Head of Underwriting, Casualty & Specialty – UAE & Bahrain

Liva Group; Dubai; On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Head of Underwriting for Casualty & Specialty lines in the UAE & Bahrain. This pivotal role involves leading a team to manage a diverse portfolio of risks while ensuring compliance with underwriting guidelines. You will be responsible for driving profitable growth, enhancing customer relationships, and developing innovative strategies. The ideal candidate will possess extensive experience in the insurance sector, particularly in underwriting, with a proven track record of exceeding expectations. Join a dynamic team and make a significant impact in a high-performing culture focused on excellence and customer satisfaction.

Qualifications

• 7-10 years of experience in Casualty & Specialty underwriting.
• Strong knowledge of insurance strategies and policies.
• Ability to lead and inspire a multi-cultural team.

Responsibilities

• Lead underwriting decisions for large, complex cases.
• Manage customer interactions to ensure satisfaction.
• Contribute to business strategy and account development.

Skills

Casualty Underwriting

Leadership

Relationship Management

Strategic Thinking

Change Management

Communication Skills

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Business or Finance

Professional Insurance Qualification

Job description

Head of Underwriting, Casualty & Specialty – UAE & Bahrain

Jobs like this involve leading a team responsible for underwriting and trading a portfolio of risks in Casualty (including large, complex or specialist cases) in line with agreed strategy, risk appetite and performance targets. You will be accountable for the overall performance of the sub-segment P&L. You will spend most of your time delivering underwriting decisions, contributing to channel development activities, liaising with customers, and applying sales & customer management approaches and techniques. You will have strong relationship management, communication and negotiation skills to influence, guide and build effective relationships with brokers and internal stakeholders, in addition to your underwriting knowledge. You will develop, agree and manage individual account plans, bids and sales pipelines and / or identify, qualify and close new business opportunities, working with distribution, technical, marketing, operations, claims, and underwriting colleagues to ensure effective delivery.

This job will typically be measured with the following KPIs :

• Year on Year P&L growth
• Achievement of Operating targets (e.g. COR, NWP, underwriting performance, etc.)
• Feedback from key external stakeholders, customers, channel partners, colleagues, etc.
• Quality and profitability of underwriting decisions
• Selling opportunities identified and converted
• Contribution to account and business development
• Operational efficiency
• Compliance with legal, regulatory and policy requirements
• Personal contribution to team productivity

Key Responsibilities :

• Reviewing allocated large, complex or specialist cases and delivering underwriting decisions, following agreed processes at the designated authority level, to secure profitable business within the agreed risk appetite.
• Contributing to the Channel & customer expectations through delivering a whole account approach.
• Fully comply in a timely manner with all Underwriting Guidelines and Controls, such as monthly UDRs.
• Continuously review and update underwriting policies, framework, guidelines and procedures to ensure adherence to legal and regulatory requirements and operational efficiency.
• Providing advice and solutions to colleagues to address technical referrals for non-conventional and complex risks while maintaining good internal relationships to support the end-to-end delivery of the customer proposition.
• Proactively identifying and pursuing up-selling (add-ons) and cross-selling opportunities to maximize profitable revenue potential from new and renewal business and achieve agreed business targets.
• Identifying, recommending, and leading or contributing to the development and exploitation of marketing activities and product development initiatives to increase penetration of existing customers and / or expand the business mix.
• Contributing to the wider development of effective business strategies, priorities, and market propositions, drawing on own knowledge, understanding and interpretation of local markets, competitors, and accounts.
• Contributing to the production of new policy wordings and / or reviews of existing policy wordings to ensure policy documentation is current and accurate.
• Managing customer interactions in an efficient, courteous, and timely manner to deliver high standards of customer satisfaction.
• Providing expert advice, guidance and coaching to less qualified and / or experienced colleagues to address technical referrals and raise standards and expertise across the technical community.
• Contributing to and influencing industry development; representing the company in industry meetings and forums and attending Casualty line of business themed workgroup meetings organized by governmental bodies and industry regulators to promote insurance awareness amongst the general public and support good corporate citizenship.
• Continuously assessing the operational risks of sales operations and recommending appropriate remedial actions.
• Acting as change champion to lead the Casualty business to a ‘high performing’ culture.
• Leading and directing the establishment and implementation of technical training programs in Casualty line of business underwriting and other related disciplines across the region to ensure that a pool of competent and qualified insurance staff is continually available.
• Leading and directing the establishment of a Casualty line of business underwriting risk assessment framework to ensure that insurance risks are appropriately assessed and measured by competent and qualified staff.
• Establishing, reviewing and monitoring the implementation of regional pricing guidelines (in coordination with Group Head of Pricing, Product and Portfolio Development) and underwriting statistics, to ensure that informed decisions can be made and measured against the group standard and reduce dependencies on third parties for information.

Minimum Requirements :

• At least 7-10 years of Casualty & Specialty lines of business underwriting and leadership experience preferably at Middle East regional level coupled with sufficient international exposure.
• Possesses in-depth knowledge of the Casualty lines of business Insurance underwriting strategies, models and policies and the capability to create a positive working relationship with senior management internally, local countries technical teams, other Group functions and stakeholders.
• Have Portfolio Monitoring and reserving discussion capabilities.
• Operationally savvy, demonstrated track record of exceeding customer expectations while delivering profitable growth.
• Possess the ability to apply entrepreneurial and commercial thinking to delivering business performance.
• Possess strategic thinking and change management skills.
• Strong verbal and written communication & interpersonal skills – must be able to communicate effectively both internally with high technical management and executives and local Casualty underwriting community and externally with industry partners.
• Courageous leadership - able to lead, inspire, motivate and develop a multi-cultural team to deliver business performance.
• Innovation management : demonstrate a strong personal commitment to driving innovation through the business - challenge status quo, finds alternatives to solving issues and problems.
• Change Management : effectively manage and communicate change. Implement decisions even if unpopular. Proactively removes blockage.
• Excellent judgment and decision-making skills – able to make business-aligned and timely decisions.