demonstrate why continuing the current pricing strategy would damage long-term value. Action: I built a comprehensive model showing how a 12% rate increase across high-risk segments would improve our combined ratio to 98% while only reducing new business by 8%. I presented this to the CEO and Board with clear scenarios showing £4.2M additional profit over 18 months. Result: Leadership approved the pricing changes, and we achieved a 97.5% combined ratio within 6 months while maintaining 85% of our growth targets.
2Question

Describe a situation where you built and led a high-performing FP&A team through a period of change

Situation: I inherited a 4-person FP&A team that was struggling with manual processes and missing forecast deadlines during a major systems implementation. Task: Transform the team's capability while maintaining business-critical reporting during the transition. Action: I restructured roles to focus on analytics rather than data gathering, implemented automated dashboards, and provided intensive training on advanced Excel and Power BI. I also established weekly one-to-ones and monthly team development sessions. Result: Within 9 months, we reduced monthly close time from 12 to 7 days, improved forecast accuracy by 22%, and all team members received promotions or expanded responsibilities. The CEO specifically praised our enhanced Board reporting quality.

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