Oak Global
Underwriting Governance Lead
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The Underwriting Governance Lead
The Underwriting Governance Lead is responsible for the governance, oversight, and continuous enhancement of the underwriting governance framework, ensuring underwriting activities operate within the organisation's risk appetite, regulatory requirements, Lloyd's standards, and internal governance policies.
The role provides independent oversight of underwriting governance across all underwriting portfolios, supporting effective decision-making, robust risk management, and consistent underwriting standards. Working closely with Underwriting, Risk, Compliance, Actuarial, Claims, Finance, and Operations, the Underwriting Governance Lead ensures governance frameworks promote strong underwriting discipline while enabling the delivery of the business's strategic and commercial objectives.
The role acts as the primary governance partner to the underwriting function, providing oversight of underwriting controls, underwriting authorities, portfolio governance, product governance, and governance committee activity, while supporting continuous improvement across underwriting operations.
Key Responsibilities
Underwriting Governance Framework
- Lead the development, implementation, and continuous enhancement of the Underwriting Governance Framework, ensuring governance arrangements remain proportionate, effective, and aligned to the Company's risk appetite and regulatory obligations.
- Maintain governance policies, standards, and procedures covering underwriting activities across all classes of business, ensuring consistent application of underwriting controls throughout the underwriting lifecycle.
- Regularly review governance processes and recommend improvements that strengthen control effectiveness, increase operational efficiency, and respond to changes in market practice, regulation, and business strategy.
Underwriting Controls Framework
- Own and maintain the Underwriting Controls Framework, ensuring key preventative and detective controls are appropriately designed, documented, tested, and monitored.
- Provide oversight of:
- Underwriting Authority Frameworks
- Delegated Underwriting Authorities (in conjunction with the DA Lead)
- Referral Governance
- Underwriting Exception Management
- Peer Review and Quality Assurance (in conjunction with the Ops Lead)
- Underwriting Control Testing
- Governance Attestations
- Control Self-Assessments
- Monitor control effectiveness, identify emerging control weaknesses, and ensure remedial actions are implemented within agreed timescales.
- Support underwriting management in embedding a strong control environment and culture of accountability across underwriting teams.
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Portfolio Governance and Underwriting Oversight
- Provide governance oversight of underwriting portfolios, ensuring underwriting performance remains aligned with approved business plans, underwriting strategy, and risk appetite.
- Challenge underwriting performance where appropriate through regular portfolio reviews, monitoring:
- Rate adequacy
- Loss ratios
- Exposure management
- Aggregation risks
- Capacity utilisation
- Referral trends
- Exception reporting
- Underwriting quality metrics
- Work alongside Underwriting Leadership and Portfolio Management teams to ensure governance supports proactive portfolio management and timely corrective action.
Product Governance and Consumer Duty
- Provide governance oversight of Product Governance arrangements throughout the product lifecycle.
- Ensure products continue to deliver fair value, appropriate customer outcomes, and remain aligned with Consumer Duty requirements.
- Support:
- Product Approval Committees
- Product Reviews
- Fair Value Assessments
- Target Market Assessments
- Customer Outcome Monitoring
- Product Governance Reporting
- Work closely with Compliance and Product Owners to ensure governance requirements remain fully embedded within underwriting activities.
Regulatory Governance
- Ensure ongoing compliance with Lloyd's standards, FCA requirements, and internal governance policies, with particular focus on Consumer Duty, conduct risk, operational resilience, financial crime prevention, sanctions compliance, and data protection.
- Monitor regulatory developments and assess their impact upon underwriting governance arrangements, recommending policy and process changes where required.
- Promote a culture of strong governance, accountability, and continuous regulatory compliance throughout the underwriting function.
Management Information and Governance Reporting
- Develop and maintain a comprehensive suite of governance reporting and management information supporting effective underwriting oversight.
- Analyse emerging trends, identify areas of concern, and recommend corrective actions where governance standards fall outside agreed tolerances.
- Prepare reporting for Executive Management, Board Committees, Risk Committees, Underwriting Committees, and regulatory reports as required.
Audit, Assurance, and Quality Reviews
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- Coordinate all underwriting governance assurance activity, including:
- Internal Audit
- Lloyd's Reviews
- External Audit
- Regulatory Reviews
- Underwriting Quality Assurance Reviews (in conjunction with Ops Lead)
- Manage audit findings through to completion, ensuring corrective actions are agreed, prioritised, and delivered within agreed timescales.
- Report progress regularly to governance committees and senior management.
Stakeholder Management
- Develop effective relationships across Underwriting, Risk, Compliance, Operations, Claims, Finance, Actuarial, and Technology.
- Act as a trusted adviser on underwriting governance matters, balancing commercial objectives with regulatory expectations and effective risk management.
- Maintain constructive relationships with Lloyd's, regulators, auditors, and other external stakeholders where appropriate.
Continuous Improvement
- Lead governance improvement initiatives focused on strengthening underwriting oversight, enhancing reporting capability, and improving governance efficiency.
- Support business transformation programmes, underwriting system implementations, and governance automation initiatives that improve data quality, reporting, and decision-making.
- Champion a culture of continuous improvement and governance excellence across the underwriting function.
Skills & Experience
The successful candidate will have significant experience within the Lloyd's and London Market insurance sector, with demonstrable expertise in underwriting governance, underwriting controls, portfolio governance, or underwriting risk management.
Experience producing governance reporting for governance committees, supporting regulatory reviews, and delivering governance improvements is essential.
Strong analytical skills, excellent stakeholder management, influencing ability, and the confidence to challenge constructively at senior level are key to success.
Experience with underwriting platforms, governance reporting tools, Microsoft Excel, and Power BI is expected. Experience of Lloyd's systems and market reporting platforms would be advantageous.
Key Performance Indicators
Performance in the role will be measured through the effective implementation, maintenance, and continuous enhancement of the Underwriting Governance Framework, ensuring governance arrangements remain robust, proportionate, and aligned with the organisation's strategic objectives, risk appetite, and regulatory obligations.
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