Portfolio Solutions & Schemes Manager

Who are we?

Howden is a global insurance group with employee ownership at its heart. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and no-limits mindset, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team comprised of 24,000 employees spanning over 56 countries.

People join Howden for many different reasons, but they stay for the same one: our culture. It’s what sets us apart, and the reason our employees have been turning down headhunters for years. Whatever your priorities – work / life balance, career progression, sustainability, volunteering – you’ll find like-minded people driving change at Howden.

Based in our Dublin Ringsend office, Howden Ireland are delighted to have a vacancy as an Portfolio Solutions Manager that will be an integral part of our wider Howden Markets team.

About the role

The job holder will support with the successful delivery of the Howden Ireland’s placement strategy including retail schemes. They will work in the development and execution of Howden Ireland’s high level placement strategy driving insurer engagement to deliver market leading solutions for Howden Ireland clients. The individual will work with senior members of the business to develop, deliver, and manage specific portfolio solutions in line with Howden Ireland’s placement strategy. The individual will be a driving force for placement planning, management, and execution, in liaison with business stakeholders meeting agreed goals on time. Additionally, they are responsible for ensuring that day to day activities relative to this role operate in accordance with applicable Howden Ireland and/or Group policies and procedures pertaining placement and associated governance.

Key Responsibilities

Helps to shape and define portfolio and scheme strategy, scope, and objectives, involving all relevant stakeholders.

Delivers assigned projects and also contributes to other projects and initiatives, as required.

Supports the wider business strategy by contributing expertise and advice to the business.

Supports the overall growth of new business through executing appropriate placement strategies and developing & maintaining insurer relationships.

Provides support to others to achieve positive results, as required, and in line with strategy.

Helps achieve close strategic alignment between insurer partners and the business.

Provides relevant management information to senior management, as required.

Creates good practices, tools and processes for portfolio and scheme management and helps ensure that indicated standards are being followed.

Identifies risks, highlighting these to relevant parties in good time and ensuring mitigating action is taken.

Creates and maintains comprehensive portfolio and scheme documentation (e.g. PIDs, business cases, KPIs etc).

Measures portfolio and scheme performance using appropriate systems, tools, and techniques.

Creates reports against key performance metrics to support data-driven decision making.

Supports continuous improvement in portfolio and scheme delivery practice.

Acts as an escalation point for queries raised by insurers in order to ensure queries are handled efficiently and effectively; and a positive image of the company is presented.

Adopts and adheres to Howden Ireland Compliance and Governance practices.

Ensures up to date records are maintained at all times on all Howden Ireland systems.

Keep informed of all relevant legal and regulatory developments.

Follows the company processes and procedures.

Develops strong relationships with Business Units within Howden Ireland and external stakeholders.

Acts as a point of contact for internal broking team requirements and queries regarding portfolio and schemes.

Acts as a point of contact for insurer requirements and queries regarding portfolio and schemes.

Through networking, introduces business to other divisions, acting as a key contact in order to grow relationships.

Resolves insurer issues relating to portfolio and schemes and or escalates them to senior management as needed.

Promotes company values and contributes to a positive culture within Howden Ireland.

Promotes and instils confidence in Howden Ireland across all external stakeholders.

Ensures relevant Howden Ireland business units understands insurer requirements and demands.

Consistently delivers an excellent and comprehensive service to both internal & external clients (i.e., Howden broking teams and Insurer partners).

Shares information that could be beneficial to Howden Ireland.

Attends external seminars, forums, and events where necessary, to positively represent Howden Ireland and increase own knowledge and understanding of changing needs and market trends.

Acts as a role model by demonstrating a positive attitude and promoting continuous improvement.

Displays and instils a positive, highly collaborative and customer-centric culture.

Actively undertakes personal development.

Ensures compliance of self and team, where applicable, with all relative legal, fiscal, and regulatory obligations in the form of policies and procedures.

Ensures correct authorisation is obtained and processes followed as required by Howden Ireland.

Maintains accurate records and deals with correspondence appropriately.

Operates in an honest, professional, and ethical manner.

Strictly adheres to the Howden Ireland Employee Code of Conduct.

Completes all relevant regulatory training.

Remains competent to carry out role.

Works in accordance with applicable policies, processes, and procedures constituting the Information Security Management System.

About You:

8+ years’ experience preferably working in a portfolio management, placement, or scheme’s role.

Experience in market engagement, presentation, and high impact document delivery.

Experience in analysing datasets to assess their profitability, scalability, viability, and scope of opportunity.

Demonstrable experience of portfolio delivery throughout the whole lifecycle (i.e., from start-up to benefits realization).

Awareness of the compliance & regulatory environment.

CIP Qualified.

Educated to degree standard (desirable, but not essential).

Consultative and collaborative.

Highly organised, with good planning, prioritisation, and time management skills.

Analytical and able to solve problems.

Able to spot opportunities and be enterprising.

Customer focussed approach.

Strong inter-personal skills.

Able to work flexibly to achieve tight deadlines/targets.

Able to positively react to change.

About Howden Ireland:

Howden Ireland is part of Howden, the global insurance intermediary group, and has over 600 employees across 28 local offices advising clients on their commercial insurance, personal insurance, health insurance, life and pensions and mortgage requirements. Our success is primarily down to the incredible people we employ.

For more information, please visit About Us | Howden Ireland (howdengroup.com)

What do we offer in return?

A career that you define. At Howden, we value diversity – there is no one Howden type. Instead, we’re looking for individuals who share the same values as us:

Our successes have all come from someone brave enough to try something new

We support each other in the small everyday moments and the bigger challenges

We are determined to make a positive difference at work and beyond

Reasonable adjustments

We're committed to providing reasonable accommodations at Howden to ensure that our positions align well with your needs. Besides the usual adjustments such as software, IT, and office setups, we can also accommodate other changes such as flexible hours* or hybrid working*.

If you're excited by this role but have some doubts about whether it’s the right fit for you, send us your application – if your profile fits the role’s criteria, we will be in touch to assist in helping to get you set up with any reasonable adjustments