Underwriting Assistant

job description:

Job Title: Underwriting Assistant – London Market
Location: London
Type of contract: Permanent
Band: I

About the team

As a member of the London Market Operations Department, this role will report into the Operations Team Leader. You will provide highly effective operational support and improvements to London Market in an efficient and professional manner and in accordance with agreed procedures and service level agreements. You will have the opportunity to contribute to the overall success of the Operations division in achieving its objectives in line with the London Market strategy.

In order to deliver our strategy, the London Market Operations team need to be continually flexible and adaptable to change. Operational efficiency is key to reducing cost and this team will be critical to driving change and ensuring that underwriters move with the needs of the market. Our Operations goal is to be a ‘team of experts, pioneering change and driving efficiency’.

The role

This is initially a 6 month fixed term contract position, but very likely to then become permanent.

This is an exciting time to join a team that is critical in supporting the delivery of an ambitious 2022 business plan and beyond.
You will have to manage curve balls – there’s not always a clear ‘to-do’ list, and sometimes it can be challenging to meet the day-to-day core tasks along with any ad-hoc requests.

This is a great opportunity to work in an operations team that is dedicated to providing high quality underwriting support. The roles and responsibilities are varied which provides great development opportunities. The underwriting teams are facing some ambitious growth targets; this role is a challenge for someone who wants to contribute to the successful delivery of this plan.
You will know you are succeeding when you are providing high quality operational support that enables underwriters to make key business decisions that ultimately support the delivery of the business plan and London Market strategy.

Key responsibilities

• Provide professional, efficient and effective operational excellence to all teams, whilst ensuring that core operational tasks are completed within given SLA’s (e.g credit control, bordereaux chasing, operational regulatory requirements).
• Drive and support process improvement and business change; supporting project teams by being a source of information/expertise, gathering further information where required and drive the adoption of new initiatives amongst the operations and underwriting teams.
• Support the overall Operations division in their goal to deliver high operational standards by developing a good understanding of the classes of business and the operational processes in place that support them.
• Build an expert knowledge of your class(es) of business and all systems and interfaces, keeping abreast of all developments and support your team/division by raising awareness of change.
• Support your underwriting team with managing their pipeline of risks, providing pre-underwriting support.
• Support your underwriting team with file management, ensuring completeness of underwriting files and knowledge of all underwriting controls. This will sometimes mean liaising with external parties when information is missing or unclear.
• Resolve queries by utilising strong working relationships to liaise with underwriters, brokers or other parties; ensuring processing deadlines can be met and to prevent, where possible, re-occurrence of any errors or breaches of SLA.
• Contribute to our community in Operations by actively participating in social, team and engagement activities.

person specification:

Key requirements

This role will suit you if you take pride in delivering excellent, high quality operational support and endeavour to exceed expectations. To succeed you will be someone who doesn’t accept things at face value and always considers a better way of doing things that improves service delivery and efficiency.

This role won’t suit you if you don’t like to multi-task or manage lots of deadlines; if you want to work solely from a set to-do list and don’t enjoy using your initiative.

Must haves

• Excellent communication skills with confidence to build relationships at all levels, and ask questions to ensure requirements and rationale are understood.
• Enthusiastic, hardworking and driven individual with a focus on providing the best possible service.
• Able to demonstrate evidence of using analytical skills to support decision making.
• Can demonstrate ability to prioritise and organise workload in order to meet tight deadlines.
• Able to learn and take on new tasks quickly and use own initiative to explore possibilities before raising queries.
• Can demonstrate experience of driving and/or contributing to increases in efficiency.
• Proactive, showing initiative when completing tasks by pre-empting issues and proposing solutions for them.
• Flexible approach to work with a strong desire to learn and undertake additional responsibilities.

Nice to have

• Working towards ACII
• Insurance industry experience

About Hiscox

As an international specialist insurer we are far removed from the world of mass market insurance products. Instead we are selective and focus on our key areas of expertise and strength - all of which is underpinned by a culture that encourages us to challenge convention and always look for a better way of doing things.

We insure the unique and the interesting. And we search for the same when it comes to talented people. Hiscox is full of smart, reliable human beings that look out for customers and each other. We believe in doing the right thing, making good and rebuilding when things go wrong. Everyone is encouraged to think creatively, challenge the status quo and look for solutions.

Scratch beneath the surface and you will find a business that is solid, but slightly contrary. We like to do things differently and constantly seek to evolve. We might have been around for a long time (our roots go back to 1901), but we are young in many ways, ambitious and going places.

Some people might say insurance is dull, but life at Hiscox is anything but. If that sounds good to you, get in touch.

You can follow Hiscox on LinkedIn, Glassdoor and Instagram (@HiscoxInsurance)

Diversity and flexible working at Hiscox

At Hiscox we care about our people. We hire the best people for the job and we’re committed to diversity and creating a truly inclusive culture, which we believe drives success. We also understand that working life doesn’t always have to be ‘nine to five’ and we support flexible working wherever we can. No promises, but please chat to our resourcing team about the flexibility we could offer for this role.

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