Are you a technically sharp Life & Health underwriter ready to make a real impact in one of the world's most dynamic insurance markets?
Join Swiss Re in Tokyo, where your underwriting expertise will shape meaningful client partnerships, drive portfolio performance, and contribute to innovative reinsurance solutions across Japan's Life & Health landscape. This is your opportunity to bring your technical excellence to a globally respected reinsurer - and to grow alongside a high-performing, collaborative team.
About the Role: As an Underwriter within the Market Units Life & Health Reinsurance team, you will be at the heart of Swiss Re's client engagement and underwriting excellence in Japan. You'll build and nurture trusted relationships with key Life & Health clients, deliver first-class underwriting services, and contribute to a broad range of commercial and portfolio initiatives. This role offers the perfect blend of technical depth, client-facing engagement, and strategic contribution - ideal for an underwriter who thrives on variety and impact.
Key Responsibilities:
- Assess and underwrite Life & Health risks in alignment with Swiss Re's underwriting philosophy and risk appetite, applying rigorous medical, financial and experience-based judgment
- Ensure quality and consistency of underwriting decisions through thorough documentation, governance adherence and active participation in peer reviews
- Monitor and steer portfolio performance by identifying trends, emerging risks and areas of underperformance, and recommending timely corrective or de-risking actions
- Contribute to new business opportunities, transactions and structured reinsurance solutions by providing expert underwriting input and assessment
- Support product development and reinsurance tenders in close collaboration with crossfunctional teams, balancing risk discipline with commercial sustainability
- Champion data-driven innovation by supporting the development and deployment of Risk Tech and digital underwriting solutions, leveraging your expertise to enhance tools and client propositions
- Build and maintain strong client relationships, adopting a genuine partnering approach to enhance clients' underwriting capabilities and support their decision-making
- Design and deliver underwriting training programmes for clients, sharing knowledge and building capability across the market
- Collaborate across functions - including Underwriting, Claims, Pricing and Solutions - to foster a performance-oriented, risk-aware and knowledge-sharing culture
About the Team
The L&H Underwriting and Claims team is a dynamic, client-focused group dedicated to delivering exceptional underwriting expertise across the Life & Health reinsurance space in Japan. The team provides comprehensive support to clients, including the review of underwriting guidelines, advisory services, underwriting support for innovative solutions, and the delivery of audits and training programmes. We also bring deep underwriting input and expertise to clients' product development activities - making us a true strategic partner in their growth and success.
About You
You are a technically grounded and commercially aware Life & Health underwriting professional who brings both precision and curiosity to your work. You lead by example - actively fostering a collaborative team culture and demonstrating a genuine commitment to working together with colleagues to achieve shared objectives. You thrive in a collaborative environment, communicate with confidence across all levels, and are passionate about building lasting relationships with clients and colleagues alike. You balance analytical rigour with a pragmatic, solutions-oriented mindset - and you're always looking for ways to grow, innovate and contribute beyond your immediate remit.
We are looking for candidates who meet these requirements:
- Minimum 5 years' experience in Life & Health insurance or reinsurance underwriting, with a broad range of product experience and demonstrated underwriting authority.
- Strong technical underwriting skills, including sound medical, financial and experiencebased risk assessment capabilities
- Business-level English proficiency, enabling effective communication with both local and international stakeholders
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent qualification in a relevant field
- Proven ability to build trusted relationships with internal and external stakeholders at various levels, demonstrating strong interpersonal and communication skills
- A demonstrated commitment to leading by example, actively cultivating a collaborative team culture and working with colleagues to deliver on shared goals
- A self-starter mindset with the ability to work independently while contributing positively to team culture and shared goals
These are additional nice to haves:
- Experience with data-driven underwriting tools, Risk Tech or Insurtech solutions and an enthusiasm for digital innovation in the insurance space
- Familiarity with Japanese Life & Health insurance market dynamics, regulatory environment and client landscape
- Experience in delivering training programmes or capability-building initiatives for clients or internal teams
- Exposure to product development, reinsurance tenders or structured solutions in a crossfunctional setting
- Japanese language skills - an advantage for deeper client engagement in the local market
Our company has a hybrid work model where the expectation is that you will normally be in the office at least three days per week.
About Swiss Re
Swiss Re is one of the world’s leading providers of reinsurance, insurance and other forms of insurance-based risk transfer, working to make the world more resilient. We anticipate and manage a wide variety of risks, from natural catastrophes and climate change to cybercrime. We cover both Property & Casualty and Life & Health. Combining experience with creative thinking and cutting-edge expertise, we create new opportunities and solutions for our clients. This is possible thanks to the collaboration of more than 15,000 employees across the world.
Our success depends on our ability to build an inclusive culture encouraging fresh perspectives and innovative thinking. We embrace a workplace where everyone has equal opportunities to thrive and develop professionally regardless of their age, gender, race, ethnicity, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, skillset, thought or other characteristics. In our inclusive and flexible environment everyone can bring their authentic selves to work and their passion for sustainability.
If you are an experienced professional returning to the workforce after a career break, we encourage you to apply for open positions that match your skills and experience.
We may use AI-powered tools to support the review and evaluation of applications for this position. These tools provide additional insights to our recruitment teams, but all hiring decisions are carefully reviewed and made by people. To learn more about how we use AI in recruitment and how we handle your personal data, please review our Data Privacy Statement before applying.
Reference Code: 138931
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