Commercial Trading Manager

Direct Line Group; Leeds; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading insurance provider is seeking a Commercial Trading Manager to join their team in Leeds. The role focuses on commercial strategy, pricing, and initiative delivery within a hybrid working environment. Ideal candidates will have strong data analysis skills and a proven ability to drive results in trade metrics. The position offers the chance to significantly impact the company's growth from 250k to 500k customers.

Benefits

9% employer contributed pension

50% off home, motor and pet insurance

Free Green Flag breakdown cover

Additional optional Health and Dental insurance

EV car scheme

Generous holidays

Buy as you earn share scheme

Employee discounts and cashback

Qualifications

• Experience with budgeting, forecasting & trading.
• Familiarity with linear and non-linear models.
• Ability to lead and drive commercial strategies.

Responsibilities

• Define and deliver trading KPIs.
• Develop retail price tests and product propositions.
• Analyze market trends and present findings.

Skills

Highly quantitative

Data analysis

Commercial acumen

Ability to work independently

Tools

Excel

Tableau

SQL

Python

Job description

Commercial Trading Manager at Direct Line Group

London or Leeds - Hybrid

12 month Secondment / Fixed Term Contract

Darwin is one of the fastest-growing motor insurers in the UK – it is part of Aviva which is one of the UK’s largest and most established general insurers.

Within 4 years from launch we already have over 300,000 customers and growing. We have done so by

• Getting it right for our customers
• Leveraging cloud-native and market leading data and technology
• Machine learning
• Focusing on quants and commercial thinking

We believe our small, very capable team can successfully disrupt the insurance industry. Over the next 3 years our ambition is to become a top 5 motor insurer by taking advantage of the radically changing industry landscape. We work like a fintech start-up/scale-up and have removed hierarchy across the business to unleash the true potential of our people. Darwin is organised more like a tech company, with multi‑functional “squads” that have specific delivery objectives.

What You’ll Be Doing

We have an exciting new opportunity to join Darwin as a Commercial Strategy Manager focusing on Commercial Trading, Pricing and initiative Delivery.

Responsibilities

• Define and deliver Darwin trading MI, metrics and measures (from multiple sources)
• Deliver the business plan and trading KPIs
• Use a range of insight and direct approaches to actively keep track of the PCW market, present analysis and findings
• Develop retail price tests, make price adaptations and build products and propositions to improve trading metrics such as written premium, volume, loss ratio, and risk mix
• Build a deep understanding of the drivers of profitability, especially underlying risk pricing and the uncertainty inherent in the risk price
• Use data and commercial instinct to make big calls in uncertain economic conditions and help CEO / CFO / ExCo members understand these
• Use multiple sources of insight to help unpack the equity story for our shareholders
• Use insight to actively keep track of the Insurance Market and give direction for pricing / product / customer journey improvement

What You’ll Need

The successful candidate will be a data native who can couple data skills to build credible insight into trading performance and then work with pricing & underwriting, technology and operational teams to deliver initiatives to drive trade.

You will have a passion for driving real change by demonstrating your data and commercial skills and harnessing the true potential of people around you.

Desired Experience / Skills Includes

• Highly quantitative with previous experience of budgeting, forecasting & trading
• Previous experience of working with linear and non-linear models, valuation models – ability to instinctively understand 2nd and 3rd order impacts of movements along a distribution curve
• Naturally curious with a constant thirst for new insight to translate into data-driven trading actions
• Ability to set their own agenda and independently deliver against their objectives
• Commercially astute – create new value in all activity and ability to challenge / develop others in commercial thinking
• High quality data analysis – e.g., Excel, Tableau, SQL, Python
• Ability to discuss pricing models with insurance pricing and underwriting
• Bias towards practical application in a live trading environment (not research and development)
• Ambition to take Darwin from 250k customers to 500k customers!

Benefits

• 9% employer contributed pension
• 50% off home, motor and pet insurance plus free Green Flag breakdown cover
• Additional optional Health and Dental insurance
• EV car scheme
• Generous holidays
• Buy as you earn share scheme
• Employee discounts and cashback
• Plus, many more

Seniority level

• Mid-Senior level

Employment type

• Full-time

Job function

• Finance and Sales

Industries

• Insurance

Equal Opportunity

Direct Line is an equal opportunity employer, and we think diversity of background and thinking is a big strength in our people. We’re delighted to feature as one of the UK's Top 50 Inclusive Employers and are committed to making our business an inclusive place to work, where everyone can be themselves and succeed in their careers.

We know you’re more than a CV, and the things that make you, you, are what bring potential to our business. We recognise and embrace people that work in different ways so if you need any adjustments to our recruitment process, please speak to the recruitment team who will be happy to support you.