Life Insurance Specialist - 12-Month Fixed Term Contract

Division – Insurance

Department – Life Insurance

Salary - National (Edinburgh and Leeds) ranging from £67,100 to £109,000 and London £73,700 to £119,800 per annum (Salary offered will be based on skills and experience)

About the FCA

The FCA regulates the conduct of 45,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive. Follow this link to find out more About the FCA.

Department/Division

The Insurance directorate supervises c.6,000 regulated insurance firms ranging from small high street intermediaries to large multi-national insurances.

Within these c.6.000 firms, general insurers underwrite premiums in excess of £80bn annually in the UK and overseas and in 2014 held c.125bn in reserves (to pay future claims). UK authorised and EEA passported firms serve 52 million UK adult consumers and over five million businesses.

We’re also home to the Appointed Representatives Department which was established in early 2022 to address harm caused by Principal firms and their Appointed Representatives (ARs).

What you will be doing

Our mission is to ensure the Insurance directorate can identify, prioritise, set the strategy for and mitigate the top harms in the Insurance Market.

In this role you will apply your life insurance knowledge to some of our highest priority issues across our major project work, policy making, market analysis and firm supervision. You will:

• Be a leader who is able to inspire others, drive high profile and complex projects, deliver through others and solve difficult problems

• Have a deep understanding of the Life Insurance market, regulation and issues impacting this sector

• Have excellent stakeholder management skills – including ability to influence senior stakeholders

• Be able to think strategically, see the bigger picture demonstrating good judgement and proportionality

• Be adept at explaining complex subjects in a simple and persuasive manner

• Be comfortable operating alone across multiple teams to deliver high value outputs

What will you get from the role?

You will have the opportunity to have a positive impact on millions of customers. We look for people who are passionate about ensuring the interests of consumers are at the heart of firms’ decisions. Insurance is an interesting and complex sector impacting all walks of life.

You will have a chance to support our work on high profile issues including Consumer Duty, our Life Insurance portfolio strategy work and significant cross FCA initiatives relating to life, protection and pensions.

Which skills are required?

We are a Disability Confident Employer; therefore, disabled people or individuals with long-term conditions who best meet the minimum criteria for a role will go through to the next stage of the recruitment process. (To learn more about the Disability Confident Scheme Click Here)

Minimum 

• Qualified Actuary with previous experience of working in the Life Insurance market including regulation and issues impacting this sector

• Previous project management experience – you will need to have experience at applying project management techniques to deliver complex projects

• Experience of coaching, supporting, mentoring and developing others

Essential

• Delivering through others on complex issues - able to drive project teams effectively on high profile projects to deliver objectives to an agreed timeline

• Team worker - able to work actively and collaboratively with others to achieve outcomes in both formal and informal teams

• Good organisational ability – sets high standards for self and others within direct and indirect influence, being disciplined about meeting commitments, delivering within agreed timeframes

• Creative thinking – enjoys problem solving and understanding new issues, thinks creatively and willing to bring new ideas and ways of working

• Stakeholder management skills - able to work with a variety of people to understand their needs and influence others. The ability to effectively and credibly manage relationships with senior stakeholders is essential

• Proactive and autonomous – initiates work and drives continuous improvement. Comfortable navigating uncertainty, complexity and change whilst guiding others through those things

Our Values & Diversity

We are proud to be an inclusive employer and our ambition is to cultivate a culture for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences and similarities enable us to be a better organisation – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better regulation.

Within the workplace you will have access to various employee resource groups which aim to promote and achieve a healthy work / life balance and support our diversity ambitions.

Did you know? 50% of our Executive Committee were the first in their family to attend university.

The FCA is committed to achieving greater diversity across all levels of the organisation. Given this, we particularly welcome applications from women, minority ethnic, disabled, and neurodivergent candidates for our technical specialist role.

Benefits of working at the FCA

• 28 days holiday per year plus bank holidays

• Hybrid working (work from home up to 60% of your time)

• Private healthcare with Bupa 

• A non-contributory Pension of at least 8%

• Life assurance

• Income protection

We also have a competitive flexible benefits scheme which gives you the opportunity to create a personalised benefits package, tailored to suit your lifestyle.

We welcome applications from candidates who are looking for flexible arrangements.  Many of our staff work flexibly including working part-time, staggered hours, and job shares.  We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want but we can explore what might work best for both sides. Follow this link to see what life is like at the FCA - Life at the FCA

Application Support

We are dedicated to removing barriers and ensuring our application process is accessible to everyone. We offer a range of adjustments to make your application experience as comfortable and straightforward as possible.

If you have an accessibility need, disability, or condition requiring changes to the recruitment process, please contact your recruiter using the details below and they will be happy to discuss this further with you.

Useful Information and Timeline

• This role is graded Technical Specialist – Regulatory

• Advert Closing Date: 8th December

• Case study & competency interviews: 17th-19th December

Your Recruiter will discuss the process in detail with you during screening for the role, therefore, please make them aware if you are going to be unavailable for any date during this time. 

Got a question?

If you are interested in learning more about the role, please contact Lucy Matthews at [email protected]

Applications must be submitted through our online portal. Applications sent via email will not be accepted.