VP, Investments - Specialty Finance

As a team member in Finance at Nationwide, the opportunities are endless! Let Nationwide help create your career journey! At Nationwide®, “on your side” goes beyond just words. Our customers are at the center of everything we do and we’re looking for associates who are passionate about delivering extraordinary care.

Do you have the desire to grow a business and play a critical role in shaping business outcomes? Our Investment and Risk professionals play a key role in using analysis to create insights that enable Nationwide to provide risk solutions to individual and corporate customers and drive business results. Nationwide Specialty Finance employs a research-driven, team-oriented, and results-focused approach to create and manage a wide array of innovative specialty finance insurance solutions like fund financing, structured credit, collateral protection, and residual value.

Specialty Finance solutions cover all of the risks – and opportunities – that an insurer takes on the asset side of the balance sheet, while using an insurance contract that generally helps customers to access financial markets more efficiently.

• Provide profit-oriented, risk-appropriate underwriting leadership for Specialty Finance, maintaining awareness of market trends and developments to inform strategic direction and product innovation.
• Establish and maintain comprehensive underwriting strategies, guidelines, referral protocols, quality control, monitoring processes, and effective communications.
• Define the framework for setting target portfolios of Specialty Finance products, ensuring alignment with Nationwide’s overall risk exposure.
• Navigates complex challenges, makes data-driven decisions, and builds trusted partnerships at all levels of the company.
• Foster strong collaboration across supporting functions—including Technology, Operations, Actuarial, Finance, Reserving, Reinsurance, Audit, Compliance, Legal, Risk Management, and Claims—to enhance decision-making in underwriting.
• Partner with risk professionals to develop and implement methodologies for evaluating risk and return, integrating asset-oriented and product-focused perspectives into underwriting guidelines, and ensuring alignment with Ryan Specialty.
• Oversee Specialty Finance leads, guiding the design, implementation, and monitoring of operating manuals, and incorporating feedback from internal and external stakeholders.
• Develop and implement performance and risk measurement tools and reporting systems in partnership with Specialty Finance asset leads and reporting teams.
• Build and maintain relationships with internal and external partners to identify and evaluate new product opportunities.
• Recruit, mentor, and develop talent, providing consistent feedback and fostering professional growth.

May perform other responsibilities as assigned.

Reports to SVP, Enterprise CRO. Leads a team of Investment, Actuarial and Risk professionals.

Education: Bachelor’s Degree; MBA, MS or MA in business administration, economics, finance, or CFA preferred.

Experience: At least 10 years of related investment experience.

Knowledge, Abilities and

Skills:

Proven to have deep expertise in institutional asset management, especially in structured products and private markets, with a demonstrated ability to evaluate complex investments. Strong analytical, problem‑solving, and negotiating skills are essential, along with proficiency in asset underwriting and return on capital analysis. Effective communication, leadership, and collaboration are key, as is the ability to think critically and creatively, work independently, and manage multiple tasks under pressure.

Professionalism, reliability, and the capacity to coordinate across diverse groups complete the profile.

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.

Regularly and consistently demonstrates Nationwide Values.

Overtime Eligibility: Not Eligible (Exempt)

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