FP & A Planning Director
Join Starr, a global leader in commercial insurance with over a century of expertise. We empower our employees to innovate, make impactful decisions, and build lasting client relationships worldwide. At Starr, you'll work in an entrepreneurial culture alongside accessible leaders, leveraging our financial strength and vast industry experience to deliver solutions for our clients, no matter how complex. Grow your career with a rapidly growing company that invests in its people and their ability to drive real progress.
The Planning Analyst supports comprehensive financial and strategic planning processes for Starr companies. This hands-on role is instrumental in driving the planning, budgeting, and forecasting cycles; managing target-setting and financial outlooks; overseeing allocation methodologies; and maintaining planning-related models in Anaplan and other tools. The Analyst also assists with portfolio optimization, capital allocation, reinsurance structuring, surplus management, and capital modeling for rating agencies and regulatory purposes. The position works collaboratively across Finance, Actuarial, Underwriting, and business leadership to ensure robust, data-driven decision-making and alignment with business strategies.
Key Responsibilities:
- Planning, Budgeting & Forecasting:
Support and participate in the end-to-end planning, budgeting, and regular reforecasting cycles, consolidating inputs from business units and ensuring timelines and data integrity.
- Target-Setting & Financial Outlooks:
Coordinate target-setting processes and develop financial outlooks, using analysis of performance drivers and industry trends to inform executive decision-making.
- Allocations & Methodology Management:
Develop, document, and refine allocation processes relating to expense and capital allocations; ensure methodologies remain robust, transparent, and aligned with business objectives.
- Planning Systems & Anaplan Management:
Maintain and enhance planning-related Anaplan models and processes. Partner with IT COE on development, model governance, and user training.
- Portfolio Optimization & Capital Allocation Support:
Support portfolio optimization, capital allocation, reinsurance structure reviews, and surplus management initiatives through robust financial analysis and scenario modeling.
- Regulatory & Rating Agency Capital Models:
Assist in developing and maintaining capital models to support rating agency submissions, regulatory requirements, and internal risk appetite assessments.
- Reporting & Analysis:
Prepare planning reports, forecasts, presentations, and dashboards for management and Board audiences, offering insight into key assumptions, sensitivities, and risks.
- Stakeholder Collaboration:
Build strong relationships with Finance, Actuarial, Risk, Underwriting, and Reinsurance teams to collect input, socialize results, and drive planning-related initiatives.
- Continuous Improvement:
Recommend and implement enhancements to planning, modeling, and reporting processes to improve accuracy, efficiency, and business value.
- Ad Hoc Analysis:
Respond to management requests for ad hoc financial analysis, scenario modeling, and support for strategic business initiatives.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Business, Economics, Actuarial Science, or related field; advanced degree (MBA, CFA, CPA, or actuarial credentials) strongly preferred.
- 2-5 years of financial planning and analysis experience, preferably in (re)insurance or financial services.
- Experience managing budgeting, forecasting, and target-setting cycles.
- Strong knowledge of allocation methodologies (expenses, capital) in insurance.
- Direct experience working with Anaplan (or comparable planning tools, e.g., Anaplan); model building experience an asset.
- Familiarity with capital modeling for rating agencies and regulatory regimes (e.g., AM Best, S&P, RBC/ORSA frameworks).
- Advanced analytical and financial modeling skills (Excel, SQL, etc.).
- Strong verbal and written communication skills; ability to influence and partner at multiple levels.
- Project management and process improvement mindset.
Preferred Skills:
- Solid understanding of commercial property and casualty insurance operations, reinsurance structures, and financial drivers.
- Experience supporting strategic planning, capital management, or portfolio optimization initiatives.
- Proficiency with data visualization tools (e.g., Power BI) and reporting best practices.
Starr is an equal opportunity employer, which means we'll consider all suitably qualified applicants regardless of gender identity or expression, ethnic origin, nationality, religion or beliefs, age, sexual orientation, disability status or any other protected characteristic. We recruit and develop our people based on merit and we're committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We offer first class training and development opportunities to all employees. Our aim is to grow our own talent and bring out the best in people.