Head Of Claims & Legal

Role Overview

This is a senior claims leadership position within a non-life insurer, responsible for the entire claims operation from notification through to settlement, recovery, and salvage. The role balances two core priorities: protecting claims profitability through tight cost control and disciplined reserving, while delivering a fair and efficient claims experience to customers and brokers. The successful candidate will also act as the company's authority on litigation strategy, third-party supplier performance, and claims-related governance, reporting directly into executive management.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the claims profit-and-loss outcome, managing paid and incurred loss ratios against agreed annual targets across each line of business.
• Identify and eliminate claims leakage at every stage of the lifecycle, using data to pinpoint where costs inflate and to drive corrective action in repairs, legal fees, and settlement values.
• Direct the end-to-end handling of claims, ensuring consistent decisions on liability, quantum, and coverage while reducing turnaround times from first notification to closure.
• Define and execute the litigation and settlement strategy, including the selection and oversight of external legal counsel, and monitor the balance between settlement outcomes and legal spend.
• Build and manage a robust recoveries and salvage function, negotiating with third-party providers and holding assessors, repairers, and law firms to measurable service and commercial standards.
• Deliver accurate claims reporting and reserving to executive leadership, and use analytics to detect fraud, identify emerging risks, and provide underwriting with actionable loss intelligence.
• Maintain a strong internal control environment for claims, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements, audit recommendations, and internal policies, and keeping claim files audit-ready at all times.
• Lead the claims and legal team by coaching, developing, and structuring the function for capacity, and guide the digitisation and automation of claims processes alongside IT and business units.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Insurance, Law, Commerce, or a related discipline.
• Professional insurance qualification such as ACII or AIIK, or equivalent, with active membership of a recognised professional body.
• At least 10 years of claims experience in the insurance industry, including no fewer than 4 years in a senior leadership role with accountability for claims outcomes and cost performance.
• Proven track record managing complex claims, high-value litigation, and disputed losses from notification through to final resolution.
• Demonstrated success driving claims transformation, improving operational efficiency, and reducing leakage in a challenging and changing market.
• Strong analytical and commercial judgement, with the ability to interpret claims data, set reserves, and make decisions that balance customer fairness with profitability.
• Excellent leadership and people management capability, including experience building a performance culture and developing senior claims professionals.
• Superior stakeholder and communication skills, with experience advising executive boards, working with underwriters and finance teams, and managing relationships with brokers, regulators, and external service providers.
• High integrity, professional ethics, and a control-oriented mindset that keeps governance and compliance at the centre of decision-making.