Commercial Claims Director - Continental Europe

Position Summary

We are seeking to hire a Claims Director for Commercial Lines in Continental Europe.

The role is based in Paris and leads a team of claims professionals and is accountable for business results through the cost-effective and timely resolution of claims. This role carries responsibility across multiple product lines and geographies, ensuring both operational and technical excellence. Operating under general management direction, the role requires a high degree of technical complexity and coordination within defined authority limits.

Key Responsibilities

• Direct management responsibilities for Commercial claims (Marine, Casualty, Life Science and Technology with some limited Property) and personnel across Continental Europe (6 Countries).

• Drive team performance against KPIs, independently developing and implementing strategies to improve results.

• Ensure financial accuracy of all claims inputs and maintain oversight of large claims and financial movements requiring stakeholder input.

• Foster talent development within the team and department. Attract, retain, and coach team members, ensuring development plans are in place and aligned with HR and training strategies.

• Ensure all monthly payment audit and MCOR reviews for the team are completed timely and accurately: provide feedback on areas of audit performance and drive continuous improvements in file handling and file management capabilities. 

• Monitor and manage team workload, set goals, allocate resources, and measure performance.

• Utilises and develops the MI capabilities to feedback on both team and portfolio performance. Provides regular reports to Senior management and key stakeholders on large/clash loss, inventory, resourcing, claims incurreds/financials, KPI’s, claims trends, loss development and other pertinent areas of portfolio performance.

• Identifies portfolio areas for further review/reconciliation as may be required and implements strategies to pro-actively manage the portfolio inventory.  

• Works with the Line of Business claims managers to assist in the completion of quarterly reviews of all claims on the watchlist and all open large losses for teams.

• Responsible for ensuring all escalations are adhered to; including communication/notifications to the business following sign-off from Line of Business and Matrix management. Responsible for ensuring claims are escalated and added to Watchlists/Pipelines/Reviews as appropriate.

• Where appropriate and where agreed with the Line of Business Claims Managers, provides referral approvals to team for claims over their authority and for matters requiring Manager approval. Ensure that a service approach is provided to the field and that matters escalated are addressed in a timely and qualitative manner.

• Responsible for the proactive management and collaboration with key stakeholders: in particular, keeping stakeholders aware of large loss developments, portfolio trends, legal/regulatory developments and coverage issues as may be required.

• Ownership for Management of vendors/TPA budget and driving reduction in overall ALAE spend.
• Support senior management in claims resourcing and budgeting. Ensure efficient triaging and adherence to resource models, providing data to support planning.
• Responsible for adherence to all regulatory requirements. Ownership of regulatory, risk, compliance and audit actions for all Commercial Claims in Continental Europe.
• Active member of claims management team: provides support to colleagues and ensures decisions taken at claims management are cascaded to the wider dept. Willing to challenge the status quo and provides ideas and solutions to improve dept performance.
• Claims projects: willing participant, leader and supporter of claims projects. Engages in claims projects and provides both personal and team resource in the successful delivery of claims projects.

Skills, Knowledge & Experience

• Proven ability to lead high-performance teams and drive continuous improvement.
• Strong coaching and talent development skills.
• Results-oriented with a focus on achieving business objectives.
• Deep technical expertise in claims resolution across multiple European jurisdictions.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and presentation skills.
• Advanced analytical and problem-solving abilities; able to manage multiple priorities effectively.
• Strong understanding of relevant regulatory and legal requirements.

The Company

CNA Hardy is a leading specialist commercial insurance provider for clients within the Lloyd’s and company markets. We offer a highly specialised and comprehensive portfolio of innovative and market leading products. Coverage is available to businesses of all sizes for domestic, international and global exposures.