Manager, Claims & Insurance

Preamble

At American Water, we are dedicated to delivering clean, safe, reliable and affordable water and wastewater services to our communities. Effective, efficient, and intelligent insurance claims management, oversight, and forecasting are essential to this mission. As the Claims & Insurance Manager, you will be instrumental in managing and optimizing our Insurance-Claims programs, ensuring that our insurance policies provide maximum protection and reimbursement allowable under law or the insuring agreement. Reporting to the Sr. Manager, Insurance (or Director, Insurance), you will be responsible for overall claims management (including, uninsured claims) at American Water. You will oversee coordination, management, and oversight of all internal and external investigations, historical and forecasted data analyses, and eventual resolution of all insurance- and non-insurance claims. Additionally, you will act as an in-house subject matter expert on evaluating overall liability and financial exposures and recommending settlement strategy in partnership with internal and external stakeholders (including legal counsels). You will have responsibility for managing claims team members with a diverse range of professional expertise and experience. This role offers an exciting opportunity for a detail-oriented and solutions-focused individual with experience in claims management, insurance program oversight, contractual risk transfer, project management, and/or litigation management. If you have a proactive mindset and a commitment to excellence, we would love to hear from you.

Primary Role

This role is responsible for the management of American Water’s overall loss control, risk control, and analytics-focused claims programs, including but not limited to overall ownership of insurance claims for:
•    Property and Casualty: Auto Liability, General Liability, Workers' Compensation, Property, and Cyber Liability Claims.
•    Executive Lines: Directors' & Officers' Liability, Employment Practices Liability, etc.
•    Financial Lines: Surety Bonds, Fiduciary Liability, etc.
This position will own and lead all aspects of the claims function as a subject matter expert partnering with a variety of internal and external business areas. 

This role will be instrumental in helping our Insurance program with the following three key long-term goals: (1) Make insurance a frictionless experience; (2) Buy the "right” insurance at the “right” price with the “right” insurers; and (3) Mature from insurance purchase to strategic risk-sharing with insurers. 

Key Accountabilities

•   Claims Management: Lead and manage the development, implementation, and administration of the company’s analytics-focused claims programs including:
  o    Oversight of all insurance-related claims.
  o    Leading coverage negotiations with insurers and other third parties.
  o    Ensure proper communication and notices of incidents and/or claims to external partners including but not limited to umbrella and excess insurers as well as brokers
  o    Responding to reservation of rights letters
  o    Cultivate strong relationships with insurance claims personnel, insurance brokers, defense counsels, and all external third parties to minimize the financial loss to American Water or maximize insurance recovery.
  o    Reviewing claim reserves to ensure adequacy and accuracy 
  o    Oversee all third-party claims administrators, as well as third-party service providers, including surveillance firms, investigation firms, and other third-parties as necessary.
  o    Ensures the production of accurate, predictable, and reliable claims data, facilitating claims strategy meetings and continuous evaluation of self-insured retentions. 
  o    Lead, train, and motivate the next generation of insurance claims professionals, ensuring appropriate redundancy, and backup. 
  o    Ensure that all first-party claims, including property claims are adjudicated promptly, efficiently, cost-effectively, and coordinate all components of payment and reimbursement.
  o    Coordinate aspects of complex, sensitive, and non-traditional claims (i.e., Employment Practices, Cyber, Directors’ & Officer’s and others as needed).
  o    Act as the primary Claims contact, providing notices, summaries and updates to external partners (including regulatory bodies), as needed, throughout the insurance renewal & claims management processes in coordination with the Sr. Manager, Insurance (or Director, Insurance)

Key Accountabilities Cont'd

• Contractual Risk Transfer: Assist the Sr. Manager, Insurance or Director, Insurance with all programmatic aspects of the enterprise Contractual Risk Transfer program resulting in an efficient, transparent, and seamless/frictionless experience:
  o    Supplier-facing: Assist with all aspects of standardized supplier-facing contractual risk transfer protocols based on enterprise risk guidelines.
  o    Customer-facing: Assist with all aspects of standardized customer-facing contractual risk transfer protocols in compliance with internal risk-transfer protocols.
  o    Regulator-facing: Assist with all aspects of standardized regulator-facing contractual risk transfer protocols to in compliance with regulatory and internal risk-transfer protocols.
  o    Partner with internal (Supply Chain, Procurement, Legal, etc.) as well as external (brokers) partners to effectuate an effortless and self-sufficient Contractual Risk Transfer program.
  o    Facilitate a centralized process for all contractual requests including standardized processes for Certificates of Insurance, Railroad Professional Liability, and other contract review inquiries.
•  Claims/Data Analysis: Partner with Operations Excellence, Engineering, Operations, Legal, and 12+ internal stakeholders to conduct analyses of historical losses as well as proactive/predictive loss forecasting to inform appropriate type and level risks to be insured or to evaluate financial risk to the organization.
  o    Lead all analytical processes to find opportunities for cost-effective claim resolution strategies for insured and uninsured losses.
  o    Conduct routine claims-focused analyses of uninsured and uninsurable exposures to American Water’s balance sheet.
•  Compliance: Conduct all compliance-related activities for the Insurance-Claims Team, in compliance with internal policies and statutory laws or other government regulations. Examples include, but are not limited to:
  o    Compliance with applicable Internal Audit, Sarbanes-Oxley mandates and other internal policies.
  o    Monopolistic state Worker’s Compensation programs.
  o    State-specific claims adjudication guidelines and requirements.
  o    Compliance with other applicable laws, rules, and regulations.

Key Accountabilities Cont'd

• Captive Oversight & Special Projects: Undertake all claims-related responsibilities pertaining to self-insured insurance programs (including captives) and lead special projects as needed.
  o    Claims administration for self-insurance programs, including captive placements.
  o    Lead analytics-focused initiatives to optimize risk-transfer and self-insurance solutions.
• Enterprise Crisis Response: act as the primary and lead liaison for the Enterprise Crisis Response Team (ECRT) to ensure claims readiness and responsiveness. This component of the role requires providing 24/7 coverage leading a team of 2-3 individuals to ensure that the insurance claims function is equipped and staffed to respond to foreseen and unforeseen crises. Activities include, but are not limited to:
  o    Partnering with external third-party claims administrators and other third parties to practice emergencies & scenarios.
  o    Developing emergency response plans in partnership with external vendors and internal partners to support the business in the event of a crisis.
  o    Deploying staff and external resources immediately following the crisis to mitigate the financial impact of an insurance loss or crisis to our customers or other stakeholders. 

Knowledge/Skills

• Excellent written & verbal communication skills.
• Excellent written & verbal negotiation skills.
• Excellent presentation skills with the ability to provide monthly summarized updates to external stakeholders & executives.
• Structured problem-solving approach with demonstrated aptitude for analytical and conceptual problem-solving.
• Ability to work collaboratively with people at all levels in an organization.
• Prior experience leading and managing a complex claims unit, including deep familiarity with products-liability claims, general liability claims, automobile liability claims, and financial lines claims such as cyber, fiduciary, fidelity, employment practices liability, etc.
• Deep understanding of the property, casualty, and financial lines of insurance, with an emphasis on claim trends and the litigation landscape.
• Prior experience with complex, highly-litigated, multiparty and multiclaimant claims, including class action claims with a demonstrated ability to de-escalate and mitigate high-value claims in a cost-efficient manner.
• Ability to articulate financial claims exposure as well as litigation strategy with the Senior / Executive Leadership Team of a large organization.
• Knowledge of insurance markets and industry trends.
• Familiarity with internal regulatory compliance (e.g., Sarbanes-Oxley, Internal Audit).
• Familiarity with external regulatory compliance (e.g., Contractual compliance, monopolistic states, etc.).
• Prior experience with contract reviews, contractual risk transfer, insurance certificate management, and claims handling.
• Strong understanding of loss control, risk analysis, and cost-benefit analysis related to claims management programs.

Experience/Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Insurance, Risk, Finance, Analytics, Law, or similar areas.
• Master’s degree in a relevant field, such as Law, Litigation Management, Negotiations, etc. is advantageous.
• A Juris Doctor (JD) or similar legal professional degree is advantageous and considered in lieu of experience.
• 5-8 or more years within an insurance company, broker, or corporate risk transfer function with responsibility for claims management, administration, or oversight.
• Experience as a corporate (in-house) claims manager or professional with a large, complex firm is highly desirable.
• Experience as an insurance claims consultant or a corporate in-house litigation counsel or a claims lead.
• Prior experience leading and managing individuals and teams including training and development of Insurance-Claims Analysts. 
• Proficiency with Microsoft products and knowledge of eCARMA and RISKTRAC or other analytical claims software. 
• Broad understanding of insurance policy coverages, terms, conditions and exclusions.
• Knowledge of and experience with water utility and related services business risks is preferred but not required.
• Knowledge of federal, state and local laws, regulations and tariffs applicable to utilities is preferred but not required.

Certifications/Licenses

• Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) or similar designation.
• Registered Professional Liability Underwriter (RPLU) or similar designation.
• Associate in Risk Management (ARM) or similar certification.
• Associate in Claims (AIC) or similar certification.

Work Environment

Hybrid (Camden, NJ)

Travel Requirements

Up to 15% - nationwide.

Competencies