Executive Underwriter - Operations

Job Description,

Overall Job Purpose

The Executive Underwriter – Operations is accountable for providing enterprise-level underwriting governance, technical assurance, and decision quality oversight across the underwriting value chain. The role exists to protect PPS’s risk position and mutuality model by ensuring underwriting decisions, rules, and processes are consistent, defensible, and aligned to policy, delegation of authority, and long-term sustainability.

The role acts as the technical conscience of underwriting operations—independent from production pressures—providing oversight of complex decisions, mandates, quality assurance, governance forums, and continuous improvement initiatives. It supports innovation, automation, and rule optimisation while safeguarding judgement-led underwriting excellence.

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Requirements,

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in risk management, Insurance, Medical Sciences, Actuarial Science, or related field.
• Professional underwriting qualifications required.
• Postgraduate qualification (e.g. MBA, FII, medical qualification) advantageous.

Experience

• Minimum of 10–12 years’ experience in life insurance underwriting.
• Significant experience in senior or executive underwriting roles with discretion accountability.
• Demonstrated experience in governance, quality assurance, reinsurance referrals, and complex case management.

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Duties and Responsibilities,

Key Accountabilities

Underwriting Governance & Decision Oversight

• Own and uphold underwriting governance standards, ensuring decisions are policy-aligned, consistent, and audit-defensible.
• Provide final technical oversight on complex, high-sum-assured, discretionary, reinsurance, or disputed underwriting decisions in line with delegated authority.
• Act as escalation authority for judgement-led underwriting matters that fall outside standard rules or require senior technical interpretation.
• Ensure appropriate exercise of discretion and rationale documentation across all senior underwriting decisions.
• Support and participate in underwriting, risk, and governance committees.

Quality Assurance & Risk Control

• Lead the quality assurance framework for underwriting, ensuring accuracy, consistency, and fairness of decisions.
• Analyse underwriting errors, incidents, and trends, and define corrective and preventative actions.
• Maintain oversight of underwriting-related incidents, root-cause analysis, and remediation plans.
• Monitor adherence to delegation of authority, product maxima, underwriting rules, and governance controls.

Operating Model & Process Stewardship

• Act as custodian of underwriting processes, standards, SOPs, and work instructions.
• Partner with operational leaders to ensure underwriting processes balance efficiency with risk discipline and experience.
• Protect senior underwriting capacity through appropriate escalation protocols and workload design.
• Contribute to SLA recovery planning and sustainable service models without compromising decision quality.

Data, Rules, Automation & Innovation Enablement

• Provide underwriting governance oversight for automation, rules engines, and decision-support tools.
• Partner with IT, Digital, and Research & Development to review, approve, and monitor underwriting rules and automation logic.
• Ensure automated and AI-supported decisions comply with underwriting philosophy, policy, and mutuality principles.
• Evaluate the risk impact of system changes, new data sources, and underwriting innovations prior to implementation.

Stakeholder & Intermediary Enablement

• Provide technical underwriting support and guidance to internal stakeholders, liaising between underwriting, distribution, claims, and product teams.
• Support broker consultants and distribution partners through guidance, training material, and escalation management.
• Contribute to clear, consistent underwriting communication standards for members and intermediaries.

People Leadership & Capability Development

• Lead and develop specialist underwriting roles (e.g. QA and Liaison Underwriters).
• Provide technical coaching, mentorship, and judgement calibration across senior underwriting roles.
• Support succession planning, skills development, and professional growth within underwriting.
• Promote a culture of accountability, governance discipline, and psychological safety.

Knowledge & Skills

• Expert knowledge of life, disability, income protection, and severe illness underwriting.
• Deep understanding of underwriting governance, delegation of authority frameworks, and discretion management.
• Strong analytical, judgement, and risk evaluation capability.
• High standard of written and verbal communication suitable for executive and audit forums.

Competencies

• Ethical, principled, and strongly aligned to PPS’s mutuality and member-first philosophy.
• Independent thinker with the confidence to challenge decisions constructively.
• Detail-oriented with strong governance discipline.
• Collaborative leader who balances risk stewardship with business enablement.
• Committed to continuous improvement and underwriting excellence.