Claims Specialist - Calgary, AB

Claims Specialist

Claims • 2+ Years Experience • Calgary, AB • Hybrid • Full-Time, Permanent

Own the claim. Calculate the settlement. Keep the customer informed until it is paid.

Optiom’s larger and longer-running claims, including total losses, account for most of the money we pay out and most of the customer experience. They are where customers decide whether they have been well served, and the Claims Specialist owns them. This is not a processing role. You will manage a caseload of claims end to end, from notification to payment, as the handler the customer deals with throughout. When a vehicle is written off, the customer’s own motor insurer settles first and Optiom covers the shortfall between that settlement and the cost of replacing the vehicle. You will assess entitlement against the policy, calculate the settlement across vehicle valuations, finance balances, and replacement arrangements, set and maintain reserves, and manage the primary insurers, lenders, dealerships, and repair facilities each outcome depends on.

You will report to Optiom’s claims leadership and work within clear delegated authority, with a senior team to refer to when a claim turns. Claims typically run for several weeks, and progress often sits outside your direct control. If you have handled total losses or finance-linked settlements, you know how to keep a stalled file moving, and you contact customers on schedule even when there is no news, this is the role where that discipline becomes genuinely valuable.

Who You Are

You are a claims professional with direct, hands-on experience managing your own caseload. You have interpreted policy wording and applied it to the facts of a claim, calculated settlements involving vehicle values, depreciation, or finance balances, and kept multi-party claims moving over weeks, not just supported someone who did. You base recommendations on the policy wording, not on how similar claims were handled before. You can hold a position with a repairer, dealership, or insurer without damaging the relationship, and you set expectations early with customers, including unwelcome ones. You record your reasoning at the time you make a decision, and you escalate at the point a claim turns, not once it has already gone wrong.

You Bring

• Two or more years of claims-handling experience, or equivalent experience in motor, warranty, or specialty insurance. You must have managed your own files from notification to payment; supporting a claims team does not meet this threshold.
• Direct experience interpreting policy wording and applying it to the facts of a claim, including preparing written coverage recommendations that set out the policy terms relied on.
• Experience calculating settlements involving vehicle values, depreciation, or finance balances. Be ready to walk us through how you built one.
• Experience managing claims that run for extended periods with several external parties involved, such as primary insurers, lenders, dealerships, or repair facilities.
• Experience setting and maintaining accurate reserves, adjusting them as the position on a claim becomes clearer.
• A track record of maintaining customer confidence through delay and uncertainty, including contact on schedule when nothing has changed.
• Sound judgment on escalation and experience working within delegated authority. Tell us about a claim you referred and why you referred it when you did.
• Strong written reasoning: your file notes and recommendations must be clear enough to support handover, audit, and later review. We will see this in your screening responses.

Bonus Points For

• Direct experience with vehicle replacement, guaranteed asset protection (GAP), extended warranty, or similar automotive insurance products.
• Experience working with primary motor insurers, lenders, dealerships, or repair networks.
• Experience handling claims under a delegated claims authority on behalf of an insurer.
• Experience identifying and recording recovery opportunities against third parties.
• CIP (Chartered Insurance Professional) designation or courses in active progress.
• A provincial insurance adjuster licence.

What We Offer

• Employer-supported Insurance Institute of Canada coursework toward the CIP designation
• Adjuster licensing support where applicable
• A comprehensive group benefits plan, including medical, dental, vision, and EAP
• Three weeks’ vacation to start, increasing with tenure
• Group RRSP with employer contribution
• A hybrid work model, with flexibility between home and our Calgary office

Who We Are

Optiom helps Canadians worry less about their financial position and lifestyle when it comes to the benefits provided by traditional auto insurance. We take a customer-centric approach and provide greater value to Canadian drivers through our total loss vehicle replacement products and additional benefits. Optiom provides products in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Nova Scotia.

We are a team of specialists who take pride in what we build and how we serve. Our products protect Canadians in moments that matter, and our people are the reason our broker and dealer partners trust us. Joining Optiom means joining a business with strong backing, a clear purpose, and real room to grow.

Optiom is a specialty MGA and a wholly owned subsidiary of Aviva Canada, one of the country’s largest property and casualty insurers. We design and distribute specialty insurance products through a national network of broker and dealer partners, embedded at the point of vehicle financing and leasing.

Optiom uses AI tools to assist with initial application screening. All hiring decisions are made by our human hiring team. We thank all applicants for their interest; only those selected for further consideration will be contacted.