Product Owner, Underwriting (London Market)

About Hiscox

As an international specialist insurer, we are far removed from the world of mass-market insurance products. Instead, we are selective and focus on our key areas of expertise and strength, underpinned by a culture that encourages us to challenge convention and always look for a better way of doing things.

We insure the unique and the interesting. And we search for the same when it comes to talented people. Hiscox is full of smart, reliable human beings that look out for customers and each other. We believe in doing the right thing, making good and rebuilding when things go wrong. Everyone is encouraged to think creatively, challenge the status quo and look for solutions.

Scratch beneath the surface and you will find a business that is solid, but slightly contrary. We like to do things differently and constantly seek to evolve. We might have been around for a long time (our roots go back to 1901), but we are young in many ways, ambitious and going places.

Some people might say insurance is dull, but life at Hiscox is anything but. If that sounds good to you, get in touch.

About The Team

The Change Management Team collaborate with all areas of the London Market business unit to design and build market leading capabilities across our people, processes and systems. Our goal is to embed lasting changes that deliver measurable benefit to our customers and help us reach our strategic goals. Working on our team is exciting and fast-paced. We shape and build the future of the London Market.

The role

We are seeking a dynamic and experienced Product Owner to join our Underwriting value stream and lead the development and delivery of complex products that are helping to shape the future of the London Market. Reporting to the Product Owner Chapter Lead, you will work with Product Managers, fellow Product Owners, developers, data science specialists and underwriting stakeholders to translate strategy into clear priorities and measurable outcomes.

You will own and continually develop a complex product roadmap, taking initiatives from discovery through delivery and adoption. Working across multiple teams and interdependent workstreams, you will balance immediate priorities with the longer-term product vision, anticipate risks and dependencies, and proactively identify options to keep delivery on track.

A key focus of the role will be using data science, agentic AI and automation to improve how underwriting submissions are received, prioritised and progressed through the underwriting workflow. You will shape solutions that create tangible value for underwriters and the wider business.

This role goes beyond backlog management. You will influence product direction, challenge assumptions and engage with senior stakeholders across the London Market business. You may also be required to present product progress, priorities and recommendations at senior governance and decision-making forums.

This is an exciting opportunity to join an innovative and market-leading team and contribute to high-profile, AI-enabled products with the potential to transform how underwriters work.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and proactively manage a complex, multi-stream product backlog aligned to strategic objectives and OKRs, ensuring there is a steady flow of work for the delivery team.
• Translate ambiguous business problems into clear, outcome-focused delivery goals.
• Ensure sprint goals are clear, achievable, and aligned to roadmap milestones.
• Conduct workshops to design and define delivery iterations, assess value, ensure work is prioritised and focused on delivering maximum value to our customers.
• Capture requirements as increments of delivery and refine with the delivery team; ensure they are well thought through with clear acceptance criteria to ensure requirements are met.
• Be the first point of contact for the delivery team to answer questions, clarify requirements and remove blockers.
• Act as the voice of the customer, ensuring everyone understands the business value of the delivery increments and represent the needs of our customers on a day to day basis within the delivery team.
• Attend and participate in Agile events – stand ups, refinement, planning and retrospectives and work with the Scrum Master to ensure that these are successful.
• Provide feedback on the roadmap to the Product Manager, escalating risks, issues and blockers raised by the delivery team and advising on actual vs. expected progress and any knock-on impact to the product roadmap.
• Develop, manage and motivate a delivery team (in a matrix organisation) across internal and external teams, including third party suppliers.
• Build strong, productive relationships inside and outside of Hiscox in order to deliver effective solutions based on a strong understanding of the business drivers and benefits for each party.
• Partner with stakeholders across the London Market to shape scope, manage expectations, and drive alignment.
• Act as a trusted advisor to stakeholders, providing insight on trade-offs, sequencing, and delivery options.
• Coach and support less experienced Product Owners and contribute to Product Owner Chapter standards, capability development and continuous improvement.

Key Requirements

This role will suit you if you are comfortable working in a rapidly evolving and fast paced environment and enjoy delivering transformations that drive real benefit to our customers. You will need to be able to think on your feet, ruthlessly prioritise a development pipeline and communicate this effectively with your stakeholders and delivery team.

Must haves

• Experienced Product Owner with proven experience in a similar Underwriting role and a strong track record of delivering value through cross-functional teams in complex digital product environments.
• Proven experience owning and developing a product roadmap, balancing immediate delivery priorities with the longer-term product vision.
• Ability to operate in ambiguity and bring clarity to complex problem spaces.
• Ability to balance competing priorities, manage dependencies and maintain delivery standards.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills with the confidence to influence and present recommendations to senior stakeholders and governance forums.
• An aptitude for customer centric problem solving and challenging the status quo.
• Experience using different analysis techniques to understand current processes, identify root causes and elicit requirements in order to design the future state.
• Experience of working in Agile or iterative way, managing a backlog and ensuring business value is prioritised, successfully delivered and embedded.
• Familiarity with OKRs, benefits tracking, and outcome-led delivery.

Desirable

• Certified Agile Product Owner.
• Experience working with Jira, Confluence or similar collaboration tools.
• Experience working with emerging technologies or Data Science.

Diversity, Inclusion and Hybrid working

At Hiscox we care about our people. We hire the best people for the job and we’re committed to diversity and creating a truly inclusive culture, which we believe drives success. We have also learned that working life doesn’t always have to be in the office and support hybrid ways of working to encourage a healthy work life balance.

We anticipate the successful candidate for this role will be in the office approximately 2 days a week. We see it as the best of both worlds: structure and sociability on one hand, and independence and flexibility on the other.

Work with amazing people and be part of a unique culture.