Underwriting Philosophy Developer

Contract Type: Permanent
Location: Edinburgh or Glasgow or Alderley Park or London or Remote

Working Style: Hybrid 50% or Remote

Closing Date: 8th June 2026

We have an exciting new opportunity for an Underwriting Philosophy Developer to join our Underwriting Team at Royal London. You will play a key part of the development, refinement, and strategic alignment of Royal London’s underwriting philosophy. This role ensures that underwriting standards reflect the organisation’s risk appetite and market position, regulatory obligations, and customer-centric values, while supporting proposition design and operational excellence.

More About the role:

• Design and develop underwriting philosophies for new and existing propositions using evidence-based approaches, while considering reinsurance impacts and agreed reinsurance parameters.


• Incorporate insights from medical research, competitor analysis, claims statistics, MI data and reinsurance treaties to shape philosophy updates.


• Collaborate with Pricing, Data, and Reinsurance partners to ensure philosophies are commercially viable and aligned with treaty terms.


• Work closely with the team responsible for electronic underwriting rules and design philosophies that are transferable and maximise immediate decision rates, balance risk and optimise the customer journey.


• Act as a subject matter expert to senior stakeholders, driving underwriting direction and influencing proposition strategy.


• Lead cross-functional discussions to agree on philosophy changes and their implementation across manual and digital underwriting platforms.


• Attending and representing UW Philosophy at internal and external forums and events


• Support reinsurance tenders, delivering philosophy changes to allow for agreed underwriting stances and commercial benefits.


• Review underwriting decisions as part of philosophy improvement work, or on case referrals, to our team to monitor adherence to philosophy and industry best practices.


• Analyse error rates, claims and trends to inform continuous improvement and any potential training needs.


• Feed into the oversight of Operational risk and Quality assurance.

What you will bring to the role:

• Expert understanding of underwriting principles, insurance medicine, and risk assessment.


• Strong customer focus, analytical judgement and ability to interpret complex data from a variety of sources.


• Highly organised, with ability to manage a very varied workload and adapt to rapid changes in priority.


• Exceptional oral/written communication skills. Ability to understand and communicate with all stakeholders, both internal and external.


• Ability to seek creative solutions to problems with a focus on customer outcome and operational efficiency improvement.


• MI capability to gather, manipulate and present data to support philosophy developments and overall experience.

Desirable experience:

• More than five years’ experience as a Senior Underwriter.


• Experience working in an underwriting development team.


• Ability to interpret medical research papers.


• Familiar with quality assurance practices and procedures.


• Understanding of electronic underwriting rule systems.


• Project management experience.


• College courses or practical work experience that relate to job functions.


• Professional Industry Qualification (ACII, DLDU).

If you feel you’d be a great fit for Royal London but don’t meet every requirement, we’d still love to hear from you. Research shows some candidates are less likely to apply unless they meet 100% of the criteria - if you meet most requirements and are keen to learn, we encourage you to apply!

About Royal London

We’re the UK’s largest mutual life, pensions and investment company, offering protection, long-term savings and asset management products and services.   

Our People Promise to our colleagues is that we will all work somewhere inclusive, responsible, enjoyable and fulfilling. This is underpinned by our Spirit of Royal London values; Empowered, Trustworthy, Collaborate, Achieve. 

We've always been proud to reward employees by offering great workplace benefits such as 28 days annual leave in addition to bank holidays, an up to 14% employer matching pension scheme and private medical insurance.

Inclusion, diversity and belonging

We’re an inclusive employer. We celebrate and value different backgrounds and cultures across Royal London. Our diverse people and perspectives give us a range of skills which are recognised and respected – whatever their background.