Senior Property Underwriting Specialist

🏗 We're Hiring: Senior Property Underwriting Specialist

📍 Location: United Arab Emirates (Remote)

🕒 Employment Type: Full-Time

💼 Experience Level: Mid-Level to Senior

🌐 Work Arrangement: Fully Remote

About Us

We are a construction-focused organization committed to delivering complex projects through disciplined contract management, commercial excellence, risk control, and collaborative project delivery. Our distributed teams work across Project Management, Construction, Engineering, Procurement, Commercial, Legal, Finance, Human Resources, Design, Quality, HSE, Consultants, Contractors, Suppliers, Logistics, Administration, Information Technology, and Executive Leadership.

We recognize the importance of protecting property assets, construction projects, operational facilities, equipment, and other insured interests against property-related risks. Through robust underwriting practices, sound risk assessment, accurate exposure analysis, and effective insurance governance, we aim to support responsible risk selection and sustainable business performance.

The Role

We are seeking an experienced Senior Property Underwriting Specialist to assess, evaluate, price, and manage property insurance risks across commercial, industrial, residential, infrastructure, and construction-related portfolios. The successful candidate will review submissions, analyze property exposures, evaluate risk engineering information, determine appropriate coverage terms, establish premiums within delegated authority, and support profitable portfolio development.

This role requires strong analytical judgment, technical property underwriting knowledge, and the ability to collaborate with brokers, insurers, reinsurers, risk engineers, claims professionals, and internal stakeholders. The ideal candidate will balance commercial opportunities with disciplined risk selection, regulatory compliance, and effective exposure management.

Key Responsibilities1. Property Risk Assessment and Underwriting

• Review, assess, and underwrite property insurance submissions in accordance with underwriting guidelines, appetite, and delegated authority.
• Evaluate commercial buildings, industrial facilities, warehouses, manufacturing plants, offices, residential properties, and other eligible property risks.
• Assess property construction types, occupancy classifications, building age, maintenance conditions, and overall risk characteristics.
• Analyze fire, explosion, electrical, machinery-related, natural catastrophe, water damage, theft, and other relevant property exposures.
• Evaluate the adequacy of fire protection systems, sprinklers, alarms, detection equipment, emergency procedures, and physical security measures.
• Identify significant risk factors, coverage limitations, potential loss scenarios, and underwriting concerns before accepting a risk.
• Determine whether risks should be accepted, declined, referred for further approval, or accepted subject to specific conditions.

2. Property Insurance Pricing and Rating

• Calculate and recommend appropriate premiums using approved rating methodologies, risk classifications, exposure data, and pricing models.
• Assess the relationship between insured values, historical losses, property characteristics, and expected claims severity.
• Apply appropriate rating adjustments based on risk quality, protection measures, occupancy, location, and exposure concentration.
• Evaluate deductibles, excesses, sublimits, warranties, endorsements, and other terms affecting pricing and risk transfer.
• Review premium adequacy and identify opportunities to improve underwriting profitability without compromising risk discipline.
• Support pricing reviews for unusual, complex, high-value, or technically challenging property risks.
• Document pricing assumptions, deviations, referrals, and approvals in accordance with established procedures.

3. Construction and Engineering Property Risks

• Evaluate property risks associated with construction projects, infrastructure developments, engineering facilities, and industrial operations.
• Review relevant project information, construction materials, building methods, site conditions, and anticipated operational use.
• Assess construction-related exposures, including fire hazards, structural damage, water ingress, equipment loss, and project-specific risks.
• Coordinate with engineering and risk assessment specialists to understand technical hazards and recommended protective measures.
• Review construction schedules, project values, contractor information, and relevant insurance requirements where applicable.
• Assess property-related insurance requirements for project sites, temporary facilities, stored materials, machinery, and completed assets.
• Identify circumstances requiring specialist engineering input or referral to senior underwriting management.

4. Risk Engineering and Loss Prevention

• Review property surveys, engineering inspection reports, risk improvement recommendations, and loss prevention assessments.
• Identify deficiencies in fire protection, electrical safety, equipment maintenance, building integrity, and emergency response arrangements.
• Recommend risk improvement measures and appropriate underwriting conditions to address identified deficiencies.
• Coordinate with risk engineers, property owners, facility managers, contractors, and other stakeholders to obtain outstanding technical information.
• Evaluate the adequacy of proposed corrective actions and their potential impact on underwriting decisions.
• Monitor outstanding risk improvement requirements and ensure material concerns are appropriately escalated.
• Incorporate credible risk engineering findings into risk selection, pricing, coverage conditions, and renewal decisions.

5. Property Valuation and Exposure Analysis

• Review declared property values, replacement costs, reinstatement values, stock values, machinery values, and other relevant insured amounts.
• Assess the adequacy and consistency of sums insured and identify potential underinsurance concerns.
• Evaluate building, contents, plant, equipment, inventory, business interruption, and other declared exposures where applicable.
• Review valuation reports, asset schedules, property registers, and supporting documentation.
• Analyze location-level and portfolio-level concentrations of insured values.
• Assess accumulation exposures arising from multiple insured properties within the same site, geographic area, or catastrophe zone.
• Recommend additional information, valuation updates, or coverage adjustments where exposure data is incomplete or inconsistent.

6. Natural Catastrophe and Geographic Risk Assessment

• Assess exposure to floods, storms, cyclones, earthquakes, extreme weather, and other relevant natural catastrophe events.
• Review property locations, flood susceptibility, surrounding infrastructure, geographic concentration, and available catastrophe information.
• Evaluate the potential impact of catastrophe exposure on pricing, deductibles, limits, and underwriting appetite.
• Support the assessment of aggregate exposures across individual locations and the wider property portfolio.
• Consider relevant catastrophe models, hazard maps, historical event information, and internal accumulation reports.
• Escalate material catastrophe exposures and risks exceeding established underwriting tolerances.
• Support portfolio adjustments designed to maintain appropriate geographic diversification and risk concentration.

7. Coverage Structure and Policy Terms

• Determine appropriate property insurance coverage, limits, deductibles, sublimits, exclusions, and endorsements.
• Review policy wording and ensure proposed coverage accurately reflects the assessed risk and approved underwriting terms.
• Evaluate business interruption, machinery breakdown, debris removal, additional expenses, and other extensions where applicable.
• Assess special conditions, warranties, protective safeguards, and risk mitigation requirements.
• Identify coverage ambiguities, inconsistencies, or potential disputes arising from incomplete submissions or unclear policy terms.
• Coordinate with Legal, Claims, and Policy Administration teams regarding complex coverage structures and wording requirements.
• Ensure all material underwriting conditions and coverage restrictions are clearly documented and communicated.

8. Broker, Client, and Stakeholder Management

• Liaise with insurance brokers, intermediaries, clients, property owners, and corporate representatives regarding underwriting submissions.
• Request and review additional information required to complete risk assessments and underwriting decisions.
• Explain underwriting requirements, pricing considerations, coverage limitations, and risk improvement conditions professionally.
• Negotiate appropriate terms within delegated authority while maintaining underwriting discipline.
• Build productive working relationships with brokers, risk engineers, reinsurers, claims teams, and internal business units.
• Support the resolution of underwriting queries, documentation discrepancies, and placement-related issues.
• Maintain clear records of communications, negotiations, decisions, and outstanding requirements.

9. Portfolio Management and Renewal Strategy

• Manage assigned property underwriting accounts and monitor portfolio performance against business objectives.
• Review expiring policies, historical claims experience, changes in insured values, and updated risk information.
• Develop renewal recommendations based on risk quality, pricing adequacy, loss experience, and market conditions.
• Identify opportunities to retain profitable business, improve portfolio quality, and develop appropriate new business.
• Monitor loss ratios, premium trends, exposure concentrations, and emerging property risk patterns.
• Recommend corrective actions for underperforming accounts and deteriorating risk profiles.
• Support portfolio planning, underwriting appetite reviews, and business development initiatives.