Risk Manager

City-of-Asheville; Asheville (NC); On-site; USD 95,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

The City of Asheville is seeking a Risk Manager to lead the Finance Department's risk, safety, and insurance programs. You will supervise staff, coordinate with officials, and drive enterprise risk initiatives across city operations.

Requirements include a Master’s degree in a relevant field, five years’ risk management experience in government, and professional certifications (ARM, AIC, CPCU, CRM). A valid NC driver’s license is required.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in Public Administration, Risk Management, or related field.
• At least five years of risk management, safety compliance, or claims experience in government.
• Lead or supervisory experience required; must possess and maintain NC driver's license.
• Professional certifications: ARM, AIC, CPCU, CRM.

Responsibilities

• Direct and manage the City’s comprehensive risk management program, including liability, workers’ compensation, safety, and self-insurance.
• Lead risk program operations, reporting to CFO/City Manager and City Council; supervise staff and coordinate vendors.
• Oversee claims processing, settlements, and litigation; manage budgets and financial administration of the division.
• Review contracts for risk-transfer provisions; monitor COIs and regulatory compliance; coordinate training.
• Advise on enterprise risk, incident prevention, and interagency coordination; support special events risk evaluation.

Skills

Supervisory experience

Risk assessment

Stakeholder communication

Education

Master's degree in Public Administration or Risk Management

ARM Certification

AIC Certification

CPCU Certification

CRM Certification

Job description

About our Opportunity:

The City of Asheville is pleased to accept qualified candidates for the position of Risk Manager for the Finance Department. The purpose of this position is to manage operations and staff involved in developing and administering a comprehensive risk mitigation, safety, and insurance programs to maximize the City's effectiveness to deliver services efficiently and safely.

• Personnel Management: Supervises, trains, and evaluates division staff; handles employee concerns and performance appraisals; recommends hiring, promotions, and disciplinary actions; and acts as a liaison between staff and leadership.

• Workload & Resource Allocation: Schedules, prioritizes, and assigns work to ensure operational coverage; provides technical guidance on complex issues; monitors project progress; and delivers status reports to the CFO, City Manager, Mayor, and City Council.

• Risk Program Leadership & Compliance: Directs the City’s comprehensive risk management program, including liability, workers’ compensation, occupational safety, loss prevention, and self-insurance funds; coordinates third-party vendors, brokers, and actuaries; and serves as Title II ADA Coordinator.

• Enterprise Risk Advisory: Identifies organizational risk exposures for City operations and initiatives; establishes risk treatment and mitigation strategies; and provides enterprise-wide guidance to City Council, Executive Management, and municipal departments.

• Claims & Litigation Management: Oversees and processes self-insured liability and workers' compensation claims; authorizes medical care, settlements, and payments within approved limits; and manages legal defense and litigation to protect City assets and ensure regulatory compliance.

• Insurance Portfolio Management: Administers property, casualty, excess workers' compensation, and specialized insurance policies; conducts loss reserve forecasting and claims analysis; establishes premium budgets; and secures builder's risk and liability coverages.

• Contractual Risk & COI Review: Drafts standard risk-transfer provisions, waivers, and hold-harmless agreements for City contracts, RFPs, and MOUs; reviews third-party Certificates of Insurance (COIs) to verify compliance with departmental standards.

• Special Event Risk Evaluation: Reviews outdoor special event permit applications; assesses liability exposures; determines required insurance coverages; and issues approvals or policy waivers for applicants.

• Safety & Risk Training: Designs and conducts training programs on risk management, OSHA policies, workplace violence prevention, modified duty assignments, emergency evacuations, and general employee safety.

• Budget & Financial Administration: Develops and oversees the Risk Management Division budget; forecasts staffing, supply, and capital expenditures; processes purchase requisitions; and maintains financial records.

• Regulatory Monitoring & Professional Development: Tracks local, state, and federal legal developments affecting municipal risk programs; maintains professional certifications and affiliations; and attends relevant industry training.

• Stakeholder & Interagency Communication: Collaborates with City officials, staff, external legal counsel, insurance brokers, third-party administrators, regulatory agencies, and the public to resolve issues and coordinate operations.

Additional Functions:

• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Minimum Requirements:

Master's Degree in Public Administration, Risk Management, or a related field required; supplemented by five years of experience in risk management, safety compliance, insurance purchasing, and/or claims processing in a government setting, to include lead or supervisory experience; or any equivalent combination of education, training, and experience which provides the requisite knowledge, skills, and abilities for this job.

Specific License or Certification required:

Must possess and maintain a valid North Carolina driver's license. Must possess and maintain the following additional certifications or licensure: Associate in Risk Management (ARM), Associate in Claims (AIC), Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), and Certified Risk Manager (CRM).

Performance Aptitudes:

Data Utilization: Requires the ability to coordinate, manage, and/or correlate data. Includes exercising judgment in determining time, place and/or sequence of operations, referencing data analyses to determine necessity for revision of organizational components, and in the formulation of operational strategy.

Human Interaction: Requires the ability to act as a first-line supervisor, including instructing, assigning, and reviewing work, maintaining standards, coordinating activities, and evaluating employee job performance.

Equipment, Machinery, Tools, and Materials Utilization: Requires the ability to operate, maneuver and/or control the actions of equipment, machinery, tools, and/or materials used in performing essential functions.

Verbal Aptitude: Requires the ability to utilize a wide variety of reference, descriptive, advisory and/or design data and information.

Mathematical Aptitude: Requires the ability to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division; ability to calculate decimals and percentages; may include ability to perform mathematical operations with fractions; may include ability to compute discount, interest, and ratios; may include ability to calculate surface areas, volumes, weights, and measures.

Functional Reasoning: Requires the ability to apply principles of influence systems, such as motivation, incentive, and leadership, and to exercise independent judgment to apply facts and principles for developing approaches and techniques to resolve problems.

Situational Reasoning: Requires the ability to exercise judgment, decisiveness and creativity in situations involving the evaluation of information against sensory, judgmental, or subjective criteria, as opposed to that which is clearly measurable or verifiable.

ADA Compliance:

Physical Ability:

Tasks require the ability to exert light physical effort in sedentary to light work, but which may involve some lifting, carrying, pushing and/or pulling of objects and materials of light weight (5-10 pounds). Tasks may involve extended periods of time at a keyboard or workstation.

Sensory Requirements:

Some tasks require the ability to perceive and discriminate colors or shades of colors, sounds, odor, depth, texture, and visual cues or signals. Some tasks require the ability to communicate orally.

Environmental Factors:

Essential functions are regularly performed without exposure to adverse environmental conditions.