Sr Claims Manager

Description

Casualty Senior Claims Manager — Casualty Specialized Claims

We are seeking a Senior Claims Manager with at least 10+ years of relevant experience to join our Casualty Specialized Claims team. This leadership role is responsible to guide, plan, and lead the strategic direction of the team. You will manage a team of specialized Claims Managers overseeing highly technical, severe-exposure portfolios including Environmental, Employers Liability, Excess, Employment Practices Liability (EPLI), Agent Errors & Omissions (E&O), Coverage B – Personal & Advertising Injury, Employer Benefits Liability, and Emerging Risks.

 

Primary Responsibilities

• Strategic & People Leadership: Set the operational and technical direction of the team while leading, coaching, and developing specialized Claims Managers to drive performance across diverse specialty lines. Think strategically and broadly about claim trends, team capacity, inventory complexity, and future resource needs, including identifying staffing impacts and recommending proactive solutions to support effective claim handling.
• Stakeholder Communication: Collaborate effectively with internal partners, legal counsel, underwriting, actuarial, risk control, reinsurance, and other stakeholders to develop coordinated claim strategies. Present complex claim strategies, risk mitigations, emerging trends, and operational initiatives to key stakeholders, including executive leadership, underwriters, and reinsurers.
• Litigation & Legal System Abuse: Lead strategies to counter legal system abuse, including nuclear verdicts, third-party litigation funding, reptile tactics, and anchoring. Partner with defense counsel, underwriting, analytics, and other business partners to protect loss-cost integrity and drive disciplined outcomes.
• Portfolio Oversight & Analytics: Monitor high-severity exposures and multi-party casualty litigation, using litigation analytics to identify exposures early and track venue trends, adverse-development drivers, and emerging litigation theories. Maintain a forward-looking view of the changing legal environment and its potential impact on claim outcomes and portfolio performance.
• Financial & Vendor Stewardship: Ensure reserve accuracy and adequacy, set settlement authorities, forecast financial impacts, and manage loss-cost and volatility trends in partnership with actuarial and reinsurance teams. Oversee panel counsel selection, performance, litigation strategy, and litigation spend.
• Strategic Acumen & Operational Excellence: Demonstrate a broad, enterprise-focused perspective when evaluating emerging trends, portfolio implications, and long-term claim outcomes. Identify complex issues, evaluate options, and implement practical, effective solutions. Develop, implement, and refine claim-handling protocols, procedures, escalation frameworks, and best practices for complex casualty, environmental, mass tort, toxic tort, latent injury, and other specialty claim portfolios.
• Travel: Travel as needed to support business needs, including stakeholder meetings, leadership engagements, litigation activities, and industry events.

Requirements

• Experience: 10+ years of commercial specialty claims experience, including significant coverage issues and severe-exposure casualty work, with 5+ years of leadership experience; a proven track record of managing and developing other claims people-leaders is a plus.
• Technical Breadth: Deep expertise across multiple specialty lines, specifically Environmental, EPLI, Professional Liability (E&O), mass tort litigation/MDL/class action, Umbrella, Excess, and the full range of Coverage B – Personal and Advertising Injury exposures (particularly, defamation, advertising injury/copyright, trade dress, and slogan offenses). Knowledge of Guidewire Claims System, a plus. Experience developing, implementing, and refining claim-handling protocols, procedures, and best practices for environmental, mass tort, toxic tort, latent injury, and other complex claim portfolios a plus.
• Protocols & Best Practices: Experience developing, implementing, and refining claim-handling protocols, procedures, escalation practices, and best practices for environmental, mass tort, toxic tort, latent injury, and other complex claim portfolios a plus.
• Education & Credentials: Bachelor's degree required; Juris Doctor (JD), MBA, CPCU, or RPLU designations are a plus.

Location note: Candidates within a 50-mile radius of one of our GRS claims offices (Westborough, MA; Boston, MA; Hoffman Estates, IL; Indianapolis, IN; Lake Oswego, OR; Las Vegas, NV; Chandler, AZ; Plano, TX; Suwanee, GA; or Weatogue, CT) will be expected to be in-office at least twice weekly. This requirement is subject to change. 

Qualifications

• Bachelors' degree or equivalent training; advanced degrees or certifications preferred
• A minimum of 10 years of relevant and progressively more responsible work experience required, including at least 7 years of supervisory experience
• At least 7 years claims handling within a technical specialty
• Requires advanced knowledge of claims handling concepts, practices, procedures and techniques, including, but not limited to coverage issues, product lines, marketing, computers and product competition within the marketplace
• Requires advanced knowledge of a technical specialty
• Knowledge of law and insurance regulations in various jurisdictions
• The ability to effectively interact with brokers and internal departments is also required
• Strong verbal and written communications and organizational skills
• Strong negotiation, analytical and decision making skills also required

Travel

25%