Senior Underwriter

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (AJG); Manchester; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading insurance services company in Manchester seeks a Senior Underwriter to drive premium growth and manage broker relationships. This role involves assessing risk, developing underwriting strategies, and collaborating with cross-functional teams. The ideal candidate will have a Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) Certification and a strong understanding of the insurance marketplace. Beneficial skills include analytical thinking and customer interaction, ensuring profitability and a sustainable portfolio. The position offers competitive salary and benefits.

Benefits

Minimum of 25 days holiday

Defined contribution pension scheme

Life insurance

Income protection

Health cash plan or Private medical insurance

Discounted gym membership

Employee Stock Purchase plan

Three fully paid volunteering days

Qualifications

• Working knowledge of the insurance marketplace.
• Basic analytical thinking and financial acumen.
• General knowledge of organisational rules and regulatory policies.

Responsibilities

• Underwrite and assess risks in accordance with guidelines.
• Participate in business growth by seeking new opportunities.
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with brokers.

Skills

Risk assessment

Broker relationship management

Analytical thinking

Education

Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) Certification

Job description

Introduction

At Pen, we don't just underwrite risk, we unlock possibility. We're a dynamic underwriting and distribution business backed by the strength of Gallagher and powered by a belief that every challenge has a solution. With entrepreneurial energy, niche expertise, and a bold growth mindset, we're transforming what it means to be an MGA in today's insurance landscape. Whether you're shaping new products, solving complex problems, or collaborating across teams, your ideas and initiative will help deliver smarter solutions for our clients—and move the industry forward. Here, agility meets stability. Creativity meets execution. And your career meets real opportunity. At Pen, we champion innovation, value accountability, and thrive on building something better together. If you're looking to join a team that's rewriting the future of underwriting, we'd love to hear from you.

Overview

As a Senior Underwriter for Manchester Underwriting Management, a division of Pen Underwriting, you will be responsible for adding to the sustainable growth of the Professional Indemnity book by delivering profitable premium and conversion growth across the business and contributing in developing and implementation of the underwriting strategy.

You will help drive the strategic planning/direction of the business and its products. You will also be responsible for interacting and collaborating with colleagues internally and building relationships with new brokers as well as maintaining and improving existing broker relationships and partner insurers.

How you'll make an impact

• Underwrite and assess risk adhering to the underwriting philosophy, rules and guidelines, use of rating tools and pricing methodologies and documentation standards to maximise business growth and profitability.
• Actively participate in seeking new business opportunities within existing relationships and within the wider insurance market.
• Engaging with brokers in servicing and renewal of the existing book that supports underwriting strategy, consistent with business growth and target loss ratio.
• Taking underwriting referrals, providing expert underwriting guidance, coaching and mentoring to less experienced underwriters—helping them build product specific knowledge and sales skills amongst underwriters to ensure the profitability and sustainability of the portfolio.
• Develop and maintain strong broker relationships across the regions and contributing to the team's goal of writing a sustainable portfolio of professional indemnity business.
• Develop and leverage productive relationship within other departments to collaborate with cross functional teams to optimise processes and enhance overall efficiency.
• Actively participate in regularly scheduled strategy, Sales and underwriting meetings.
• Analyse market trends, competitor activities, and regulatory changes to identify opportunities and threats.
• Perform other duties and projects as assigned.

About You

• Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) Certification preferred.
• Working knowledge of the insurance marketplace. Demonstrates an ability and desire to learn about the enterprise and business unit critical business issues and financial drivers.
• General knowledge of organisational and regulatory rules, policies and procedures and effectively employs that knowledge in day to day work activities.
• Demonstrates basic ability in the areas of customer focus and positive broker interaction.
• Basic analytical thinking/financial acumen. Identifies current or future problems or opportunities, analyses, synthesises and compares information to understand issues, identifies cause/effect relationships, and explores alternatives to support sound decision making.

Compensation and Benefits

On top of a competitive salary, great teams and exciting career opportunities, we also offer a wide range of benefits.

Below are the minimum core benefits you'll get, depending on your job level these benefits may improve:

• Minimum of 25 days holiday, plus bank holidays, and the option to 'buy' extra days.
• Defined contribution pension scheme, which Gallagher will also contribute to.
• Life insurance, which will pay 4x your basic annual salary, which you can top up to 10x.
• Income protection, we'll cover up to 50% of your annual income, with options to top up.
• Health cash plan or Private medical insurance.

Other benefits include

• Three fully paid volunteering days per year.
• Employee Stock Purchase plan, offering company shares at a discount.
• Share incentive plan, HMRC approved, tax effective, stock purchase plan.
• Critical illness cover.
• Discounted gym membership, with over 3,000 gyms nationally.
• Season ticket loan.
• Access to a discounted voucher portal to save money on your weekly shop or next big purchase.
• Emergency back up family care.
• And many more

We value inclusion and diversity

Inclusion and diversity (I&D) is a core part of our business, and it's embedded into the fabric of our organisation. For more than 95 years, Gallagher has led with a commitment to sustainability and to support the communities where we live and work.

Gallagher embraces our employees' diverse identities, experiences and talents, allowing us to better serve our clients and communities. We see inclusion as a conscious commitment and diversity as a vital strength. By embracing diversity in all its forms, we live out The Gallagher Way to its fullest.

Gallagher is Disability Confident Committed. We have pledged to make sure our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible, in addition to supporting our existing employees with any long term health conditions or disabilities.

We understand that applicants may have disabilities, if you do, you may find some parts of the recruitment process more challenging than others. Don't worry, we're here to help, however, we can only do this if you let us know.

Our employing entity, Arthur J. Gallagher Services (UK) Limited, is proud to be accredited as a Living Wage employer with the Living Wage Foundation. We are committed to diversity and opportunity for all and are opposed to any form of less favourable treatment on the grounds of gender or gender identity, marital status, civil partnership status, parental status, race, ethnicity, colour, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, religion/ belief, age and those with caring responsibilities.

Gallagher believes that all persons are entitled to equal employment opportunity and prohibits any form of discrimination by its managers, employees, vendors or customers based on race, color, religion, creed, gender (including pregnancy status), sexual orientation, gender identity (which includes transgender and other gender non conforming individuals), gender expression, hair expression, marital status, parental status, age, national origin, ancestry, disability, medical condition, genetic information, veteran or military status, citizenship status, or any other characteristic protected (herein referred to as "protected characteristics") by applicable federal, state, or local laws.

Equal employment opportunity will be extended in all aspects of the employer employee relationship, including, but not limited to, recruitment, hiring, training, promotion, transfer, demotion, compensation, benefits, layoff, and termination. In addition, Gallagher will make reasonable accommodations to known physical or mental limitations of an otherwise qualified person with a disability, unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the operation of our business.