Group Head of Planning and Forecasting

Job Type:

Permanent

Build a brilliant future with Hiscox

About the Role

The Head of Planning & Forecasting is responsible for leading the planning and forecasting capability within the Group FP&A Centre of Excellence.

The role defines and governs how financial planning and forecasting is delivered across the Group, ensuring outputs are consistent, robust, and support effective decision-making. The job holder is accountable for establishing planning frameworks, improving forecast accuracy, and ensuring clear alignment between planning, forecasting, and performance management outputs.

Key Responsibilities

Lead planning & forecasting across the Group

• Accountable for the delivery of the Group-wide annual business planning process, including governance, timelines, and coordination across business units
• Responsible for quarterly forecasting and rolling reforecast processes, ensuring outputs are consistent, accurate, and aligned to business performance
• Defines and embeds driver-based planning methodologies across the organisation
• Challenges assumptions with senior stakeholders to improve the quality and robustness of financial plans
• Ensures scenario analysis, stress testing, and sensitivity modelling are embedded within planning processes
• Supports long-term planning, ensuring alignment with capital requirements, risk considerations, and actuarial assumptions

Drive transformation

• Acts as Group process owner for planning and forecasting, setting standards, governance, and policies
• Drives standardisation and simplification of planning processes across business units
• Improves forecast accuracy and transparency through enhanced modelling, data, and assumptions
• Leverages systems and automation to improve efficiency and reduce manual activity

Management Information (MI) & Reporting

• Own the integration between planning outputs and management information, ensuring consistency between plan and forecast outputs.
• Partner with the Performance Management Team to align KPI definitions, assumptions and reporting structures.
• Ensure MI outputs reflect key business drivers and provide a clear link to forecast assumptions.
• Drive improvements in clarity, consistency and efficiency of MI processes, with a focus on forward-looking insight and decision support.

Must Haves

• Strong FP&A leadership experience with deep expertise in financial modelling, planning and forecasting. Experience in insurance or financial services is preferred.
• Degree level education and professionally qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent).
• Strong understanding of finance processes within a complex organisational environment. Experience of off-shoring processes is preferred.
• Excellent analytical capability, with the ability to interpret financial data and translate it into clear business insight.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence, challenge and build credibility with senior leaders.
• Experience of driving process improvement and supporting change within finance environments.
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to present complex information clearly and effectively.
• High level of attention to detail, sound judgement and strong commercial awareness.
• Experience of using financial systems, planning tools and data analytics to support decision-making.
• Proactive and independent approach, with the ability to manage competing priorities and deliver to deadlines.

About Hiscox

As an international specialist insurer, we are far removed from the world of mass market insurance products. Instead, we are selective and focus on our key areas of expertise and strength - all of which is underpinned by a culture that encourages us to challenge convention and always look for a better way of doing things.

We ensure the unique and the interesting. And we search for the same when it comes to talented people. Hiscox is full of smart, reliable human beings that look out for customers and each other. We believe in doing the right thing, making good and rebuilding when things go wrong.

Everyone is encouraged to think creatively, challenge the status quo and look for solutions.

Scratch beneath the surface and you will find a business that is solid, but slightly contrary. We like to do things differently and constantly seek to evolve. We might have been around for a long time (our roots go back to 1901), but we are young in many ways, ambitious and going places.

Some people might say insurance is dull, but life at Hiscox is anything but. If that sounds good to you, get in touch.

Diversity and flexible working at Hiscox

At Hiscox we care about our people. We hire the best people for the job, and we are committed to diversity and creating a truly inclusive culture, which we believe drives success.

Working life does not always have to be in the office so we have introduced hybrid working to encourage a healthy work life balance.

This hybrid working model is set by the team rather than the business to enable you to manage your own personal work-life balance. We see it as the best of both worlds; structure and sociability on one hand, and independence and flexibility on the other.

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Work with amazing people and be part of a unique culture