Business Engagement Lead - Finance Operations

About Accelerant

Accelerant is a data-driven risk exchange connecting underwriters of specialty insurance risk with risk capital providers. Accelerant was founded in 2018 by a group of longtime insurance industry executives and technology experts who shared a vision of rebuilding the way risk is exchanged – so that it works better, for everyone. The Accelerant risk exchange does business across more than 20 different countries and 250 specialty products, and we are proud that our insurers have been awarded an AM Best A- (Excellent) rating. For more information, please visit www.accelerant.ai.

The Business Engagement Lead – Finance Operations will act as the primary bridge between Finance leadership and Technology, ensuring that business priorities are understood, technology strategies are aligned, and solutions are designed and delivered to meet business outcomes. This role requires equal fluency in the language of finance and technology, serving both as the voice of the business within technology and the voice of technology within the business.

The role will be accountable for capturing business needs, shaping demand, guiding product and capability roadmaps, and ensuring the delivery of solutions that balance short-term requirements with long-term platform capabilities, with hand off to delivery teams, providing ongoing guidance and business input to ensure the delivered solutions align to agreed outcomes and expectations. The role has accountability for the Finance Operations function.

By fostering trust-based partnerships with Finance stakeholders, this role will ensure that investments in technology are tightly aligned to business strategy and value delivery.

Strategic Business Partnership

• Serve as the trusted advisor and primary interface for leadership in Finance Operations function.
• Ensure IT investments and initiatives are directly aligned to Finance strategy and business goals.
• Build trust and foster strategic dialogue between Finance and Technology.

Demand Management & Requirements Definition

• Capture, elicit, and document Finance business requirements with precision and clarity.
• Translate business needs into actionable requirements, ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture.
• Hand-off requirements to technical delivery teams, while continuing to provide input and act as the business voice during design and build.

Roadmap & Capability Alignment

• Own and manage Finance products and capability roadmaps, ensuring priorities are visible, sequenced, and achievable.
• Define Finance capabilities, processes, and models to create a blueprint for aligning initiatives with enterprise strategy.
• Balance short-term delivery needs with long-term platform capabilities and scalability.

Business Outcome Ownership

• Own all business outcomes delivered by BSGIT for Finance Operations function in Finance.
• Partner with delivery teams to ensure delivered solutions provide measurable business benefit.
• Monitor progress against outcomes, escalate risks, and validate that solutions meet expectations.

Stakeholder Engagement & Leadership

• Act as the primary interface with Finance leadership, ensuring business needs and priorities are consistently represented.
• Be accountable for the business outcomes delivered for Finance Operations  through BSGIT, ensuring solutions meet expectations across all Finance capabilities.
• Actively engage in Finance leadership forums to align goals, priorities, and outcomes.
• Champion Finance’s needs within enterprise planning and sequencing processes.

Experience:

• 10+ years in business engagement / product management / finance–technology partnership roles within Financial Services, Insurance or Tech.
• Proven track record owning business outcomes for Finance while partnering with technology delivery (not accountable for technical delivery).
• Experience leading a small team of Business Engagement resources and orchestrating outcomes across Finance Operations.
• Demonstrated ability to translate complex Finance needs into clear, testable requirements and to manage capability/product roadmaps.
• Hands-on exposure working alongside ERP/EPM and Finance transformation programs.
• Professional credentials such as CPA/ACCA/CIMA, or product/analysis certifications.

Skills:

• Requirements elicitation & documentation: user stories, acceptance criteria, process mapping, and traceability to outcomes.
• Roadmap & prioritization: demand intake, sequencing, and value-based prioritization with clear success criteria.
• Stakeholder leadership: senior-level facilitation, influence, conflict resolution, and clear, executive-ready communication.
• Portfolio governance: intake triage, dependency/risk management, and outcome tracking across multiple Finance workstreams.
• Financial & analytical acumen: ability to interpret P&L/BS/Cash Flow implications and translate into system/process requirements.
• Change management & adoption: readiness planning, training/enablement, and business process embedding.
• Data literacy: understanding of Finance data models, controls, reporting/MI needs, and regulatory considerations (e.g., audit/SOX).

Preferred

• Experience with the implementation of Coupa or other spend management system(s).
• Familiarity with insurance/finance regulatory frameworks (e.g., SoX, US GAAP) and internal controls.
• Exposure to data & integration ecosystems (e.g., Snowflake, Microsoft Fabric, dbt, integration middleware).
• Working knowledge of Agile/Scaled Agile practices and product tooling (e.g., Jira, ADO).