Head of Group Risk Consulting (Life and Disability Benefits)

Company:

Mercer

Description:

Mercer, a Marsh Business, is seeking candidates for an exciting opportunity in our Health and Benefits Consulting Team. Reporting to the head of the Health & Benefits Practice, the successful candidate will have ownership of a high performing team providing group risk advisory and brokerage services to many of Ireland’s premier employers. They will lead and run the Group Risk Team including consulting, broking, operations, financial performance and business development. They must ensure high-quality delivery of market reviews, switches, renewals and advisory work while developing the team, driving cross-sell opportunities and maintaining effective insurer relationships. They will have responsibility for ensuring that the team meets its financial targets, delivering revenue growth and optimizing cost efficiency each year.

What can you expect:

• The Group Risk team delivers market reviews, switches and renewals for client life and disability programmes, and manages day-to-day servicing for a mix of large strategic clients and broader book. It generates multi-million euro annual revenue.
• The Group Risk team wins new business, while also supporting new business capture and onboarding on global, regional and cross-practice cases. The head of Group Risk consulting can expect to provide input to RFP submissions and proposals while also handling client relationship management responsibilities. 
• Good relationships must be maintained with Group Risk insurers, exercising influence on behalf of and in the interests of our clients and their employees.
• The Group Risk team operates across our Dublin and Cork offices (with work from home permitted up to 2 days per week).

We will rely on you to take responsibility for the following areas:

Financial & Operations (ownership)

• Own Risk team operations and financial performance, meeting and ideally exceeding an annual 7-figure revenue target.
• Maintain and update revenue tracker.
• Manage renewal of annual codes and setup of ad hoc codes.
• Produce monthly revenue forecasts, track commission payments, follow up with insurers for expected commission and statements.
• Approve fee budgets for market reviews informed by annual profitability analysis; adjust fee levels where required.
• Provide guidance on opportunity management using our CRM system
• Ensure annual Fee Update letters are issued each Oct/Nov and handle client queries/negotiation.
• Proactively assist other areas of MMB and of the wider Marsh business in achieving their own financial targets.
• Maintains templates, reporting and benchmarking databases used for client proposals, non-financial reporting and internal metrics.

New business & growth

• Identify new opportunities and manage opportunities on MPower CRM system; allocate or support cases as appropriate.
• Global Benefit Management (GBM) Operations: contribute Ireland-specific input to global RFPs (services, remuneration), run local onboarding (intro calls, risk policy collection, fee proposals, BORL/SOW/legal review, AML, MPower/MercerTime set-up).
• Liaison with other practices: work closely with Wealth Sales Leader on Master Trust bids, providing risk elements for combined RFPs.
• Collaborate with colleagues in other practices and geographies, participating in whitespace cross-sell initiatives.

Client management & technical delivery

• Act as key contact and manage Market Reviews/Switches for strategic clients.
• Manage Mercer’s internal risk plans (e.g., Income Protection plan) renewals and market reviews.
• Manage client complaints and E&O issues: ensure proper logging, investigation and satisfactory resolution.
• Support other Mercer teams in disputed claims/coverage matters by engaging insurer contacts and advocating for clients.

People management

• Line-manage Group Risk team: set goals, run annual performance reviews via Workday, manage workload and provide coaching.
• Hold fortnightly team calls for case coordination, resource planning and morale.
• Participate in recruitment, interview candidates and organise training/onboarding.
• Monitor completion of CPD requirements for team members.

Industry, compliance & insurer engagement

• Maintain insurer relationships and act as escalation point for complaints, disputed claims and E&O issues.
• Engage with new insurer entrants and support product development and strategic positioning.
• Manage transition planning when insurers exit: client communications and transfer to alternative providers.
• Support Insurer Consulting services: ensure timely data provision and attend insurer meetings.
• Work with Compliance on audits and update the Practice Process Manual as required.

Marketing, templates & reports

• Annually calculate and report market review savings statistics.
• Maintain and update Risk Proposal, Market Review Report (client & non-financial) templates, Statement of Work and Engagement Letter Schedule when charge-out rates change.
• Produce annual Risk Trends communications for internal/external stakeholders.

Advisory & product development

• Act as a key resource for advisory product development, benchmarking and actuarial pricing links.
• Keep the client benchmarking database current to support accurate reports and advisory work.
• Collaborate with Advisory colleagues on pricing, claims analysis and replacement spouse pensions opportunities.

What you will need to have:

• Full QFA and APA (Personal General Insurance) qualification, or equivalent enabling compliant consulting on group risk and medical benefits.
• Experienced insurance/risk professional with minimum 5 years in employee benefits/risk consulting or brokerage environment.
• Deep technical knowledge of group risk benefits (life, IP, critical illness, spouse pensions) and market review/switch processes.
• Experience with broking RFP processes, proposal development, fee setting and negotiating with insurers on behalf of clients.
• Hands-on experience with usage of CRM and time entry systems.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills — ability to influence internally and externally (insurers, clients).
• Strong project and operations management skills — ability to manage multiple market reviews, switches and onboarding flows concurrently.
• Good numeracy and analytical skills — comfortable with profitability analysis, commission tracking and actuarial liaison.
• Excellent written and verbal communication — client-facing and internal reporting.
• Knowledge of AML, compliance procedures and insurance regulatory environment in Ireland.

What makes you stand out:

• Strong commercial acumen with demonstrable P&L or budget ownership experience
• Proven experience managing a team, including performance management, coaching and recruitment.
• Experience with offshoring/managed services operations and liaising with international operations teams.
• Experience with actuarial or pricing teams and familiarity with benchmarking datasets.
• Proactive, solutions-focused, and able to drive change and continuous improvement.

Why join our team:

• You will be joining an established, successful, growing team with a track record of success
• We foster a vibrant and inclusive culture where you can collaborate with talented colleagues to create new solutions and have impact for colleagues, clients and communities.
• Our scale enables us to provide a range of opportunities further to advance your career.

Mercer is a business of Marsh (NYSE: MRSH), a global leader in risk, reinsurance and capital, people and investments, and management consulting, advising clients in 130 countries. With annual revenue of over $27 billion and more than 95,000 colleagues, Marsh helps build the confidence to thrive through the power of perspective. For more information about Mercer, visit mercer.com, or follow us on LinkedIn and X.

Marsh is committed to embracing a diverse, inclusive and flexible work environment. We aim to attract and retain the best people and embrace diversity of age, background, disability, ethnic origin, family duties, gender orientation or expression, marital status, nationality, parental status, personal or social status, political affiliation, race, religion and beliefs, sex/gender, sexual orientation or expression, skin color, Traveller community, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We are an equal opportunities employer. We are committed to providing reasonable support to any candidate with a disability/health condition to allow them to fully participate in the recruitment process. We welcome candidates to contact us at [email protected] to discuss any specific needs.

Marsh is committed to hybrid work, which includes the flexibility of working remotely and the collaboration, connections and professional development benefits of working together in the office. All Marsh colleagues are expected to be in their local office or working onsite with clients at least three days per week. Office-based teams will identify at least one “anchor day” per week on which their full team will be together in person.