About the Role:
A leading insurer in Johannesburg is looking for a Senior Underwriter with a minimum of 12 years non-life
underwriting experience across commercial, and/or specialist classes, with strong exposure to Corporate Property,
and other complex commercial risks. The incumbent will provide technical challenge and support in relation to
underwriting, product development, policy wordings, pricing and structures, facultative and treaty reinsurance,
mandate exceptions, complex risks and underwriting governance.
The purpose of the role is to provide independent senior technical underwriting oversight across the company’s
Partner portfolio, ensuring that business written by company’s Partners is technically sound, profitable, within
agreed underwriting mandates, company’s insurance licence, approved product parameters and available
reinsurance arrangements.
Minimum requirements:
• Minimum 12 years non-life underwriting experience across commercial, and/or specialist classes, with strong exposure to Property, and other complex commercial risks.
• At least 5 years’ corporate, complex-risk, specialist or insurer-side technical underwriting experience.
• Sound technical understanding of large and complex claims and the interaction between policy coverage and reinsurance.
• Strong working knowledge of commercial, corporate and specialist policy wordings across relevant classes.
• Strong practical experience in facultative reinsurance placements and/or technical review of facultative reinsurance arrangements.
• Proven ability to interpret and apply treaty reinsurance terms, exclusions, limits, capacity and special acceptance requirements.
• FAIS compliant.
• Relevant 3 years post matric qualification or Insurance Institute qualification (AIISA).
The following would be advantageous:
• Sound knowledge of applicable insurance legislation and regulation, including FAIS, PPR, and the Insurance Act.
• Knowledge of insurer operations and control functions.
• Experience in delegated underwriting authority, UMA or binder-holder oversight.
• Working Knowledge of Alternative Risk Transfer underwriting and structuring.
• Claims background.
• Life insurance experience
Job responsibilities:
• Assist with the responsibility for the design of and implementing of systems and controls to ensure compliance with all relevant legislation and regulations impacting on the group.
• Develop, complete and maintain Compliance Risk Management Plans (CRMP’s) to respond to regulatory changes and to address shortfalls in compliance.
• Advise and assist staff and clients proactively in developing products, systems and responses to legislation and regulation.
• Contribute to the creation of a risk & compliance culture and awareness by becoming a trusted advisor to 1st line, whilst maintaining independence as part of 2nd line.
• Provide training to the company’s and/or its’ external business partners.
• Report to all stakeholders on risk & compliance management, as and when required.
• Overall assisting with the management of the compliance strategy, framework and plans (including crisis management plans) to ensure that the company complies with relevant regulatory requirements.
• Monitoring the company’s regulatory risk profile and facilitating the process with all business units to ensure that key regulatory risks are managed.
• Assisting with implementation, roll out and management of risk & compliance management technology /systems to all business units and ensuring users are trained as required.
• Assisting to embed a structured compliance risk management process in the company to identify, mitigate, monitor, report and escalate key regulatory and reputational risks within the parameters of the Board’s risk appetite.
• Monitor and report on regulatory risk management losses incurred and record same in incident register and non-compliance risk register.
Competencies, Knowledge and Skills Requirements:
• A self-starter, innovative and appropriately assertive and able to work independently.
• Strong ability to analyse and manage underwriting performance and profitability.
• Strong practical knowledge of treaty and facultative reinsurance and insurance/reinsurance structures.
• Strong technical underwriting knowledge and the ability to interpret complex policy and reinsurance wordings.
• Sound product development capability.
• Sound product-development, product-governance and technical insurance-classification capability.
• Strong analytical and critical-thinking ability, with meticulous attention to detail.
• Ability to identify coverage gaps, unintended underwriting exposures and inconsistencies between policy exposure and reinsured exposure.
• Sound commercial judgement and the ability to make, document and defend technical underwriting
decisions.
• Ability to challenge senior Partner underwriting personnel constructively and influence appropriate outcomes.
• Strong written communication, technical report-writing and presentation skills.
• Strong project management, stakeholder management and client engagement capability