Director, Property & Casualty Staff Underwriting

This role leads the Personal Lines underwriting rules and technology portfolio, translating underwriting strategy into scalable capabilities that improve decision quality, speed, consistency, customer and agent experience, and profitability. Provide business leadership across rules, risk filters, models, and related technology solutions while partnering with Underwriting, Experience, Product, Pricing, Business Insights, Technology, Operations, and Distribution.

Key responsibilities

• Underwriting rules: Lead the strategic development, implementation, governance, and ongoing management of underwriting rules, guidelines, and related control gaps.
• Risk filters: Own risk-filter management end to end, including new and changed filters, testing, vendor coordination, monitoring, issue resolution, and controls.
• Underwriting modeling: Oversee model implementation, KPI measurement, performance analysis, recalibration impact analysis, and follow-up actions.
• Technology strategy: Prioritization, roadmap, and modernization opportunities. Accountability with delivery partners in managing related scope and budget.
• Solution delivery: Partner with Product, Pricing, Technology, Business Insights, Experience, field underwriting, and other stakeholders to design and implement underwriting solutions; coordinate UAT, post-production validation, and stabilization.
• Partnership: Build strong partnerships and feedback loops to ensure solutions improve usability, adoption, workflow effectiveness, and customer, agent, and field-underwriting outcomes.
• Efficiency and enablement: Identify automation and emerging-technology opportunities that improve underwriting speed, accuracy, consistency, and profitability.
• People and enterprise leadership: Lead and develop a specialized team while setting priorities, resolving dependencies, managing delivery risk, and influencing senior stakeholders across a complex, matrixed organization.

Strategic priorities

The leader will focus on four connected outcomes:

• Make underwriting strategy executable: Strengthen business-enabled rules, guidelines, and risk filters so strategy is translated into consistent, well-governed decisions with connected consideration.  Monitor, measure, and adjust.
• Improve decision performance: Enhance Auto and Property model implementation, KPI measurement, monitoring, recalibration, and use in profitable risk selection.
• Improve experiences and new business activation: Partner with Experience and field underwriting to reduce friction and support an efficient journey from quote through policy issuance.
• Build scalable future capabilities: Set the technology roadmap and identify modernization, automation, and emerging-technology opportunities, including the potential development or adoption of a new underwriting rules engine.  Deliver on countermeasures from activation kaizen.

Experience and capabilities

We welcome candidates with different combinations of experience.

• Personal Lines underwriting knowledge and the ability to connect strategy to day-to-day decisions.
• Experience across Auto, Property and other lines of business.
• Experience leading underwriting rules, risk filters, models, decisioning capabilities, or technology-enabled underwriting change.
• Experience with model performance, KPI analysis, recalibration, or impact assessment.
• Experience leading delivery through design, UAT, implementation, validation, and stabilization.
• Ability to build productive partnerships with Experience, field underwriting, Product, Pricing, Technology, Business Insights, Operations, and Distribution.
• People leadership, talent development, strategic planning, roadmap, budgeting, prioritization, risk management, and executive communication skills.
• Experience with underwriting decision platforms, rules engines, decision management, workflow technology, third-party data or vendors, or modernization initiatives is helpful.
• Familiarity with automation, analytics, AI, or other emerging technologies in underwriting

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Job Description Summary

Job Description

Key Responsibilities:

• Assists in the development of strategy and direction for the assigned product(s). Participates in key initiatives to address the product strategy and profitability objectives. Reinforces understanding, communication and execution of product/underwriting strategy.

• Provides technical assistance and support to state/regional underwriting and services leadership. Maintains relationships with new entities, access points and distribution channels that need the support and expertise of product/underwriting staff operations.

• Leads projects for assigned profitability initiatives. Ensures that each area within the function is following the formal project management process for those projects designated as high priority.

• Serves on various committees, project teams and industry boards as assigned.

• Ensures various support functions, including product functional audits, training, vendor selection and management, employee career enhancement, competitive monitoring, systems and acting as a liaison to other business units.

• Manages associates, including performance management, salary planning and administration, training and development, workflow and organizational planning, hiring and placement and disciplinary actions.

May perform other responsibilities as assigned.

Reporting Relationships:Reports to Staff Vice President or Officer. Leads a team of six or more Underwriting professionals and support staff. 

Typical Skills and Experiences:

Education:Bachelor's degree or post-graduate studies preferred. 

License/Certification/Designation:Relevant professional designation such as CPCU highly desirable. 

Experience:Typically, 10 years of property and casualty (personal and/or commercial) lines underwriting, including at least five years of management experience. Exposure to both field and staff office operations preferred.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:Requires proven knowledge of property/casualty products, insurance company operations, field and staff functions, industry trends, and project management. Demonstrated decision-making and strategic abilities. Ability to drive for results, deal with ambiguity, communicate with upper management, and conceptualize strategic objectives. Ability to lead staff, committees and project participants in all aspects of product/underwriting activities.

Other criteria, including leadership skills, competencies and experiences may take precedence.

Staffing exceptions to the above must be approved by the hiring manager's leader and HR Business Partner.

Values:Regularly and consistently demonstrates Nationwide Values.

Job Conditions:

Overtime Eligibility: Not Eligible (Exempt)

Working Conditions:Normal office environment. Frequent travel may be required.

ADA:The above statements cover what are generally believed to the principal and essential functions of the job. Specific circumstances may allow or require some people assigned to the job to perform a somewhat different combination of duties.

Benefits

We have an array of benefits to fit your needs, including:medical/dental/vision,life insurance, short and long term disability coverage, paid time off with newly hired associates receiving a minimum of 18 days paid time off each full calendar year pro-rated quarterly based on hire date, nine paid holidays, 8 hours of Lifetime paid time off, 8 hours of Unity Day paid time off, 401(k) with company match, company-paid pension plan, business casual attire, and more. To learn more about the benefits we offer,click here.

Nationwide is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive culture where everyone feels challenged, appreciated, respected and engaged. Nationwide prohibits discrimination and harassment and affords equal employment opportunities to employees and applicants without regard to any characteristic (or classification) protected by applicable law.

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