Lead Trader - London Real Estate

AXA; City of Westminster; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading insurance firm in the City of Westminster is seeking a Lead Trading Underwriter to drive growth in the London Real Estate Branch. This role requires ensuring profitable underwriting and developing strong relationships with brokers. The ideal candidate will have excellent negotiation, analytical, and communication skills, alongside a strong technical background in Real Estate. The position offers a competitive salary and comprehensive benefits including a pension scheme and medical cover.

Benefits

Competitive annual salary

Annual company & performance-based bonus

Contributory pension scheme (up to 12% employer contributions)

Life Assurance (up to 10 × annual salary)

Private medical cover

28 days annual leave plus Bank Holidays

Opportunity to buy/sell extra days leave

Wellbeing services & resources

AXA employee discounts

Qualifications

• Proven experience in account monitoring and action planning.
• Strong network and relationship-building skills in the insurance market.
• Eligible and authorized to work in the United Kingdom.

Responsibilities

• Ensure profitable and accurate underwriting of new and existing business.
• Lead development of trading relationships with brokers.
• Coach and develop Senior Underwriters.
• Manage underwriting standards and licenses within the team.
• Promote AXA's strategy and product range effectively.

Skills

Negotiation skills

Analytical skills

Communication skills

Relationship building

Technical product knowledge in Real Estate

Decision-making abilities

Education

ACII qualification

Job description

At AXA Commercial, we support our business customers, large and small, by making it easy for them to do business with us in the way that suits them. Whether they insure with us via brokers, directly on the phone or online through comparison sites, we've got them covered. Building on our success, a key initiative for the future of AXA Commercial is enhancing our current team and we're excited to bring to market a role as a Lead Trading Underwriter in our London Real Estate Branch. In this role you'll drive profitable growth, particularly through Mid‑Market and corporate clients, in the real estate segment by underwriting risks within agreed authority levels to maximise income whilst developing key relationships with a panel of brokers in line with company objectives. At AXA we work smart, empowering our people to balance their time between home and the office in a way that works best for them, their team, and our customers. You'll work at least 60% of your week away from home, at our office location in London, visiting clients or attending industry events.

Responsibilities

• Ensure trading teams underwrite new and existing business profitably, accurately, consistently and in line with established underwriting practices, using the full range of appetite and tools available.
• Proactively lead the development of strong trading relationships with panel of brokers, taking full ownership for the generation of profitable business from nominated panel.
• Proactively develop a robust pipeline of appropriate new business opportunities and ensure that long‑term pipeline is realised by ensuring broker / client engagement.
• Lead meetings, presentations and tender responses with brokers / end customers to portray AXA capabilities and secure new business opportunities.
• Coach, train and develop Senior Underwriters to continually improve their technical and trading capability from a New and Existing business perspective.
• Act as the referral point for Senior Underwriters within your team, providing technical and trading input to improve the quality of decisions within their empowerment.
• Actively manage and review underwriting standards and licences within the team ensuring effective management and deployment of empowerment.
• Effectively promote and deploy AXA's strategy, product range, propositions and key differentiators to leverage commercial opportunities.
• High level of technical product knowledge in Real Estate, supported by strong underwriting expertise in a composite insurance environment.
• Excellent negotiation, sales, and communication skills, with the ability to build positive relationships at all organisational levels.
• Strong analytical skills with proven experience in account monitoring and action planning, complemented by pragmatic decision‑making abilities and good numerical reasoning skills.
• Established skills in networking and relationship building, essential for fostering partnerships in the insurance market.
• Sound knowledge of legislative and regulatory requirements for insurance, including understanding of treating customers fairly and the overall commercial insurance market.
• ACII qualification is desirable.

As a precondition of employment for this role, you must be eligible and authorised to work in the United Kingdom.

This position has been defined as an Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD) role under the IDD regime which means that in addition to pre‑employment screening checks, the successful candidate will be subject to background screening every 4 years with an annual declaration in interim years.

AXA Commercial protects businesses, from multinationals to micro start‑ups, giving them the confidence to thrive. We're currently making our biggest ever investment to develop the expertise and skills we need to be the best. We're a vibrant community where everyone is supported to learn, develop, and take ownership of their work.

Benefits

You can expect to receive:

• Competitive annual salary
• Annual company & performance‑based bonus
• Contributory pension scheme (up to 12% employer contributions)
• Life Assurance (up to 10 × annual salary)
• Private medical cover
• 28 days annual leave plus Bank Holidays
• Opportunity to buy up to 5 extra days leave or sell up to 5 days leave
• Wellbeing services & resources
• AXA employee discounts