Product Owner, Underwriting (London Market)

Description

The company is an international specialist insurer. It stays away from mass-market products and concentrates on its core areas of expertise.

It encourages people to question established practice and look for better ways of working.

Founded in 1901, the company is well established but still ambitious and moving forward.

The Change Management Team works with every part of the London Market business unit to build leading capabilities across people, processes and systems. Its aim is lasting change that brings measurable benefit to customers and supports strategic goals.

The pace is quick, and the team helps shape the future of the London Market.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development and delivery of complex products that are shaping the future of the London Market, as Product Owner in the Underwriting value stream.
• Report to the Product Owner Chapter Lead and work with Product Managers, other Product Owners, developers, data science specialists and underwriting stakeholders to turn strategy into clear priorities and measurable outcomes.
• Own and keep developing a complex product roadmap, guiding initiatives from discovery through delivery and adoption.
• Across several teams and linked workstreams, balance near-term priorities against the longer product vision, spot risks and dependencies early, and propose options to keep delivery on course.
• Use data science, agentic AI and automation to improve how underwriting submissions are received, prioritised and moved through the underwriting workflow.
• Shape solutions that deliver real value to underwriters and the wider business.
• Influence product direction, question assumptions and work with senior London Market stakeholders.
• Present progress, priorities and recommendations to senior governance and decision-making forums when required.
• Manage a complex, multi-stream backlog tied to strategic objectives and OKRs, keeping a steady pipeline of work for the delivery team.
• Turn unclear business problems into outcome-focused delivery goals.
• Make sure sprint goals are clear, achievable and linked to roadmap milestones.
• Run workshops to plan delivery iterations, assess value and prioritise work for the greatest customer benefit.
• Write requirements as delivery increments, refine them with the team and set clear acceptance criteria.
• Be the delivery team's first point of contact for questions, requirement clarification and blockers.
• Represent customer needs day to day and make sure everyone understands the business value of each increment.
• Take part in stand-ups, refinement, planning and retrospectives, working with the Scrum Master to make them effective.
• Feed roadmap updates back to the Product Manager, escalate risks, issues and blockers, and explain actual versus expected progress and any knock-on effects.
• Develop, manage and motivate a delivery team in a matrix structure, including internal teams and third-party suppliers.
• Build productive relationships inside and outside the company, based on a clear understanding of each party's drivers and benefits.
• Work with London Market stakeholders to shape scope, set expectations and align on direction.
• Advise stakeholders on trade-offs, sequencing and delivery options.
• Coach less experienced Product Owners and help improve Product Owner Chapter standards and capability.

Requirements

• You have worked as a Product Owner in an underwriting role and have a record of delivering value through cross-functional teams on complex digital products.
• You have owned and developed a product roadmap, balancing immediate delivery with the longer-term vision.
• You can work with ambiguity and bring clarity to complex problems.
• You can juggle competing priorities, manage dependencies and keep delivery standards high.
• You communicate well and manage stakeholders effectively, and you can influence and present recommendations to senior stakeholders and governance forums.
• You approach problems from the customer's side and are willing to challenge the status quo.
• You have used analysis techniques to understand current processes, find root causes and gather requirements to design the future state.
• You have worked in Agile or iterative ways, managing a backlog and making sure business value is prioritised, delivered and embedded.
• You are familiar with OKRs, benefits tracking and outcome-led delivery.
• Desirable: Certified Agile Product Owner certification.
• Desirable: experience with Jira, Confluence or similar collaboration tools.
• Desirable: experience with emerging technologies or data science.

Conditions

Permanent contract.