Business Analyst - Underwriting Workbench

Location: City of London, Hybrid (approx. 3 days in office) Day Rate: Up to £700/day (outside IR35) About the Company Our client is a long-established global specialty insurance carrier with roots going back over two centuries. They operate across property & casualty, group benefits and specialty lines — combining deep underwriting expertise with a modern, global platform. They are recognised for strong financial stability, breadth of capacity and a commitment to integrity, service excellence and innovation in underwriting. The firm maintains a significant presence in the London Market, operating within the Lloyd’s-specialty space and offering bespoke (re)insurance solutions across a range of lines. Their technical underwriting teams are renowned for designing sophisticated, tailored policies for complex global risks. The Role You will join as a Business Analyst focused on supporting the underwriting business — specifically working with their underwriting workbench system. The role is business-facing: you will act as the bridge between underwriting end-users (underwriters, class leaders, risk teams) and the technical/IT delivery teams, helping to translate underwriting requirements into system processes and enhancements. Key Responsibilities • Work closely with underwriting teams in the London Market to understand their workflows, pain points, and business requirements, especially around the underwriting workbench. • Analyse, document and prioritise business requirements for new functionality, enhancements or process improvements related to underwriting, policy binding, risk placement, data flows and reporting within the underwriting workbench. • Facilitate workshops and stakeholder meetings (underwriters, risk managers, IT, operations) to gather requirements and define solution scope. • Provide detailed functional specifications, use-cases, process maps, data mapping and user stories / acceptance criteria to support development efforts. • Support the testing cycle — coordinate user acceptance testing (UAT) with underwriters, validate that delivered functionality meets business needs and document issues/defects. • Assist with implementation planning, change management and user training / onboarding where required. • Help ensure the underwriting workbench remains aligned with business practices, regulatory requirements and Lloyd’s-market conventions. • Act as a subject-matter liaison between business and technical teams to ensure communication clarity and that delivered solutions meet underwriting needs. Experience & Skills Required • Strong background working in the London Insurance Market (Lloyd’s / specialty / wholesale). • Prior experience working directly with insurance underwriters, understanding underwriting workflows, risk placement, treaty / facultative underwriting or policy underwriting lifecycle. • Direct experience with underwriting workbench systems or similar platforms used to support underwriting, policy binding, or risk placement (e.g. policy administration, underwriting systems). • Strong business-analysis skills: requirements gathering, process mapping, writing functional specifications, user-stories / acceptance criteria, data mapping. • Excellent communication skills — able to engage with non-technical stakeholders (underwriters) and technical/IT teams, facilitating workshops and bridging gaps between business and technology. • Good understanding of Lloyd’s market processes, regulatory / compliance requirements, and unique challenges of placing complex or specialty risks. Desirable / Preferred • Prior involvement in system implementation projects (new underwriting systems or significant upgrades) from requirements gathering through to UAT and go-live. • Familiarity with data migration, data mapping, and integration between underwriting workbench and other administration or policy systems. • Understanding of reinsurance, treaty/facultative placement, treaty and facultative workflows. • Previous exposure to both underwriting and operations/administration sides to appreciate full end-to-end lifecycle. • Familiarity with agile delivery methodologies (or hybrid waterfall/agile), and experience writing user stories, backlog grooming, sprint planning, etc.