Head of Business Services (Real Estate and Procurement)

Job Title: Head of Business Services (Real Estate and Procurement)

Division: BSS - Commercial Management

Location: US - West Hartford, Chicago, or Atlanta

Reports To: Chief Operating Officer

Key Relationships: All staff, senior management, and external / strategic suppliers

Team: Commercial Management teams in US and UK

Job Summary:

• Serve as a member of the COO Management Team, contributing to strategic discussions, team alignment, and overall operational effectiveness.
• Oversee the global procurement function, aligning it with organizational goals to drive efficiency, cost savings, technology-enabled process improvements and regulatory compliance. Lead the strategic global real estate plan, overseeing 25 offices (permanent leases and serviced offices), including sourcing, design, and fit-out of new locations.
• Manage day-to-day global facilities operations to ensure high standards and consistency across all offices.
• Effectively manage and support all office administrators globally, ensuring consistent service delivery, performance and alignment with stakeholder requirement. Manage the global travel program, including airline contract negotiations, oversight of travel management companies, and ensuring a cost-effective global hotel program.

FLSA: Exempt

Key Responsibilities:

Procurement Function:

• Oversee and lead the development and execution of global procurement strategies for complex, high-value global suppliers, ensuring alignment with organisational goals.
• Oversee and centralise major procurement activities to maximize economies of scale and cost efficiencies, including leveraging technology to optimize and streamline processes and procedures.
• Provide direct procurement support for managing complex, high-value global suppliers, including:
  • Defining third-party contract strategies.
  • Advising teams on smaller, team-specific contracts.
  • Developing and implementing performance measurement processes.
  • Offering guidance on interpreting contractual documentation.
  • Identifying and resolving commercial and supply issues.
  • Enhancing contract management through continuous improvement.
  • Ensuring alignment of procurement strategy with business objectives.
  • Working closely with internal stakeholders to ensure contractual service delivery and value for money.
• Effectively manage third party risk in alignment with Beazley's risk appetite
• Effectively manage the regulatory requirements in accordance with the regulatory guidance and expectations
• Oversight of the Group's Outsourcing Policy, providing oversight of material outsourced providers.
• Develop and maintain strategic relationships with key external suppliers to achieve mutual benefits and drive long-term value

Real Estate/Facilities Function:

• Lead and maintain a strategic global real estate plan that aligns with the business and talent needs, optimises space and costs.
• Source, design and fit out new spaces; renovate existing spaces, as required
• Drive forward-thinking strategies to ensure our offices enhance productivity, well-being, and support Beazley's sustainability ambitions.
• Build long-term relationships with Beazley' Landlords, strategic real estate brokers and architects;
• Conduct market analysis and negotiate optimal lease terms.
• Implement strategic budgeting practices, optimize costs, and ensure transparency in budget management.

Office Administration

• Lead the overall coordination of the office administration teams globally
• Facilitate effective communication between office admins to ensure consistency and alignment of office management best practices in all locations.
• Ensure compliance with applicable relevant laws and regulations including health and safety.
• Identify opportunities for continuous improvement and implement them as appropriate.

Travel Management Function:

• Lead a cost effective and efficient global travel program, including, negotiating favourable airline route deals and competitive preferred hotel, rail and car hire rates.
• Liaise with teams to ensure that best practices for travel expense management are adopted.

Leadership:

• Ensure that all employees have well-defined roles, responsibilities, reporting lines, and have clarity on how their roles contribute to organisational objectives, fostering clarity, accountability, and alignment.
• Recruit, lead and develop talent to meet current and future organisational needs, anticipating shifts in business demands and aligning with strategic goals.
• Ensure all employees possess the necessary knowledge and skills to perform effectively in their roles, providing ongoing training, mentoring and development opportunities.
• Monitor, develop, and support team members to help them achieve their full potential, fostering a culture of growth, collaboration, and high performance.

General:

It is important that within all your interactions both internally and externally you adhere Beazley's core values - Being Bold, Striving for Better, and Doing the Right Thing as they contribute to an internal environment of teamwork and promote a positive brand image and experience to our external customers.

We also expect Beazley employees to:

• Comply with Beazley procedures, policies and regulations including the code of conduct which incorporates the PRA and FCA Conduct.
• Undertake training on Beazley policies and procedures as delivered by your line manager, the People & Sustainability or assurance teams (compliance, risk, internal audit) either directly, via e-learning or the learning management system.
• Display business ethics that uphold the interests of all our customers.
• Ensure all interactions with customers are focused on delivering a fair outcome, including having the right products for their needs.
• Comply with any specific responsibilities necessary for your role as outlined by your line manager, the People & Sustainability or assurance teams (compliance, risk, internal audit) and ensure you keep up to date with developments in these areas.
• Carry out additional responsibilities as individually notified, either through your objectives or through the learning management system. These may include membership of any Beazley committees or working groups.

Personal Specification:

Education and Qualifications

• Graduate calibre

Skills and Abilities

• Proven ability to drive strategic initiatives in both Procurement and Real Estate disciplines
• Excellent written and oral communications skills. The ability to communicate technical and commercially related concepts to a broad range of technical and non-technical staff and management including, the Executive Team and the Board.
• The ability to prioritise work and deliver results in a pressurised environment, through tactical and strategic planning.
• Data-driven approach to inform and enhance commercial decisions and negotiations, ensuring strategies are evidence-based and aligned with business objectives
• Demonstrated ability to develop strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders and strategic partners including key vendor relationships, brokers and Landlords.
• Ability to lead global teams and demonstrate people-first leadership skills.

Knowledge and Experience

• Successful track record of managing procurement and real estate functions gained in a global environment
• Demonstrable track record of establishing new office space from sourcing, design and fit out; effective day to day facilities management of offices, in multiple geographical locations and time zones
• Experience in leading operational complexity and a business model with a highly regulated environment
• Experience managing large teams globally and remotely
• Track record of successfully delivering to deadlines

Aptitude and Disposition

• Commercial and data-driven
• Focused on achieving outcomes, self-motivated, and adaptable.
• Professional approach to interacting successfully with managers, colleagues, and external suppliers.
• Resourceful self-starter with strong networking and leadership skills.
• Willingness to travel as the role requires.

Competencies

• Strategic Planning: Develop and implement strategic Procurement, Real Estate, and Travel Management programs
• Financial Management: Conduct financial analysis; manage risks and budgeting.
• Negotiation: Strong competency in negotiating leases, third party contracts and agreements.
• Leadership: Guide and motivate teams; foster collaboration.
• Project Management: Manage projects; coordinate cross-functional teams.
• Risk Management: Identify and mitigate risks; conduct risk assessments.
• Analytical Skills: Interpret data; make data-driven decisions.
• Communication: Convey information simply and clearly; utilize strong verbal and written skills.

Who We Are:

Beazley is a specialist insurance company with over 30 years' experience helping people, communities and businesses to manage risk all around the world. Our mission is to inspire our clients and people with the confidence and freedom to explore, create and build - to enable businesses to thrive. Our clients want to live and work freely and fully, knowing they are benefitting from the most advanced thinking in the insurance market. Our goal is to become the highest performing sustainable specialist insurer.

Our products are wide ranging, from cyber & tech insurance to marine, healthcare, financial institutions and contingency; covering risks such as the weather, film production or protection from deadly weapons.

Our Culture

We have a wonderful mix of cultures, experiences, and backgrounds at Beazley with over 2,000 of us working around the world. Employee's diversity, experience and passion allow us to keep innovating and moving forward, delivering the best. We are proud of our family-feel culture at Beazley that empowers our staff to work from when and where they want, in an adult environment that is big on collaboration, diversity of thought and personal accountability. Our three core values inspire the way we work and how we treat our people and customers.

• Be bold
• Strive for better
• Do the right thing

Upholding these values every day has enabled us to become an innovative and responsive organization in touch with the changing world around us - our ambitious inclusion & diversity and sustainability targets are testament to this.

We are a flexible and innovative employer offering a friendly, collaborative, and inclusive working environment. We actively encourage and expect applications from all backgrounds. Our commitment to fostering a supportive and dynamic workplace ensures that every employee can thrive and contribute to our collective success.

Explore a variety of networks to assist with professional and/or personal development. Our Employee Networks include:

• Beazley RACE - Including, understanding and celebrating People of Colour
• Beazley SHE - Successful, High potential, Empowered women in insurance
• Beazley Proud - Our global LGBTQ+ community
• Beazley Wellbeing - Supporting employees with their mental wellbeing
• Beazley Families - Supporting families and parents-to-be

We encourage internal career progression at Beazley, giving you all the tools you need to drive your own career here, such as:

• Internal Pathways (helping you grow into an underwriting role)
• iLearn (our own learning & development platform)
• LinkedIn Learning
• Mentorship program
• External qualification sponsorship
• Continuing education and tuition reimbursement
• Secondment assignments

The Rewards

• The opportunity to connect and build long-lasting professional relationships while advancing your career with a growing, dynamic organization
• Attractive base compensation and discretionary performance related bonus
• Competitively priced medical, dental and vision insurance
• Company paid life, and short- and long-term disability insurance
• 401(k) plan with 5% company match and immediate vesting
• 22 days PTO (prorated for 1st calendar year of employment), 11 paid holidays per year, with the ability to flex the religious bank holidays to suit your religious beliefs
• Up to $700 reimbursement for home office setup
• Free in-office lunch, travel reimbursement for travel to office, and monthly lifestyle allowance
• Up to 26 weeks of fully paid parental leave
• Up to 2.5 days paid annually for volunteering at a charity of your choice
• Flexible working policy, trusting our employees to do what works best for them and their teams

Salary for this role will be tailored to the successful individual's location and experience. The expected compensation range for this position is $275,000 - $300,000 per year plus discretionary annual bonus.

Don't meet all the requirements? At Beazley we're committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace. If you're excited about this role but your experience doesn't perfectly align with every requirement and qualification in the job specification, we encourage you to apply anyway. You might just be the right candidate for this, or one of our other roles.