Underwriting Manager - UKPI (Regions)

Pen Underwriting; Bristol; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading underwriting firm in Bristol seeks an experienced Underwriting Manager to drive success within its financial lines team. The role involves managing a diverse portfolio, ensuring compliance with company standards, and collaborating with various teams to achieve financial goals. Candidates should have robust knowledge of underwriting principles, excellent communication skills, and a strong track record in commercial risks. Benefits include competitive salary, generous holiday, and additional perks.

Benefits

25 days holiday plus bank holidays

Defined contribution pension scheme

Life insurance

Health cash plan or Private medical insurance

Discounted gym membership

Qualifications

• Understanding of underwriting complex risks and specialist information.
• Knowledge of general insurance and financial principles.
• Experience in commercial risks underwriting.

Responsibilities

• Manage the Financial Lines account to meet company objectives.
• Collaborate with team to achieve financial income and loss ratio.
• Enhance local presence with key brokers and influencers.
• Oversee underwriting staff development.

Skills

Planning and analytical skills

Interpersonal skills

Management skills

Proficiency in MS Office

Self-motivation

Education

Relevant financial lines knowledge

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

Pen Underwriting, a leading MGA in the UK Market are looking for an experienced Underwriting Manager to join our financial lines team in Bristol and continue to drive success within our commercial division.

As an Underwriting Manager, you will play a pivotal role in achieving our income and profit objectives by managing the technical performance of the Financial Lines accounts. Your primary focus will be to underwrite, manage, and sell products offered by binding and brokerage carriers, with an emphasis on writing new business to meet our business goals.

How you'll make an impact

• Manage the Financial Lines account to ensure company objectives are met.
• Collaborate with the management team to develop and implement the divisional plan, achieving financial income and loss ratio objectives, technical standards, and customer service standards.
• Work collaboratively with other parts of the organisation
• Enhance Pen's local presence by establishing strong relationships with key directors and staff at important brokers and influencers in the local insurance market.
• Provide technical and commercial market intelligence feedback to the management team.
• Maintain and disseminate knowledge of relevant technical issues to ensure the regional underwriting and sales teams are up-to-date.
• Undertake cases above the authority levels of underwriters within your control.
• Ensure company underwriting philosophies and procedures are understood and followed.
• Manage and control the flow of work to achieve service standards.
• Allocate underwriting authorities within the region and maintain standards through structured audits.
• Manage, motivate, and develop underwriting staff, overseeing their technical skills development through training and guidance.

About You

Technical Knowledge:

• Understanding of underwriting complex risks and the use of specialist information.
• Robust knowledge of general insurance, legal principles, and practices, especially within Financial Lines
• Knowledge of underwriting principles, reinsurance arrangements, and financial management systems.
• Effective use of systems technology required to transact business.

Experience:

• Strong commercial risks underwriting within a management remit.
• Proven track record in planning and prioritising business goals, meeting financial objectives.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
• Ability to manage and sustain key relationship networks.
• Experience in embedding processes/structures to manage compliance standards.

Skills:

• Excellent planning and analytical skills.
• Strong interpersonal and management skills.
• Credible at decision-maker level.
• Persistent and tenacious in achieving results.
• Self-motivated and proactive in risk management.
• Committed to learning and developing industry knowledge.
• Proficient in MS Office and relevant IT systems.

#LI-ET1

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.

Should you require reasonable adjustments to your application, please get in touch with [e-mail] . If you’d prefer to speak on the phone, please request a call back, leaving details, so we get in touch.

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, 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.