Risk Management Director

Best People + Right Culture drive JE Dunn’s success. By hiring inspired people, giving them interesting and challenging work, enabling them with innovative tools, and letting them share in the company’s rewards, we’ve sustained growth in our industry for over 100 years. Our diverse teams across the country enrich lives through inspired people and places every day, and we need inspired individuals like you to join us in building authentic partnerships.

About the Role

The Risk Management Director leads the Risk Management team and is responsible for the strategy, execution, and continuous improvement of the Company’s insurance, surety, captive, claims, and various risk compliance programs. This role partners closely with groups across the organization—including Legal, Accounting/Finance, Operations, and HR—as well as external partners such as brokers, carriers, and sureties to align risk strategy with JE Dunn’s business objectives, protect the company’s assets, support growth, and inform risk-based decision-making.

Responsibilities

• Establish the Risk Management department strategy, governance model, annual priorities, service expectations, and performance standards, building partnerships to align risk strategy with business priorities.
• Lead annual, triennial, and other scheduled procurement, placement, renewal, and administration of corporate insurance, contractor-controlled insurance programs (CCIP), subcontractor default insurance (SDI), captive insurance, builder’s risk, project-specific policies, surety-related programs, and other risk transfer solutions.
• Oversee project-specific, owner-provided, joint venture, subsidiary, investment, and development-related insurance placements and risk transfer structures, including review of unique or high-risk coverage issues.
• Oversee all aspects of insurance program administration, including exposure tracking, enrollments, and compliance with program requirements. Collaborate with internal teams on insurance pricing, premium charges, and risk financing and allocation.
• Lead or support the claims governance process for subcontractor default, builder’s risk, auto, workers’ compensation, general liability, bond, and other insured claims, including reserve review, claim reviews, settlement strategy, loss trend analysis, carrier/TPA performance, and coordination with Legal, Accounting, Safety, and other departments.
• Oversee the processing, payment, resolution, and financial tracking of complex, high-exposure, or strategically significant insurance and subcontractor default claims in coordination with Legal, Accounting, Finance, Operations, brokers, carriers, TPAs, and outside advisors.
• Oversee trade partner financial risk evaluation, contractor prequalification, and subcontractor default underwriting; lead owner creditworthiness analysis to reduce enterprise risk and support project execution.
• Oversee lower-tier insurance certificate review processes, program enrollment, and other related risk management compliance activities.
• Oversee surety agency and bond services, including bond authorization requests, bond issuance, riders, bondability letters, joint venture bonds, surety submissions, surety billing and payments, rate verification, owner inquiries, final bond closeouts, and surety relationship management.
• Lead captive insurance company strategy and administration, including underwriting support, policy development, placement, reserve setting, collateral strategy, claims handling, actuarial coordination, board support, rate development, and evaluation of captive growth opportunities.
• Develop and maintain risk dashboards, claim trend reporting, key performance indicators, cost-of-risk reporting, and executive-level risk insights for leadership decision-making.
• Negotiate, manage, and oversee strategic relationships and contractual arrangements with brokers, carriers, sureties, TPAs, actuaries, consultants, vendors, and other risk service providers to preserve capacity, optimize program structure, and support JE Dunn’s growth and competitive positioning.
• Advise Operations, Marketing, and project teams on risk-related owner discussions, RFPs, prequalification submissions, insurance requirements, surety support, risk product positioning, and project-specific risk mitigation.
• Partner with Safety/IPS, HR, Legal, Operations, and other enterprise owners on workers’ compensation, auto/MVR governance, safety-related loss trends, and risk mitigation initiatives.
• Support crisis and emergency response process development, training, and execution in coordination with Communications, Safety/IPS, Legal, Operations, and executive leadership, focusing on insurance, claims, documentation, and risk mitigation implications.
• Develop and update Risk Management policies, SOPs, and other materials, providing training, education, and guidance on insurance, surety, subcontractor default, claims, risk transfer, and other risk management best practices.
• Represent the Company in construction industry risk management, insurance, captive, surety, and related associations or peer groups.
• Lead and continuously improve the Risk Management team by integrating insurance, surety, claims, subcontractor default/prequalification, captive, risk financing, risk reporting, and risk compliance into a coordinated enterprise function.
• Assist the Chief Legal Officer in developing and implementing enterprise governance, risk, and compliance initiatives related to insurance, claims, risk transfer, information security incident response support, risk reporting, and enterprise risk controls.
• Collaborate with the CLO and the chair of the Board of Directors’ Audit Committee to update annually the Enterprise Risk Management assessment and matrix based on input from the executive Leadership Team, company data, and evaluation by the CEO, CLO, CFO, and COO.
• Lead Company collateral strategy, reserve strategy, actuarial engagements, risk-financing mechanisms, and other financial-risk structures associated with insurance, captive, subcontractor default, and surety programs.
• Negotiate or oversee all agreements for Risk Management third-party vendors and service providers in coordination with Legal, as applicable.
• Provide concise, decision-ready reporting to the Chairman, CEO, COO, CLO, CFO, and other senior leaders regarding risk program performance, cost of risk, claims trends, collateral, insurance market conditions, surety capacity, risk mitigation priorities, and emerging exposures.
• Coordinate recurring enterprise risk summit/risk analysis processes for the Company and captive, including issue identification, risk prioritization, cross-functional ownership, mitigation planning, and follow-through.
• Identify opportunities to enhance the captive, insurance agency, surety platform, risk financing model, risk products, and related Risk Management services that support JE Dunn operations and strategic growth.
• Establish decision rights, escalation thresholds, governance routines, and accountability mechanisms for Risk Management matters with material legal, financial, operational, reputational, or executive-level impact.

Financial Leadership

• Own comprehensive financial responsibility (e.g., financial plans, budgets, forecasts, reserves, audits, billings, and other financial controls) for an entire work program to minimize risk and variance, and to maximize contributions to company revenue and margin.
• Direct and oversee financial management across one or more levels of employees to optimize financial results for the work program.
• Review and assess financial data, reports, and records. Ensure employee compliance with related procedures to ensure effective and efficient operations.
• Create and communicate financial targets and goals to accomplish broader financial objectives. Proactively monitor and interpret ongoing financial performance and respond strategically.
• Assess and mitigate financial risks.
• Translate broad corporate financial plans, targets, and KSIs into plans and targets specific to the work program. Contribute to corporate planning, budgeting, and issue resolution.
• Develop business plans and make operational decisions in light of broader financial goals and constraints.

Managing Others

• Inspire a sense of teamwork in the work environment. Utilize communication and conflict resolution skills to foster collaboration. Model a positive and professional attitude, maintaining composure under pressure.
• Communicate and explain goals and encourage and motivate team performance and productivity in alignment with broader work program and corporate goals and plans.
• Lead and facilitate effective team meetings. Recognize individual and team accomplishments.
• Assess and manage the quality of work produced by the team.
• Create, monitor, and manage scheduling; direct assignments and goal setting for optimal productivity and resource management.
• Participate in talent management activities, including evaluating and managing performance, providing formal and informal feedback, recruiting and staffing, employee learning and development, and addressing employee relations risks and issues.
• Provide feedback and coaching to support individual employee performance, learning, and career development.
• Remove obstacles and solve problems, addressing escalated issues from team members to optimize team performance and productivity.
• Serve as a change agent by supporting corporate and work program change initiatives. Model and communicate positive approaches to adapting to change.

Qualifications

• Degree in law, business, accounting, finance, risk management, insurance, or related field (Required).
• Advanced degree, including J.D., MBA, M.S. in Finance/Risk Management, or similar advanced credential (Preferred). In lieu of the above requirements, equivalent relevant experience will be considered.
• 10+ years of progressively responsible construction insurance, surety, risk management, risk financing, captive insurance, construction law, claims, or related experience (Required).
• Experience leading managers, specialized professionals, external service providers, and cross-functional enterprise initiatives (Required).
• Experience with captive insurance, contractor-controlled insurance programs, subcontractor default insurance, surety, claims governance, financial risk analysis, and executive-level reporting (Required).
• Valid and unrestricted driver’s license required.

Skills

• Ability to perform work accurately and completely, and in a timely manner.
• Strong communication skills, both verbal and written.
• Proficiency in MS Office, including advanced Excel.
• Ability to present independent training and presentations for Risk Management.
• Detail-oriented with exceptional organizational skills.
• Critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Knowledge of organizational structure and available resources.
• Adaptability to change and stress in the work environment while managing competing demands and maintaining high performance levels.
• Support for change initiatives. Identifies the best approach for implementing strategic processes.
• Participation in educational activities related to knowledge and professional issues.
• Ability to build relationships and work collaboratively with a team, both internally and externally.

Benefits

The benefits package aligned to this position includes comprehensive offerings (details available upon request).