Head of Underwriting Quality

About The Role
Team – Underwriting & Claims - Life
Working Pattern - Hybrid – 2 days per week in the Vitality London Office. Full time, 37.5 hours per week. 
We are happy to discuss flexible working!
Top 3 skills needed for this role:

• Excellent communication, influencing & people management skills
• Proven track record of innovation and development of underwriting
• Excellent working knowledge of regulatory procedures/requirements within the Protection industry

What this role is all about:
The Head of Underwriting Quality is responsible for the strategy, development, management and monitoring of referred-business underwriting philosophy and quality. This includes responsibility for managing, analysing, innovating and reporting on: evidence used for underwriting; underwriter accreditation, underwriting QA, post-issue sampling; reinsurance audits and retrospective claims underwriting. The purpose of the role is to ensure that underwriting at VitalityLife provides a robust risk control in an efficient, forward-thinking and customer-friendly way. 
Key Actions

• Define, articulate and pursue the delivery of the underwriting strategy as it relates to referred-business underwriting quality and philosophy.
• Manage the underwriting QA function to maintain underwriting quality and adherence to philosophy in line with reinsurance agreements and underwriting manuals.
• Manage the  framework and process for the granting of operational underwriting authorities.
• Manage the post-issue underwriting sampling & reporting processes to manage misrepresentation & process risks.
• Manage reinsurer underwriting  relationships – changes to manual underwriting philosophy, oversight of reinsurer audit programme, reporting of post-issue sampling and internal underwriting QA, input to reinsurance tenders, reporting of operational risk.
• Manage the medical evidence strategy and sourcing for underwriting.
• Works in conjunction with underwriting operations to see that best practice is maintained (e.g. adhering to philosophy, the minimising of excess medical evidence, tele-underwriting).
• Ensure the Underwriting Intranet site is up to date as a single point of reference for underwriting philosophy, provides clarity for underwriters.
• Works closely with the underwriting automation team to ensure philosophy is aligned across both.
• Work with business heads and risk teams to investigate and prevent any processes giving rise to operational underwriting risk– help the business understand the risk and drive solutions.
• Provide retrospective underwriting opinions for claims. Report on the referrals and share results with internal stakeholders.
• Discuss and advise on singular, bespoke underwriting risks presented by Operations/Distribution.
• Manage strategic and quality interactions with reinsurers, actuarial & data science teams, distribution quality management, claims and product development/marketing.

What do you need to thrive?

• High energy, bias for actions and strong self-motivation.
• Analytical with ability to use data and analytics to inform strategy and decisions.
• Extensive experience within a Life Insurance Underwriting role at a senior level.
• Exposure to reinsurance market.
• Ability to research, analyse and interpret complex information.
• Open to innovation, use of data science to solve problems.
• Excellent people management & influencing skills.

So, what’s in it for you?

• Bonus Schemes – A bonus that regularly rewards you for your performance
• A pension of up to 12%– We will match your contributions up to 6% of your salary
• Our award-winning Vitality health insurance – With its own set of rewards and benefits
• Life Assurance – Four times annual salary

These are just some of the many perks that we offer! To view the extensive range of benefits we offer, please visit our careers page. Fantastic Benefits. Exciting rewards. Great career opportunities!
If you are successful in your application and join us at Vitality, this is our promise to you, we will:

• Help you to be the healthiest you’ve ever been.
• Create an environment that embraces you as you are and enables you to be your best self.
• Give you flexibility on how, where and when you work.
• Help you advance your career by playing you to your strengths.
• Give you a voice to help our business grow and make Vitality a great place to be.
• Give you the space to try, fail and learn.
• Provide a healthy balance of challenge and support.
• Recognise and reward you with a competitive salary and amazing benefits.
• Be there for you when you need us.
• Provide opportunities for you to be a force for good in society.

We commit to all these things because we want you to feel that you belong, and are supported to be happy and healthy.

About The Company
We're really excited to announce that we have recently been awarded "Top 10 Best Places To Work" in The Sunday Times Awards 2024!

Diversity & Inclusion
At Vitality, we’re committed to diversity and inclusion because it’s good for our employees, for our business, and for society. We welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives.
Vitality’s approach to sustainability
Vitality is a business that drives positive change. We reward people for making and sustaining healthier choices. But healthy people also need a healthy environment. To learn more please visit our Careers page. 
If we are fortunate in receiving a high volume of quality applications we may need to close this vacancy early.