Manager, Underwriting - Commercial Lines

If you’re passionate about helping people protect what matters most to them at a Fortune 100 company with nearly $70 billion in annual sales, as well as innovating and simplifying processes and operations to provide the best customer value, then Nationwide’s Property and Casualty team could be the place for you! At Nationwide®, “on your side” goes beyond just words. Our customers and partners are at the center of everything we do and we’re looking for associates who are passionate about delivering extraordinary care.

The Small Commercial Underwriting Manager is responsible for leading, coaching, and developing a team of underwriting professionals to achieve profitable growth, delivering exceptional customer and agency experiences, and execute underwriting strategies aligned with business objectives. This role balances talent development, portfolio management, operational excellence, and risk management while fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement. This leadership position is charged with:
Responsible for coaching and developing associates by providing guidance, performance feedback, technical expertise, and mentorship to enhance underwriting quality, decision-making, and overall team/territory effectiveness. Encourages continuous learning, adaptability, and innovation. Ensuring decisions align with approved appetite, authority, pricing, coverage, and documentation standards on all lines of business. Prioritizing workload, assigning territories, reviewing quality components, and managing service level expectations. Using portfolio and territory data to drive profitable growth, retention, risk selection, and corrective action along with completing read-outs on underwriting and territory results.

Serving as an escalation point for agency partners and internal partners. Leading adoption of approved process, automation, reporting, and workflow improvements.

Success on our team requires a blend of customer service skill and analytical prowess. There’s no shying away from challenges here. Each account we work on is complex and interesting. Satisfaction comes from finding solutions that provide the best coverage and give our partner agents a way to differentiate themselves from the competition. If you are adaptable, responsive, love customers and really want to make a difference, we want to hear from you!

As a Manager, you'll lead commercial lines underwriting functions and staff to drive profitable underwriting results and growth through leadership, development, and engagement. We’ll depend on you to develop leadership within the team and help to identify and prepare future Small Commercial Underwriting leaders within the department. In addition, you'll build and grow agency relationships to ensure objectives are met.

We’ll count on you to exhibit extraordinary care to set expectations for the team to meet customer needs and to collaborate with key partners in National Underwriting Organization (NUO), Automation, Business Development (BD), Product, and other leaders across the organization as needed.

• Establishes best practices and methodology guidelines and ensures implementation guidance in partnership with key partners.
• Identifies needs and potential issues and consults with all business partners in Small Commercial Lines.
• Drives operational changes and ensures implementation of practice standards and procedures.
• Actively participates, supports, and contributes to continuous improvement and problem-solving efforts across Small Commercial Lines.
• Establishes workflow standards and processes.
• Manages performance measurements on the effectiveness of the unit's delivery process, service…