Financial Planning & Analysis Specialist

Hiscox · Lisbon

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The Role

Support the European Planning team in the Business Planning process, engaging with key stakeholders across Hiscox Europe and Hiscox Group to ensure the successful delivery of the various planning exercises, including Budget and Reforecasts.

Provide support to key European stakeholders in relation to the ownership of their respective expenses, analysing and providing commentary on key variances on a monthly basis.

Finance’s main remit is the consolidation of European accounting into Hiscox Group, the accurate and timely production of branch and local statutory accounts, budgeting and forecasting, and the production and reporting of financial information to various stakeholders throughout Europe and the Group.

Key Responsibilities

Business Planning

• Support the EU FP&A team in the Business Planning process, which comprises a Budget (bottom-up three-year plan) and three Forecasts (Q1, Q2 and Q3), from both a Business and Legal Entity perspective.
• Coordinate planning data submissions, actively engaging with data owners to ensure submissions follow the relevant guidelines and are completed on time.
• Engage with key stakeholders as cost centre owners, acting as a business partner to European Functions, Projects and Technology areas and working collaboratively with them to deliver planning data.
• Contribute to the delivery of key Planning outputs, both for internal European consumption, including P&Ls, expense breakdowns and GWP evolution, and for discussion at senior management level, including ELT and QBR packs.

Financial Analysis

• Deliver key analysis in relation to the Planning exercises, with a focus on understanding the main drivers of profitability and key variances between exercises, such as Budget vs prior Reforecast and Reforecast vs Actuals.
• Deliver in-depth analysis within the remit of the FP&A team, both in response to requests from key business stakeholders and by proactively identifying areas where further analysis would add value.
• Interpret financial results and identify the key insights and information that need to be communicated to stakeholders.

Ad Hoc Support & Process Improvement

• Support the Finance team with a variety of ad hoc analysis as required, related to both Business Planning and wider business developments.
• Ensure processes are fully documented and provide support with process reviews.
• Contribute to process change and continuous improvement, challenging existing ways of working where opportunities exist to increase efficiency or the quality of financial support.

Key Requirements

You will ideally:

• Demonstrate knowledge of non-life insurance accounting, particularly how individual items within the P&L and Balance Sheet drive results and the factors that can influence them, such as rate changes, retention, loss ratios, commission ratios and combined ratios.
• Have significant experience in Planning, Management Information (MI) and/or performance management.
• Have experience working within Finance, ideally in a multinational and multilingual environment.
• Have experience within insurance or financial services, which would be an advantage.
• Be able to deliver high-quality outputs while managing a high volume of deliverables and working under time pressure.
• Be results-driven, with the energy and determination to succeed in a fast-paced environment where both pace and quality of response are critical.
• Be creative, proactive, logical and innovative, with a positive, can-do attitude and the confidence to challenge the status quo.
• Demonstrate strong critical thinking and analytical skills, with the ability to interpret results and identify the key information that needs to be communicated.
• Be highly organised, with the ability to prioritise and plan your workload effectively to meet deadlines.
• Have strong, clear and confident communication skills.
• Have excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to build effective relationships both within and outside Finance and to engage with stakeholders at different levels.
• Be comfortable working independently and taking ownership while also contributing effectively as part of a team.
• Be able to work successfully within a matrix environment and across geographical boundaries on a daily basis.
• Be extremely proficient in Microsoft Excel and other standard Microsoft Office tools, with the ability to quickly learn and develop working knowledge of additional systems used for Business Planning.
• Have good experience with ERP systems. Working knowledge of Oracle Finance Applications would be an advantage.
• Be fluent in English. Additional European languages, including Dutch, French, German, Spanish or Portuguese, would be welcomed.
• Be flexible to travel where required.

Other Useful Qualifications & Experience

• Approximately five years of experience successfully supporting or delivering a Business Planning agenda.
• Previous experience within Finance in an international or multinational environment.
• Experience working with Oracle Finance Applications would be an advantage, as Oracle is a core system used for Business Planning at Hiscox.
• Demonstrated ability to initiate and facilitate process change and improvement.

What You Should Know

The Lisbon office is a hub for the European business at Hiscox, where the CFO, COO and CTO are based. It also has a significant workforce supporting the UK and Group businesses across Finance and IT.

The majority of the Finance team is located in Lisbon, including the CFO, Controlling and Reporting Manager and Head of FP&A, with Finance Managers located in-country to support local business partnering and legal entity reporting.

In this role, you will be expected to be self-sufficient and comfortable working independently, while maintaining strong communication across the wider Finance team. You will operate within a matrix organisation, engaging stakeholders across Europe, keeping colleagues informed of developments and issues, and proactively recommending solutions to the challenges that come with a growing business.

Work with amazing people and be part of a unique culture

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