Finance Manager I (FI0000000219)

Zurich Insurance Group (Zurich) is a leading multi‑line insurer serving people and businesses in more than 200 countries and territories. For over 150 years, we have been helping our customers protect what they value most and navigate life’s risks with confidence. 

Headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, we focus on general insurance and life insurance, complemented by a strong global presence and a clear commitment to sustainability and innovation. Our purpose is to create a brighter future together – for our customers, our people and the communities we serve. 

At Zurich Duo in Barcelona, we bring Zurich’s brand to life across the globe. As the in‑house brand experience agency for the Zurich Group, we combine strategic thinking, creativity and digital expertise to create engaging experiences that connect customers, employees and partners with our brand. 

Joining Zurich Duo means working in exciting brand experience projects, with in  a dynamic, start-up mindset company part of a very robust Global insurance Group. 

We are looking for a person who is communicative, curious, and flexible.  

At Zurich, we believe in the power of leadership to inspire change and create a brighter future for our customers, our people, and society. As Operations and Finance Manager, you’ll play a pivotal role at the very heart of our organization—partnering directly with our CEO to shape and execute Zurich’s vision and strategy on a daily basis. This is an opportunity to make a meaningful impact, guiding high-level decision-making, driving innovation, and helping to foster a culture built on collaboration, optimism, and continuous growth. Your ability to connect people, coordinate complex initiatives, and turn ideas into action will help ensure Zurich remains at the forefront of the insurance industry, ready for whatever tomorrow brings.  

About the Role  

As Operations & Finance Manager, you will be responsible for ensuring the smooth, efficient and financially sound running of the brand experience agency. 
This role supports the agency leadership team by overseeing day-to-day operations, managing budgets and forecasts, ensuring delivery excellence across experiential and brand activation projects, improving processes and controls, and providing decision support through data and reporting. 

What You’ll Do 

Financial Management 

• Own the end-to-end budgeting process (annual budgets, quarterly forecasts) for the agency. 

• Monitor actuals vs. budget (revenue, costs, FTEs), identify variances and propose corrective actions. 

• Support pricing and profitability analysis for experiential campaigns, activations, retainers and project-based work. 

• Work with finance to ensure accurate cost allocation, chargebacks and internal cross-charges across client programmes and agency activity. 

• Prepare regular financial reports and dashboards for agency leadership (e.g. revenue pipeline, utilisation, chargeability and margins). 

• Lead pricing and profitability analysis across the full agency portfolio. 

• Manage month-end and year-end processes (accruals, provisions, project reconciliations) in line with group finance policies. 

• Hold full finance accountability for the company or legal entity, including profit and loss and balance sheet oversight. 

• Provide strategic financial direction to support the agency's growth and evolution. 

Operational Excellence 

• Design, implement and continuously improve core agency processes (briefing, scoping, approvals, resourcing and billing). 

• Ensure effective capacity and resource planning across internal teams, specialist partners and freelance talent. 

• Coordinate operational planning cycles including annual plans, quarterly reviews and live experience or activation calendars. 

• Set up and maintain operational KPIs across the agency (e.g. utilisation, throughput time, project cycle time, client satisfaction, studio traffic and resource management). 

• Drive the standardisation and documentation of processes, templates and playbooks. 

• Oversee all agency pillars to ensure excellent delivery quality across brand experience work. 

Governance, Risk & Compliance 

• Ensure adherence to Zurich policies and guidelines (procurement, data protection, brand and compliance). 

• Support contracting and vendor management for production partners, event suppliers, fabricators and other agency vendors. 

• Implement and monitor controls around approvals, PO creation, spend limits and vendor onboarding. 

• Act as the point of contact for internal audit, risk and compliance queries related to agency operations. 

 AI

• Define and drive the company-wide AI strategy and roadmap, prioritizing use cases and aligning them with business objectives.

• Lead cross-functional teams (business, IT, data, risk, compliance) to design, implement, and scale AI solutions, ensuring they are integrated into processes and deliver measurable value.

• Establish and oversee AI governance, including risk, compliance, and ethics standards, and foster AI awareness and adoption through communication, training, and change management.