Senior Life Insurance Underwriter

Vitality; United Kingdom; Remote; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus schemes

Pension

Health insurance

Life Assurance

Job summary

Vitality in the United Kingdom is seeking a Senior Underwriter to join the Adviser Service Life team. This remote, full‑time role focuses on complex Life, Serious Illness and Income Protection applications, applying sound judgement and ensuring customer outcomes.

You will be a trusted technical voice for advisers and partners, coach less experienced underwriters, and contribute to calibration, guidance, and improvements to underwriting tools and services.

Qualifications

• Complex UK life and protection underwriting expertise.
• Strong technical knowledge across Life, Serious Illness and Income Protection risk assessment.

Responsibilities

• Assess complex medical, financial, occupational and lifestyle risks across Life, Serious Illness and Income Protection.
• Set evidence requirements and manage complex cases to service standards.
• Explain underwriting requirements to advisers and partners to deliver good outcomes.
• Work with reinsurers on referrals within underwriting philosophy.
• Coach less experienced underwriters through feedback and guidance.
• Contribute to underwriting tool improvements and calibration.

Skills

Underwriting expertise

Technical judgement

Coaching others

Job description

About The Role

Team – Adviser Service Life

Working Pattern – Remote (UK) Full time, 37.5 hours per week.

Top 3 skills needed for this role:

• Complex UK life and protection underwriting expertise
• Strong technical judgement and confident decision-making within delegated authority
• Ability to coach colleagues and build trusted relationships with advisers, reinsurers and internal teams

What this role is all about:

At Vitality, underwriting is about more than assessing risk. It’s about using your expertise to help people access the protection that can make a real difference when life takes an unexpected turn. As a Senior Underwriter, you’ll bring your knowledge and judgement to some of our more complex Life, Serious Illness and Income Protection applications, making thoughtful, balanced decisions that put good customer outcomes at the heart of what we do. You’ll be a trusted technical voice for colleagues, advisers and partners, sharing your experience, supporting others to grow and helping us continue to improve how we work. It’s an opportunity to make a genuine impact, both for our customers and for the people around you, in a business that believes in helping people live healthier, happier lives.

Key Actions

• Assess complex medical, financial, occupational and lifestyle risks across Life, Serious Illness and Income Protection, making clear and balanced decisions within delegated authority.
• Set proportionate evidence requirements, manage complex cases to agreed service standards and record clear, auditable decision rationales.
• Support advisers and key distribution partners by clearly explaining underwriting requirements and decisions, helping to deliver good customer outcomes.
• Work with reinsurers on referrals and technical queries, securing appropriate terms within Vitality’s underwriting philosophy and reinsurance arrangements.
• Coach and support less experienced underwriters through technical feedback, knowledge sharing, referrals and authorisations.
• Contribute your expertise to technical calibration, underwriting guidance, process improvements and changes to underwriting tools and services.

What do you need to thrive?

• A minimum of five years’ underwriting experience in the life insurance industry, with experience assessing complex cases in the UK life and protection market.
• Strong technical knowledge across Life, Serious Illness and Income Protection, including medical, financial, occupational and lifestyle risk assessment.
• Experience with reinsurance referrals, delegated authority and technical referrals or authorisations, together with strong analytical judgement.
• Confidence communicating complex underwriting decisions to advisers, colleagues and other stakeholders, with experience coaching or providing technical guidance to others.

So, what’s in it for you?

• Bonus Schemes – A bonus that regularly rewards you for your performance
• A pension of up to 12%– We will match your contributions up to 6% of your salary
• Our award-winning Vitality health insurance – With its own set of rewards and benefits
• Life Assurance – Four times annual salary

These are just some of the many perks that we offer! To view the extensive range of benefits we offer, please visit our careers page.

Fantastic Benefits. Exciting rewards. Great career opportunities!

• Help you to be the healthiest you’ve ever been
• Create an environment that embraces you as you are and enables you to be your best self
• Give you flexibility on how, where and when you work
• Help you advance your career by playing you to your strengths
• Give you a voice to help our business grow and make Vitality a great place to be
• Give you the space to try, fail and learn
• Provide a healthy balance of challenge and support
• Recognise and reward you with a competitive salary and amazing benefits
• Be there for you when you need us
• Provide opportunities for you to be a force for good in society

We commit to all these things because we want you to feel that you belong, and are supported to be happy and healthy.

About Us

We’re incredibly proud to be recognised for the culture we've created — recently being named one of Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work 2026, and in 2024 we were delighted to be awarded Top 10 Places to Work in the Sunday Times Awards.

Vitality is a multi-award-winning UK insurance brand, here to make the world a healthier, happier place. We’ve been a purpose and values-driven business from day 1- long before it became fashionable. Our core purpose is to make people healthier and enhance protect their lives. Vitality pioneered shared-value insurance. We incentivise people to live healthier longer lives – they benefit, our business benefits, and society benefits. We’re successful because we attract, develop, and retain the best people – and because we care.

Plus, you get to join our 1.7+ million members with access to our unique health insurance and healthy living programme. Just to make sure you know our products inside and out.

Diversity & Inclusion

At Vitality, we’re committed to diversity and inclusion because it’s good for our employees, for our business, and for society. We welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives.

Vitality’s approach to sustainability

Vitality is a business that drives positive change. We reward people for making and sustaining healthier choices. But healthy people also need a healthy environment. To learn more please visit our Careers page. #LI-Hybrid

If you are successfulin your application and join us at Vitality, this is our promise to you, we will:

• Help you to be the healthiest you’ve ever been
• Create an environment that embraces you as you are and enables you to be your best self
• Give you flexibility on how, where and when you work
• Help you advance your career by playing you to your strengths
• Give you a voice to help our business grow and make Vitality a great place to be
• Give you the space to try, fail and learn
• Provide a healthy balance of challenge and support
• Recognise and reward you with a competitive salary and amazing benefits
• Be there for you when you need us
• Provide opportunities for you to be a force for good in society