New Business Manager - Commercial Wholesale Insurance, Kildare

Based in our Naas/Kill office, Howden Ireland are delighted to have a vacancy as a New Business Team Manager - Wholesale, who will be responsible for leading and scaling our Wholesale new business team within Robertson Low. This role owns the local wholesale new business engine, driving pipeline performance, conversion, broker experience, and trading effectiveness across Irish and London markets.

About the Role: The role will manage a high‑performing team to consistently deliver monthly new business revenue targets, embed disciplined sales management, and continuously improve capacity placement and market outcomes in line with the financial year plan.

This is a leadership role combining sales management, market engagement, and operational rigour, with a strong focus on repeatable performance and sustainable growth.

Key Responsibilities:

Lead, motivate, and develop a wholesale new business team to deliver agreed monthly and annual revenue targets.

Own the end‑to‑end new business pipeline, from opportunity intake to bind and handover.

Drive strong conversion performance through structured sales management and coaching.

Create clarity and accountability around targets, activity, and outcomes.

Establish and embed a repeatable sales operating rhythm (pipeline reviews, forecasting, conversion analysis).

Ensure pipeline quality, accuracy, and visibility at all times.

Manage and develop a high‑quality pipeline of wholesale opportunities from our broker network; drive disciplined funnel management (prospect>quote>bind), and deliver monthly new‑business revenue targets across a variety of products aligned to the annual plan.

Identify blockages, leakage, and opportunities to improve velocity and hit rates.

Use data and insight to inform decision‑making and resource allocation.

Own and continuously improve the broker experience for wholesale new business partners.

Ensure clarity, consistency, and responsiveness in how the team engages with retail brokers.

Act as a senior escalation point where required, ensuring positive and commercial outcomes.

Strengthen Robertson Lows' reputation as a trusted, high‑performing wholesale partner.

Drive continuous improvement in trading effectiveness across local and London markets.

Build and maintain strong relationships with underwriters, capacity providers, and London market partners.

Ensure optimal placement strategies that balance speed, coverage, pricing, and sustainability.

Share market insight, appetite changes, and trading intelligence across the team and wider business.

Develop technical, commercial, and behavioural capability across the team.

Build a high‑performance culture aligned to Howden values.

Support succession planning and career development within the wholesale function.

Identify opportunities to improve processes, workflows, and trading outcomes.

Work closely with Operations, Finance, and Compliance to support scalable growth.

Ensure activity aligns with Howden's financial year plans and growth strategy.

Contribute to broader wholesale strategy and leadership forums as required.

About You:

Proven experience leading new business or trading teams.

CIP (minimum) with progress toward MDI/ACII preferred; maintains Fit&Proper status and completes all required regulatory training.

8+ years in commercial/wholesale broking or commercial underwriting with demonstrable new‑business leadership and conversion track record. Experience of trading in UK markets will be an advantage.

Excellent technical product knowledge, deep understanding of Irish broker&insurer landscape and awareness of market forces, M&A.

Proficient with broking platforms, excellent Excel/Powerpoint and reporting skills. Experience using Acturis, Power BI for MI reporting and pipeline analytics will be an advantage.

Proven capability to hire, lead, and develop a trading team; establishing cadences, KPIs, and coaching interventions that lift performance.

Strong track record of pipeline management and revenue delivery.

Deep understanding of London Market and capacity placement.

Commercially astute, data‑driven, and execution‑focused.

Credible leader who can coach performance and influence stakeholders.

Comfortable operating in a fast‑paced, target‑driven environment.

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