Product Owner in Bexhill-on-Sea

We are seeking an experienced Product Owner to lead the coordination of changes to our Underwriting rating algorithms. Working in a dynamic environment where many multiples of rating changes are released each week, the Rating Change Product Owner will safeguard the design integrity of the rating logic and drive the fast-paced release of rating changes to deliver commercial value. Operating as the bridge between Underwriting and Risk Pricing teams, Pricing Engineering, Release Management and Testing, they will need a strong planning and prioritisation discipline, excellent stakeholder leadership and technical fluency to ensure rating updates are delivered with pace, control and accuracy.

Responsibilities

• Ownership of the Underwriting rating algorithms, accountable for the integrity, consistency and controlled delivery of change across all Lines of Business.
• Act as the central coordination point between Risk Pricing, Pricing Engineering, Testing and Release Management and wider Underwriting stakeholders, ensuring rating change is prioritised, planned and delivered with both pace and quality.
• Maintain a clearly structured and transparent backlog with well-defined weekly delivery cadences and a forward-looking roadmap aligned to commercial strategy and regulatory requirements.
• Provide clear visibility of short, medium and long-term delivery commitments, actively managing dependencies, risks and cross-Line of Business impacts to protect delivery predictability.
• Provide informed technical oversight of rating logic design and system integrations, with a working understanding of Python-based rating architecture and GitHub workflows to support traceability, enable effective challenge of technical design and implementation, and strengthen governance standards.
• Champion strong process discipline, documentation quality and continuous improvement across the end-to-end change lifecycle.
• Support incident investigations and Root Cause Analysis where required, ensuring learning is embedded and control frameworks are strengthened.
• Contribute to the maturity and performance of the Underwriting Rating Delivery function by fostering accountability, collaboration and high organisational standards across all change activity.

Qualifications

• Strong track record as a Product Owner within a pricing and/or rating delivery environment.
• Working knowledge of Python-based systems, GitHub workflows and SQL would be advantageous.
• Good understanding of Scrum and Kanban methodologies.
• Proactive self-starter with excellent project management skills and ability to manage multiple tasks and projects effectively.
• High degree of organisation, individual initiative, and personal accountability.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to engage, influence, and inspire colleagues and stakeholders to drive collaboration and alignment.
• Strong listening, written and oral communication skills.
• Ability to articulate ideas to both technical and non-technical colleagues, and an ability to drill down into change requirements in order to capture information with precision.
• Knowledge and experience of the Insurance industry.

About Hastings Direct

We’re a digital insurance provider with ambitious plans to become the best and biggest in the UK market. We have made huge investments in our pricing and data capabilities over the past few years, along with nurturing our 4Cs culture. We provide insurance for over four million customers, but we know there’s even bigger opportunity out there – our Pricing, Data and Analytics community values curiosity, collaboration and constructive challenge. We are always looking for new ideas and diverse perspectives to question established thinking and drive meaningful change. Great pricing is built on trust, innovation and precision, so our aim is to ensure customers receive a fair and accurate price based on their individual risk, supporting fair outcomes, while delivering sustainable and profitable growth for our company. Pricing is more than just a number – it’s a strategic capability. At the heart of Hastings is deep risk insight – continually improving how we assess, segment and price risk through data and analytics.

Benefits

• Competitive salary and £5k car allowance.
• Flexible working – we champion a flexible hybrid working approach.
• Competitive bonus scheme – all colleagues are eligible for our annual 4Cs performance bonus.
• Physical wellbeing – Hastings pay for you to receive private medical insurance (PMI).
• Financial wellbeing – we provide 4x your salary with our life assurance cover, income protection at no extra cost, and matched pension contributions up to 10%.
• Mental wellbeing programme – we have the thrive mental health app, our colleague assistance programme available 24/7, our own in-house mental health first aiders, support groups and a dedicated team to make sure we are covering your needs.
• 27 days annual leave + bank holidays, with the option to buy or sell one of your weeks.
• Access to our health care cash back plans, dental plans, discounted health assessments, Cycle to work and tech schemes, discounted and free onsite facilities, social events throughout the year and much more.

All this and more – we call it the 4Cs. We focus on getting it right for our colleagues, customers, company and community. As one of our colleagues, you'll be helping to drive our growth, so in return, we’ll give you all the support, training and development you need.