Senior Finance Business Partner

This is your opportunity to join AXIS Capital – a trusted global provider of specialty lines insurance and reinsurance.  We stand apart for our outstanding client service, intelligent risk taking and superior risk adjusted returns for our shareholders. We also proudly maintain an entrepreneurial, disciplined and ethical corporate culture.  As a member of AXIS, you join a team that is among the best in the industry.

At AXIS, we believe that we are only as strong as our people. We strive to create an inclusive and welcoming culture where employees of all backgrounds and from all walks of life feel comfortable and empowered to be themselves. This means that we bring our whole selves to work. 

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any protected characteristic, including age, color, disability, ethnicity, gender identity, marital status, national origin, pregnancy, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any basis prohibited by the laws that govern its operations.

Job Description: Senior Finance Business Partner

About the Team

Corporate FP&A sits at the centre of commercial decision-making, partnering directly with the CEO, CFO, ExCo and senior leaders across Corporate Functions, Reinsurance and ACS. The team connects planning, forecasting and performance insight to strategic choices, investment priorities and disciplined cost ownership. This is an opportunity to help shape a more forward-looking, commercially influential FP&A function.

How does this role contribute to our collective success?

The Senior Finance Business Partner will be a visible and influential finance partner to senior leadership, helping shape decisions, evaluate trade-offs and translate financial performance into clear commercial recommendations.

The role combines senior stakeholder partnering with deep technical expertise in expense management, including cost allocation, accounting treatment, workforce costs, accruals, forecasting, expense governance and management reporting. It also leads strategic planning, scenario modelling, Anaplan development and strong data governance.

What will you be doing in this role?

Business partnering and strategic decision support

• Lead Group expense management and reporting, ensuring costs are accurately classified, allocated, reconciled and translated into clear actions for senior leaders.
• Build trusted relationships with ExCo, the CFO and senior function leaders, bringing a clear finance perspective and constructive challenge.
• Translate strategic priorities into financial options, value drivers, trade-offs and recommended actions.
• Turn variance analysis, budgets and forecasts into decision-ready commentary that explains the “so what”, not just the movement in the numbers.
• Provide subject-matter expertise on expense accounting, including accruals, prepayments, capitalisation, intercompany charges, cost allocations and one-off items.
• Reconcile management expense reporting to the general ledger, investigate material variances and strengthen expense accountability with function leaders.

Planning, forecasting and scenario modelling

• Own and enhance the Anaplan Workforce model, including scenario planning, long-term forecasting and more frequent expense forecast updates.
• Lead driver-based budgeting, forecasting and long-range planning, reflecting workforce movements, vendor commitments, inflation, foreign exchange, allocations, capitalisation and accrual timing.
• Develop rapid workforce, expense and strategic scenarios that allow senior leaders to assess options in minutes rather than days.
• Use AI-enabled workflow opportunities to improve forecast quality, reduce manual effort and strengthen the team’s ability to focus on interpretation and advice.

Operational excellence, governance and controls

• Lead simplification, streamlining and automation opportunities across planning, reporting and close-related finance activities.
• Set data-control standards for right-first-time reporting, enforce policy compliance and internal controls, and monitor risk across the planning process.
• Hold functions accountable for spend through clear governance, transparent assumptions and consistent reporting standards.
• Identify process improvements and lead change initiatives that move the team from reporting production to higher-value analysis and advice.
• Develop expense dashboards, management reports and KPI reporting, including automated solutions that reduce manual effort and improve data accuracy.

Leadership and team contribution

• Supervise and develop a small team, including objectives, performance, development planning and day-to-day coaching.
• Act as a senior technical resource across finance, evaluating business needs and developing pragmatic solutions.
• Coach the wider FP&A team in commercial framing, Anaplan modelling, AI-enabled ways of working and concise executive communication.
• Work with significant autonomy, with process changes reviewed and approved by the Head of Corporate FP&A.

You may also be required to take on additional duties, responsibilities and activities appropriate to the nature of this role.

About you

We are looking for someone who combines strong FP&A and expense-management expertise with commercial judgement and the confidence to influence senior stakeholders.

What we’re looking for from you

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting or Economics; qualified accountant or equivalent finance qualification preferred, such as ACA, ACCA, CIMA, CPA or CFA.
• 7+ years of experience in FP&A, commercial finance or a closely related finance business partnering role.
• Proven experience partnering with senior leaders and ExCo-level stakeholders in a complex, multi-entity group.
• Strong technical knowledge of expense management and accounting, including cost classification, accruals, prepayments, capitalisation, allocations, workforce costs, foreign exchange and general-ledger reconciliation.
• Advanced modelling and scenario-forecasting skills, including confidence building and improving planning models.
• Experience with Anaplan, or comparable enterprise planning tools, and an interest in using AI and automation to improve finance workflows.
• Advanced literacy across PowerPoint, Excel, Power BI and enterprise finance / HR systems such as Workday, Oracle, SAP or Hyperion.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, with the ability to produce concise, senior-leader-ready commentary and recommendations.
• A track record of improving processes, controls, data quality and operating cadence in a finance environment with a focus on automation where possible.

Role factors:

• This is an office-based professional role, with hybrid working expectations consistent with AXIS policy and business needs.
• The role may require occasional business travel for leadership, planning or stakeholder meetings.
• No regular driving or manual lifting requirement is expected beyond normal office-based activities.
• The role requires flexibility during key planning, forecast, quarter-end and senior management cycle deadlines.

Success measures - first 12 months – a snapshot

Outcome

What good looks like

Trusted adviser

Recognised as a trusted finance partner who is involved early in key commercial and planning decisions.

Planning and scenarios

Anaplan Workforce model flexes headcount and expense scenarios quickly, with assumptions transparent and decision-ready.

Strategic options

Annual plan converted into funded options with clear value drivers, trade-offs and recommendations.

Forecast quality

Forecast accuracy and commentary quality improve, with clearer linkage between assumptions, drivers and outcomes.

Operational excellence

Close and planning bottlenecks reduced, routine reporting automated where practical, and data control improves right-first-time reporting.

What we offer:

We offer a comprehensive and competitive benefits package, including medical plans, health and wellness programs, retirement benefits, tuition reimbursement, paid annual leave and more.

For this position, we currently expect to offer a base salary in the range of $170,000-200,000 (New York location), based on factors including experience and work location.

In addition, you will be offered competitive target incentive compensation, with awards based on overall corporate and individual performance.

Where this role can either be based in or NYC office in the United States of America or in our London office in the UK, this role is Exempt for FLSA purposes.

This posting is for an existing vacancy.