Underwriting Strategy Manager

Hiscox Underwriting Group Services Ltd (HUGS); City Of London; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work arrangement

London office hub

Job summary

Hiscox UK is seeking a Strategy Manager to support the UK Chief Underwriting Officer (CUO). This high‑exposure role acts as a trusted adviser, shaping the leadership agenda, prioritising decisions and enabling the CUO to focus on value‑creating activity.

You will partner with UKLT, ULT, and other governance bodies to drive strategic outcomes.

Qualifications

• Significant experience operating in or alongside a senior leadership or executive environment.
• Strong commercial acumen with the ability to understand underwriting, portfolio and risk concepts quickly.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills; able to distil complexity into clear, persuasive executive messages.
• Proven ability to manage ambiguity, competing priorities and sensitive information with professionalism and judgement.
• Advanced stakeholder management skills within a matrix organisation.
• Highly analytical, structured thinker with strong problem‑solving capability.
• Gravitas and confidence to operate credibly with senior leaders.
• Low‑ego, high‑impact approach with a strong sense of ownership.
• Intellectually curious, commercially minded and outcomes‑focused.
• Resilient, adaptable and comfortable operating at pace.

Responsibilities

• Act as a trusted thought‑partner to the CUO, shaping agenda, priorities and decision flow.
• Lead and deliver briefing papers, recommendations and executive materials for governance forums.
• Translate complex insights into clear, decision‑ready narratives.
• Proactively identify risks, dependencies and opportunities for the CUO.

Skills

Senior leadership experience

Commercial acumen

Executive communication

Stakeholder management

Analytical thinker

Gravitas

Ownership mindset

Curiosity

Resilience

Regulatory awareness

Job description

Job Type: Permanent

Build a brilliant future with Hiscox

About Hiscox UK

Hiscox UK is a leading brand in the insurance market, recognised as setting the standards others try to emulate. We consistently deliver strong growth and exceptional returns, recruiting only the very best and empowering them to deliver. We are known for insuring the homes of the rich and famous through to the most innovative technology companies. Our customers are diverse and unique and are only united by our ability to provide specialist insurance tailored to their needs.

The role

The Strategy Manager to the UK Chief Underwriting Officer (CUO) plays a critical role in maximising the effectiveness, impact and strategic focus of the UK underwriting leadership agenda. Acting as a trusted adviser and operational proxy to the CUO, the role combines strategic problem‑solving, executive briefing and business rhythm management. The Strategy Manager ensures that priorities are clear, decisions are well‑informed, and the CUO is able to focus time and energy on the most value‑creating activity for Hiscox UK. This is a high‑exposure role, working closely with the UK Underwriting Leadership Team and their teams as well as key functional leaders across Distribution, Operations, Portfolio Underwriting & Pricing, Claims and Group functions.

What you’ll be doing

1. Strategic enablement & decision support Act as a trusted thought‑partner to the CUO, shaping agenda, priorities and decision flow. Lead and deliver high‑quality briefing papers, recommendations and executive materials for UKLT, ULT, GEC, Board and other governance forums. Translate complex underwriting, portfolio and market insights into clear, decision‑ready narratives. Proactively identify risks, dependencies and opportunities, ensuring the CUO is sighted on emerging issues.
2. Underwriting leadership rhythm & governance Own and coordinate the operating rhythm for the UK underwriting function, including leadership meetings, QBRs, portfolio reviews and planning cycles. Ensure effective tracking of actions, decisions and outcomes across the Underwriting Leadership Team. Support robust governance across underwriting‑related activity, ensuring alignment to regulatory, risk and control expectations. Act as a central point of connection between underwriting leadership forums and wider UK governance.
3. Portfolio insight & analytical problem‑solving Lead targeted analytical work on behalf of the CUO, drawing on data from Portfolio Underwriting, Pricing, Finance and MI teams. Provide insight on portfolio performance, emerging trends, trading outcomes and strategic trade‑offs. Commission, shape and challenge analysis to ensure it is relevant, commercial and decision‑focused.
4. Transformation & change support Support the CUO in driving strategic change across the UK underwriting organisation (e.g. new ways of working, role clarity, leadership effectiveness, capability uplift). Track delivery of key underwriting initiatives, surfacing risks and recommending course‑correction where needed. Act as a connector across initiatives to avoid duplication and ensure coherent execution.
5. Stakeholder management & collaboration Build strong working relationships across UK and Group functions, enabling influence without formal authority. Represent the CUO in selected forums, meetings or working groups as required. Act as a calm, credible and commercial interface between underwriting leadership and the wider business.

Our must haves

• Significant experience operating in or alongside a senior leadership or executive environment, ideally within financial services or insurance
• Strong commercial acumen with the ability to understand underwriting, portfolio and risk concepts quickly
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills; able to distil complexity into clear, persuasive executive messages
• Proven ability to manage ambiguity, competing priorities and sensitive information with professionalism and judgement
• Advanced stakeholder management skills within a matrix organisation
• Highly analytical, structured thinker with strong problem‑solving capability
• Gravitas and confidence to operate credibly with senior leaders
• Low‑ego, high‑impact approach with a strong sense of ownershi
• Intellectually curious, commercially minded and outcomes‑focused
• Resilient, adaptable and comfortable operating at pace
• Strong judgement and discretion
• Desirable Direct experience within insurance underwriting, pricing, portfolio management or a closely related discipline.
• Exposure to regulatory and conduct considerations within insurance or financial services
• A quantitative or financial background would be beneficial

Diversity and flexible working at Hiscox

We’ve introduced new hybrid ways of working to encourage a healthy work life balance. We anticipate the successful candidate for this role will be in the office up to 2-3 days per week. Our London office will be your hub where team & collaboration time will take place. We see it as the best of both worlds: structure and sociability on one hand, and independence and flexibility on the other.

We’re a global, specialist insurer headquartered in Bermuda and listed on the London Stock Exchange. With 3,000 employees and 32 offices in 12 countries we’re a business with lots of opportunity for people with talent, spark and lots of ambition.