Underwriting Developer, Savings & Retirement

Job Title

Job Description

The Role (12 months FTC)

As an Underwriting Developer, Savings & Retirement, you will be working closely with the AVP, Global Underwriting & Claims Development, Protection to support our strategic new entry into the Individual Retirement Income market, with a particular focus on developing individual lives annuities underwriting philosophy. This role will ideally be based in London to support the strategic entry to the UK & wider European retirement income markets.

As an Underwriting Developer you will develop and implement an underwriting proposition that meets both client needs and is consistent with PL Re's strategic focus, including the development of risk-based underwriting frameworks suitable for automation.

You'll be working in a company that values your technical skills, the innovative ideas and solutions you bring into the work you do, and your ability to communicate those ideas effectively. As a member of the wider Savings and Retirement community the incumbent is expected to help promote a culture across Savings & Retirements consistent with the Pacific Life Re target culture and consistent with the company's Principles and Behaviours.

Within Savings and Retirement, we have a vision to be Partnering with our clients globally to provide stability and confidence in retirement.

Duties

Ocean Development - 70-80% of time

• Leading the development of individual lives annuities underwriting philosophy, defining underwriting intent, risk segmentation, decision frameworks, and boundaries aligned to Pacific Life Re's strategic objectives.
• Develop, document, and maintain research-based loading (RBL) papers that translate research, experience, and market insight into clear, defensible underwriting positions suitable for automation.
• Lead and coordinate research-based Ocean content reviews, including evaluation of emerging risks, medical, financial, and behavioural factors relevant to individual annuities underwriting and claims.
• Define and maintain a clear Ocean content roadmap for individual annuities underwriting, with pragmatic prioritisation and alignment to business and client needs.
• Partner closely with existing life insurance underwriting and claims developers to ensure annuities underwriting philosophy is clearly articulated, logically structured, and fit for translation into automated underwriting rules.
• Review, challenge, and approve proposed annuities underwriting content and logic developed by others, ensuring consistency, quality, and adherence to agreed risk philosophy.
• Contribute as required to Ocean content deployments (e.g. clarification of logic, testing/coding support, expert input).

Support and Development - 20-30% of time

• Design and maintain governance frameworks, standards, and documentation for individual lives annuities underwriting content, including change control, peer review, and sign-off processes.
• Support risk assessment, due diligence, and underwriting input for annuities tenders and quotes, ensuring underwriting positions are clearly articulated and commercially defensible.
• Lead the development and delivery of internal training on individual annuities underwriting and claims philosophy, Ocean content, and research-based decision-making for underwriting, claims, and commercial stakeholders.
• Contribute to internal and external thought leadership, including guidance papers, presentations, and articles aligned with annuities underwriting and clams research and Ocean content developments.
• Strengthen collaboration across Underwriting & Claims Development, R&D, Medical Analytics, Strategic Analytics, and commercial teams to support product innovation and the evolution of annuities underwriting capability.

Essential Experience

• Ability to translate research and evidence into clear underwriting outcomes, including contributing to the development of underwriting philosophy, guidelines, or content documentation.
• Experience analysing and interpreting data to support underwriting and research-based underwriting decision making.
• Experience working with underwriting decision frameworks or structured underwriting logic that is deployed into underwriting platforms.
• Experience working in an annuity underwriting environment within an insurance or reinsurance company.
• Working knowledge of annuities industry regulations.

Commercial Judgement

• Ability to apply judgement and develop practical solutions to underwriting and risk challenges.
• Ability to communicate effectively with stakeholders across underwriting, technical, and pricing teams, including teams responsible for downstream system implementation.
• Organised, detail-focused, and able to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Comfortable working with non-standard or unstructured requests with appropriate guidance.
• Motivated to take ownership of assigned work and deliver high-quality outcomes.

Desirable Experience

• Previous experience working in an insurance or reinsurance environment.
• Strong data literacy, with the ability to draw conclusions from analysis and articulate implications for underwriting.
• Experience working with automated underwriting and/or claims systems and underwriting manuals.

Working For Pacific Life Re

Every person in our global team is valued for the unique qualities they bring to our business and we seek to build their expertise and support their individual ambitions at every step. Of course, we take our work seriously and we know our team can operate under great pressure. We work hard and thrive on achievement, but we also know how to have fun and relax too. We regularly host a range of team building days to strengthen our team's connection with each other and reflect on their successes.

Providing employees with a healthy work-life balance is very important to our culture. We have a wide range of employee benefits and we host regular social activities and well being initiatives. We are also committed to supporting our employee's involvement in their communities, by actively fundraising, hosting charity events and overseeing volunteering opportunities.

Benefits (Only for Permanent and Fixed Term Employees)

Leave

• 25 days of annual leave with option to buy/sell more days

• Adoption and fertility leave

• Generous enhanced parental leave

Healthcare

• Comprehensive private insurance coverage for employee and dependents

• Group Life Insurance coverage of 9x basic annual salary and Group Income Protection up to 75% of basic annual salary

• Optical benefits

Savings & Retirement

• 15% combined employee/employer contributions

Wellness

• Subsidized gym membership

• Access to Employee Assistance Program

• Cycle to Work and Electric Car Salary Sacrifice Scheme

• Time off for volunteering

• Charitable matching of employee donations

As part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion, we will provide reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process to ensure equal access to applicants with disabilities. Please contact us about your needs so that we can discuss these with you to make sure that suitable adjustments are made, where possible.

Pacific Life Re Values

Please click here to view our company values