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About the Company
Our client, a publicly traded company, is the largest private residential mortgage insurer in Canada. With over 400 employees, the company provides mortgage default insurance to Canadian residential mortgage lenders, making homeownership more accessible to first-time homebuyers. For almost two decades, our client has supported the housing market by providing thought leadership and a focus on the safety and soundness of the mortgage finance system.
Scope of Position
Reporting to the Chief Risk Officer (CRO), the Vice President Risk Management will be responsible for overseeing the company’s Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) strategy and improving risk management capabilities across the company.
The successful candidate will also be responsible for overseeing the company’s annual Own Risk and Solvency Assessment (ORSA) and enterprise risk management framework, ensuring there are measures in place to identify, assess, manage, mitigate and report on key risks. Further to that, this role will be accountable for identifying potential operational efficiencies and business opportunities that may arise from enhanced risk processes, technology, data and analytics. As a key member of the risk team, the Vice President, Risk Management will help drive a culture of risk ownership and accountability across the organization
Responsibilities
- Manages a team responsible for the development and continued improvement of the Company’s ORSA, ERM strategy and governance processes, including the regular review of the Company’s risk appetite, tolerance and limits. Will work closely with the CRO and senior leadership team in the process
- Lead the enhancement of the risk framework, processes, practices and tools to enable the consistent identification and assessment of enterprise risks.
- Lead risk quantification efforts to better understand losses both expected and unexpected for all material risks
- Work closely with the CRO and help drive greater integration of organizational risks, risk appetite, strategy, capital allocation and decision making
- Owns the oversight of macroeconomic risk and is accountable for enhancing the Company’s framework for the identification, assessment, management and monitoring of emerging regional and economic risks.
- Works closely with the Actuarial and Modelling group to define and test potential adverse stress events in response to emerging risks. Support the development of contingency planning in accordance with stress results.
- Responsible for the development of qualitative and quantitative assumptions used in the loss forecasting and strategic planning process
- Identify and champion opportunities for improving insurance portfolio performance through enhanced data and risk analytics.
- Develop and maintain value-added risk reporting mechanisms to the executive and board level, including regular reviews of key enterprise risks and mitigation strategies.
- Lead efforts to embed new technologies & non-traditional data sources into risk management & operational processes. Enhance risk models used in the underwriting process, optimize risk adjusted returns and drive operational efficiency
- Supports business growth strategy through customized data, analytics & reporting for lenders
- Works closely with the company’s U.S. enterprise risk management leaders to ensure best practices are identified and brought to Canada. Will participate in the global enterprise risks management meetings.
- Represents the Company externally at key enterprise risk management conferences and forums
Preferred Experience/Education
- An undergraduate degree in Finance, Economics or Business Administration, preference for a Master’s degree, or post graduate training in Finance, Economics or Business Administration
- Enterprise Risk Analyst or other Risk Management related designation an asset
- Minimum 10 years’ experience in the financial services sector. Experience in mortgage insurance, mortgage lending and /or consumer credit a plus
- Minimum 10 years’ experience in risk management, Internal Audit or Compliance
- Expert knowledge in enterprise risk management practices in financial services/insurance environments
- Proven leadership in the establishment of governance structure, policies and/or programs within a business
- Deep knowledge of risk quantification methodologies
Competency Profile
Adaptability
Quickly adapts to new situations and approaches; Open to change and readily adopts new methods in the face of shifting priorities and ambiguity; Can alter own perspective and behaviour in order to adjust to changing demands and plans.
Team Skills
Helps to create a sense of team spirit and harmonious relations through cooperation and support; Balances personal goals with those of the team; Fosters collaboration among team members.
Strategic Approach
Develops a strategic plan to realize the vision; Revises strategy in light of changing circumstances; Takes a long-term view of organizational success; Works to clarify long term organizational goals; Able to stand back from immediate problems in order to focus on more far reaching ideas.
Problem Solving
Draws parallels across situations and contexts; Divides problems into their individual elements; Develops several explanations or alternatives; Separates the core of a problem from its symptoms and can identify cause and effect.
Communication
Expresses ideas in a clear, fluent and concise manner; Written and oral arguments are compelling and responsive to the needs of the audience; Comprehends communications from others and responds appropriately.
Planning & Objective Setting
Systematic in approach to work; Produces action plans in which objectives are defined and steps for achieving them are clearly specified; Plans by breaking down large task into subtasks; Develops plans that anticipate obstacles; Is realistic about time-scales and builds in appropriate checkpoints, milestones and controls in order to ensure that desired results are realized.
Remuneration & Benefits
Highly competitive compensation package tailored to the successful candidate.