Senior New Business Underwriter

You are already a proven new business underwriter in the South West, with the broker relationships and market presence to get straight into meaningful conversations from day one.

You know the people placing the better commercial cases across Bristol and the wider region, and you have established trading relationships with businesses such as Gallagher, Everywhen, Marsh and Thomas Carroll. You now want the underwriting authority, appetite and internal backing to make more of those relationships.

The opportunity

• You will join an established regional underwriting operation with a clear growth agenda and take a leading role in driving new business across the South West.
• This is a genuine trading position. You will be expected to spend your time close to brokers, understanding opportunities, negotiating terms and finding sensible ways to write profitable business rather than simply waiting for risks to arrive.
• Your existing broker relationships will be important because the expectation is that you can establish momentum quickly. You will have responsibility for developing key accounts, increasing the business written through them and strengthening the insurer’s position with the brokers that matter across the region.

What the role looks like

You will be responsible for:

• Driving profitable new business across an established panel of regional and national brokers.
• Developing deeper trading relationships with key accounts across Bristol and the wider South West.
• Underwriting commercial business within agreed authority levels and making confident decisions around risk selection and pricing.
• Negotiating directly with brokers to convert the right opportunities.
• Delivering against premium, income and loss ratio objectives without compromising underwriting discipline.
• Using your knowledge of individual broker accounts to identify where there is realistic potential for further growth.
• Sharing market intelligence with the wider underwriting team and helping shape how the region approaches particular brokers and opportunities.
• Working closely with claims, survey and other specialist colleagues to make sure brokers receive a joined-up service.

Who this could suit

• You will already be recognised as a strong new business underwriter, development underwriter or commercially minded senior underwriter within the South West market.
• The most important part of your background is a demonstrable new business track record. You will have evidence of growing broker accounts, converting opportunities and building relationships that consistently produce business.
• You will also have strong existing connections with the larger broking houses operating across the region. This is not a role where you will spend your first year introducing yourself to the market. You will already know the key people and understand how they trade.

The team

• You will be joining a Bristol operation that is being built around regional trading rather than remote underwriting.
• The team has a clear mandate to grow its presence across the South West, with new business underwriting sitting at the heart of that strategy. You will work alongside experienced underwriting colleagues and have access to claims, survey and wider technical support, but you will retain direct ownership of your broker relationships and the opportunities you develop.
• There is a strong emphasis on underwriting relationships properly. That means being visible with brokers, understanding the commercial context behind a case and having the confidence to negotiate rather than relying solely on process.
• For an underwriter who enjoys being out in the market and wants their broker relationships to have a direct impact on their own success, it is a particularly strong platform.

Package and benefits

The salary is available up to £80,000 depending on experience, alongside a performance-related bonus.

The wider package includes:

• Private medical insurance for you and your family.
• A company-funded annual health check.
• Support towards dental, eye care and health cash plans.
• A 10% company pension contribution with additional matching contributions available.
• Life assurance and critical illness cover.

The next step

You will want to understand the underwriting appetite, the broker accounts available to develop, the level of authority attached to the role and how ambitious the business genuinely is for Bristol.

We can talk you through all of that confidentially, including the team, the regional strategy and where they see the strongest new business opportunities, before you decide whether it is worth taking the conversation further.