Tax Underwriter, GTS

Job Summary:

This underwriter role is to be based in Singapore, Sydney or Hong Kong, and provides a rare opportunity to develop your career as part of a market-leading, dedicated team of underwriting professionals. We are looking for an enthusiastic and highly skilled candidate to work within our GTS Asia Pacific team. The candidate will support the Head of Tax to contribute to the growth and profitability of tax liability insurance business in the Asian Pacific region. The role involves assessing and underwriting tax risks that may arise in a wide range of scenarios including mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganisations and other situations giving rise to material contingent tax exposure. This individual will be responsible for evaluating and pricing risk, developing policy terms and conditions, product development and marketing, and building valuable relationships with clients, brokers and advisors.

Job Responsibilities:

Underwriting & risk assessment

• Independently assess, quote and underwrite tax liability insurance risks across the Asia Pacific region in accordance with underwriting guidelines and controls.
• Analyse identified tax risks (e.g. arising from M&A transactions, corporate reorganisations, restructurings, and other contingent tax exposures) including reviewing tax opinions, transaction documents and supporting due diligence to form an independent technical view of the risk and working with external advisers where required.
• Evaluate and price risk using technical judgement and pricing tools.
• Prepare clear coverage and pricing proposals, non-binding indications (NBIs) and underwriting submissions/referrals with well-reasoned risk rationale.
• Draft, develop and negotiate bespoke tax liability insurance policy wordings.
• Manage the end-to-end underwriting process, including instructing and coordinating external advisers and managing timelines to meet transaction deadlines.
• Provide excellent, responsive service to clients, brokers and advisers.

Business development & market engagement

• Support and help shape the tax liability insurance business strategy, and identify and develop new products, coverage offerings and market opportunities to support profitability and growth.
• Establish and maintain strong relationships with brokers, advisers, industry bodies and business partners, including representing Liberty and presenting at industry events, conferences and market meetings.
• Contribute to marketing initiatives and pipeline development to drive profitable growth.

Portfolio, governance & technical monitoring

• Support portfolio management activities, including monitoring aggregation, performance, and adherence to the risk appetite and Managing the Cycle framework.
• Monitor local and international tax developments, case law, industry trends and changes in tax laws and regulations, and assess their impact on the portfolio and underwriting approach.
• Ensure compliance with underwriting standards, regulatory requirements, licensing and internal governance, and maintain accurate underwriting records and documentation.

Job Competencies:

Technical & analytical

• Strong technical corporate and international tax knowledge, with the ability to independently analyse complex tax risks and form a reasoned underwriting view.
• Technical underwriting skills, including risk selection, pricing and structuring of coverage.
• Strong analytical, investigative, inquisitional and research skills.
• Sound, independent decision-making and judgement, including knowing when to escalate or refer.
• Policy drafting, wording interpretation and contract/legal document review skills.
• Business, financial and market acumen and commercial awareness.
• Experience within portfolio management and understanding of aggregation and risk appetite.

Relationship & commercial

• Strong relationship-building and stakeholder management skills across clients, brokers and advisers.
• Strong negotiation and influencing skills.
• Strong selling and business development skills.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to present technical matters clearly to non-technical audiences.

Personal effectiveness

• Demonstrated ability to drive for results and focus on outcomes.
• Strong prioritisation, time-management and organisational skills, with the ability to manage multiple transactions under deadline pressure.
• High attention to detail and strong administrative skills.
• Ability to work autonomously with limited supervision.
• Ability to supervise, mentor and provide informal on-the-job guidance and training to junior colleagues.
• Integrity, professional ethics and awareness of regulatory/compliance obligations.

Job Experience & Qualifications:

• 8+ years of corporate tax advisory or tax-focused legal experience, gained at an international tax consultancy, law firm, Big 4, or in-house/insurance environment.
• Demonstrated experience advising on or working through cross-border M&A transactions, corporate reorganisations, restructurings and other contingent tax matters.
• Strong technical knowledge of tax laws and practice, with the ability to analyse complex tax issues across multiple APAC jurisdictions.
• Experience reviewing and/or drafting technical tax opinions, transaction documents and legal agreements.
• Tertiary qualifications in law, accounting, tax, finance or a related discipline.
• Professional qualification such as CA/CPA, admission as a lawyer, CTA (Chartered Tax Adviser) or equivalent.
• Prior tax liability / transactional risk (M&A) insurance underwriting or broking experience.
• Familiarity with insurance concepts, policy wordings and the underwriting process.
• Exposure to actuarial/pricing concepts or risk modelling.
• Proficiency in an additional Asian language relevant to the region (e.g. Mandarin, Japanese, Korean).
• Established network of relationships with brokers, advisers and/or M&A professionals across APAC.