Job Advert Summary
Technical underwriting is about more than reviewing risks.
It’s about applying deep commercial insurance expertise, balancing profitability with risk quality, and making informed decisions on complex exposures that protect the business while enabling sustainable growth.
We're looking for a Technical Underwriting Manager who understands that
Reporting to the Head: Complex Commercial, this role is responsible for providing specialist technical underwriting expertise across HCC's mid-corporate portfolio. You'll play a critical role in assessing, pricing, structuring, and managing complex commercial risks while supporting underwriting excellence through referrals, broker engagement, governance, and capability development.
What you'll be trusted to own
This is more than a technical underwriting role.
It's about balancing growth, profitability, underwriting governance, broker relationships, and portfolio quality to ensure complex commercial risks are written within appetite, authority, and reinsurance frameworks.
How you'll make your mark:
- Assess new business, renewals, mid-term adjustments, and referrals for complex commercial risks, with a particular focus on property damage and business interruption exposures.
- Evaluate construction, occupancy, fire protection, catastrophe exposure, accumulation risks, and other material underwriting considerations.
- Review claims experience, loss trends, exposure changes, and risk improvement measures to support sound underwriting decisions.
- Determine appropriate terms, conditions, deductibles, warranties, exclusions, and subjectivities aligned to risk quality and underwriting appetite.
- Apply approved rating methodologies and technical pricing principles to maintain portfolio profitability and premium adequacy.
- Identify concentrations, adverse trends, pricing anomalies, and emerging risks across the portfolio.
- Interpret engineering surveys and risk improvement recommendations, ensuring material vulnerabilities are appropriately addressed.
- Oversee referrals, capacity management, facultative reinsurance requirements, and treaty eligibility considerations.
- Ensure policy wordings, endorsements, schedules, deductibles, and coverage structures accurately reflect underwriting intent and reinsurance requirements.
- Provide technical guidance and support to regional underwriting teams, brokers, and internal stakeholders.
- Build and maintain strong broker relationships while ensuring underwriting independence and consistency of decision-making.
- Coach and develop underwriting capability through training, technical guidance, case reviews, and knowledge-sharing initiatives.
- Contribute to product enhancements, wording development, underwriting frameworks, and continuous improvement initiatives.
- Monitor portfolio performance, premium adequacy, retention, loss experience, referral trends, and accumulation exposures.
- Deliver quality reporting, governance oversight, and audit-ready underwriting documentation.
Required Knowledge and Experience
What you'll bring
A reputation for technical excellence, strong underwriting judgement, and the ability to influence sound commercial decisions across complex insurance portfolios. Minimum 5 years' technical underwriting experience within Commercial or Corporate Insurance environments.
- Extensive experience assessing and underwriting complex or large commercial risks.
- Strong knowledge of commercial property, business interruption, and asset all-risk insurance products.
- In-depth understanding of policy wordings, endorsements, exclusions, warranties, subjectivities, and schedule construction.
- Demonstrated experience applying underwriting pricing principles and managing portfolio profitability.
- Sound understanding of risk engineering findings, loss prevention practices, and risk improvement management
- Strong knowledge of reinsurance markets, treaty structures, facultative placements, and capacity management.
- Experience engaging with brokers, regional underwriting teams, and technical stakeholders.
- Strong analytical, financial, and risk assessment capability.
- Excellent communication, coaching, stakeholder management, and decision-making skills.
- Experience working with binder partners will be advantageous.
Educational Requirements
Qualifications
- Matric (Grade 12).
- Advanced Certificate in Short-Term Insurance (NQF 6 Associate).
- Ongoing compliance with CPD and Regulatory Examination (RE)
- Additional technical underwriting, risk management, or commercial insurance qualifications will be advantageous.
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