Underwriting Manager

Zurich Insurance; Dublin; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Zurich Insurance in Ireland (Blackrock based) seeks an experienced Senior Underwriting Team Lead to drive quality, service and strong customer outcomes across Life, Serious Illness and Income Protection.

You will coach underwriters, mentor talent, and balance technical judgment with commercial awareness while engaging with brokers and Sales. This role anchors governance and collaborates with Claims, Actuarial, Product and Operations to deliver market-leading underwriting standards.

Qualifications

• Diploma in Life and Disability Underwriting preferred, or equivalent technical underwriting experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop the underwriting team, fostering quality, service and strong customer outcomes.
• Act as a senior point of escalation for Sales teams, brokers and complex underwriting cases, balancing technical judgement with commercial awareness.
• Apply appropriate terms within authority for Life, Serious Illness and Income Protection proposals.
• Coach and mentor underwriters, supporting capability development and succession planning.
• Review portfolio trends, emerging risks and opportunities to evolve underwriting standards.
• Support system, product and process improvements to enhance service and efficiency.
• Drive delivery against service standards, ensuring customers and brokers receive timely, high-quality underwriting decisions.
• Represent Zurich Life at broker and market-facing events.
• Support the Head of Underwriting in maintaining a robust control environment and embedding consistently high underwriting standards across the function.
• Partner across Sales, Claims, Actuarial, Product and Operations to support growth and continuous improvement.

Skills

Leadership

Team development

Life underwriting

Serious Illness underwriting

Income Protection underwriting

Stakeholder management

Presentation skills

Education

Diploma in Life and Disability Underwriting

Job description

Key Accountabilities

• Lead and develop the underwriting team, fostering quality, service and strong customer outcomes.
• Act as a senior point of escalation for Sales teams, brokers and complex underwriting cases, balancing technical judgement with commercial awareness.
• Apply appropriate terms within authority for Life, Serious Illness and Income Protection proposals.
• Coach and mentor underwriters, supporting capability development and succession planning.
• Review portfolio trends, emerging risks and opportunities to evolve underwriting standards.
• Support system, product and process improvements to enhance service and efficiency.
• Drive delivery against service standards, ensuring customers and brokers receive timely, high-quality underwriting decisions.
• Represent Zurich Life at broker and market-facing events.
• Support the Head of Underwriting in maintaining a robust control environment and embedding consistently high underwriting standards across the function.
• Partner across Sales, Claims, Actuarial, Product and Operations to support growth and continuous improvement.

Key Performance Indicators

• Effective delivery of underwriting function objectives and contribution to Zurich Life’s protection growth agenda.
• Consistently high-quality underwriting decisions and effective management of the case portfolio.
• Contribution to underwriting philosophy, standards and ways of working.
• Strong service delivery for customers, brokers and internal stakeholders.
• Robust control environment, evidenced through audits, quality reviews and breach analysis.
• Successful development, engagement and retention of underwriting talent within the team.

RELATIONSHIPS

• Head of Underwriting
• Underwriting and Trainee Underwriting Team members
• Other Operational Departments
• Chief Medical Officer
• Sales Teams
• Propositions Teams
• Heads of Service Delivery
• Chief Operating Officer
• Reinsurance and market service providers

Qualifications

• Diploma in Life and Disability Underwriting preferred, or equivalent technical underwriting experience.

TECHNICAL SKILLS :

• Significant Life, Serious Illness and Income Protection underwriting experience.
• Experience underwriting complex cases within own authority. Current authority levels of Life €2.0m, Serious Illness €1.0m and Income Protection €100,000 minimum.
• Strong market and industry knowledge, with ability to drive practical improvements.
• Confident presentation skills, with the ability to represent Zurich Life effectively with brokers, senior stakeholders and external partners.

Skills

NON TECHNICAL SKILLS

• Strong leadership capability, with the ability to motivate, coach and develop a team through change and growth.
• Excellent communication skills and confidence engaging senior stakeholders, brokers and partners.
• Proven ability to influence, negotiate and make sound decisions in a fast-moving commercial environment.
• Strong business and commercial awareness, with an interest in shaping a market-leading underwriting proposition.
• Collaborative, resilient and improvement-focused, with ambition to progress into senior leadership.

Who we are

Primary work location is Blackrock based but occasional travel may be required to other Zurich locations.

Zurich is one of Ireland's leading insurance companies providing a wide range of general insurance and life insurance products and services. The company employs over 1,000 people across its locations in Dublin and Wexford. Zurich Insurance Group (Zurich) is a leading global multi-line insurer founded more than 150 years ago, which has grown into a business serving more than 82 million customers in more than 200 countries and territories, while delivering industry-leading total shareholder returns. Reflecting its purpose to 'create a brighter future together,' Zurich offers protection services that go beyond traditional insurance, to support its customers in building resilience. Since 2020, the Zurich Forest project supports reforestation and biodiversity restoration in Brazil's Atlantic Forest. The Group has more than 65,000 employees and is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd (ZURN) is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and has a level I American Depositary Receipt (ZURVY) program, which is traded over-the-counter on OTCQX. Further information is available at www.zurich.com.