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Life Underwriting

Turning uncertainty into stability

Where judgement, insight and technology come together

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Life Underwriting at Aviva

Within our Individual Protection business, you’ll be trusted to make fair, confident decisions that protect customers and support sustainable growth across Life, Critical Illness and Income Protection.

This is underwriting for people who want to think, not just process — and who want their decisions to genuinely matter.

Our underwriters combine technology‑enabled decision‑making with professional judgement, focusing on the complex cases where human insight really counts. At Aviva, underwriting is seen as a professional discipline — trusted, invested in and listened to.

You’ll work closely with colleagues across Customer Services, Claims, Underwriting Strategy and Philosophy, as well as with reinsurers and brokers. Together you’ll look at risk holistically — using evidence, experience and judgement — and making decisions that carry real responsibility.

The work is varied, interesting, and stretching. We have a strong focus on quality, consistency and doing the right thing for our customers — especially when there’s no obvious answer.

Why join us?

Life Underwriting gives you the space to do your best work — and the support to keep developing over time.

You’ll be part of a large, experienced underwriting community working across Bristol, Norwich, York, Sheffield and Leatherhead, with hybrid working built into how we operate (we call it smart working). You’re never working in isolation — there’s real depth of experience around you, with underwriters who enjoy talking through tricky cases, sharing what they’ve learned, and learning from one another.

Automation takes care of the majority of applications, so you can focus your time where it’s really needed: complex medical, financial and lifestyle risk within Individual Protection. From nuanced medical histories to high‑value cases, the breadth of work gives you real exposure — building your knowledge, credibility and technical depth over time as well as offering real challenge, variety and room to grow.

Hear from Robert Morrison – our Chief Life Underwriter

Find out how we’re shaping the future of life underwriting. Robert talks about our focus on innovation, complex casework, and the mindset we look for from our colleagues.

Transcript

So my name is Robert Morrison, and I’m the Chief Underwriting Officer for the Aviva Health and Protection businesses.

So at Aviva, I believe that we’re market leading in terms of our underwriting automation. I believe that we’re market leading in terms of our capability for claims analytics. And I also believe that we’re market leading on utilising artificial intelligence in terms of the underwriting process.

And as a market leader, there’s a real expectation and almost a responsibility that we continue to innovate to help grow the protection market.

There’s an absolute focus on doing the right things for our customers, but also our people. And being a successful business is only an outcome of doing those two things brilliantly.

Because of our strong automation capability that we have, the cases that are referred to underwriters are usually highly complex cases, they’re complex medical cases, or they’re complex financially underwritten cases that need careful assessment.

So it’s really important for me that underwriters have a curious and adaptable mindset.
With our AI development, what we said was, how can we make the lives of our underwriters easier in terms of the role that they perform?

We looked at the problem of complex medical reports and how long it actually takes for our team members to review them.

And through that piece of discovery work that we did, our AI tooling was born where we were able to take an average 80 page document and summarise it down to eight pages.

The launch of our AI tooling for medical report summarisation at the end of last year was an industry first for the UK protection market, and as a consequence of that, we’ve actually been shortlisted for the British Data Awards in terms of innovation of the year.

So, I think there’s three things for me.

The first thing is that we have clear progression plans, so underwriters know the appropriate steps that they need to follow to progress.

The second thing is support to build not only the knowledge but also the judgement.

And the final thing is about how they turn their expertise into influence for other members of our teams.
I think Aviva has a brilliant culture. It’s a culture that is really supportive of its employees, and it’s also an inclusive culture.

I think there’s a place for everyone at Aviva. So, if you’ve got the right skills and mindset to help us continue to innovate and drive our business forward, please come and talk to us.

Developing your career

We’re serious about investing in underwriting capability. AI‑enabled tools help summarise complex evidence, freeing you to focus on decision‑making. A clear underwriting framework makes progression transparent and based on skill, experience and trust.

Careers here don’t follow a single path — whether that’s deepening technical expertise, supporting and mentoring others, or moving into leadership, strategy or philosophy. Whatever direction you take, you’ll be supported to build authority as well as expertise — and to shape a career that works for you.

What we do and who we're looking for

We underwrite Life, Critical Illness and Income Protection – across everything from straightforward cases to genuinely complex, thought-provoking ones.

A lot of applications go smoothly through rules‑based decisions. But the more challenging – and interesting – work is where cases need deeper thinking. You’ll review detailed medical evidence, apply underwriting philosophy and work with colleagues across the business to land on the right decision.

Technology helps us move fast and stay consistent, but it’s your judgement that really matters. Our underwriters are trusted professionals, empowered to make decisions they believe in and can confidently stand behind.

If you’re naturally curious about risk, enjoy resolving tricky cases, and are motivated by thoughtful, accountable decision‑making, you’ll probably feel right at home here.

Some people join us with underwriting or medical experience already under their belt. Others grow their expertise through hands‑on casework, great training and supportive mentoring. What matters most is mindset. Being open to learning, comfortable with complexity, confident in your judgement and genuinely focused on achieving good outcomes for our customers.

As you grow in your career, the work grows with you. You’ll take on more complex cases, build your decision‑making authority and become a recognised expert in what you do. Some people love deepening their technical expertise; others enjoy exploring where underwriting could take them next. Either way, this is a place where you’re supported to grow, contribute and shine in your own way.

Meet the team

Leigh

Laura

Henry

David

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Where you could work

Ready for the next step?

Whether you’re looking to deepen your expertise or exploring what’s next, this is a place where your skills, judgement and curiosity really count.

We currently have
157 roles across
14 locations, organised into
8 teams.