Manager, Innovation (Hybrid

About Us

At Selective, we don't just insure uniquely, we employ uniqueness. Selective is a midsized U.S. domestic property and casualty insurance company with a history of strong, consistent financial performance for nearly 100 years. Selective's unique position as both a leading insurance group and an employer of choice is recognized in a wide variety of awards and honors, including listing in Forbes Best Midsize Employers in 2025 and certification as a Great Place to Work® in 2025 for the sixth consecutive year.

About Us

At Selective, we don't just insure uniquely, we employ uniqueness. Selective is a midsized U.S. domestic property and casualty insurance company with a history of strong, consistent financial performance for nearly 100 years. Selective's unique position as both a leading insurance group and an employer of choice is recognized in a wide variety of awards and honors, including listing in Forbes Best Midsize Employers in 2025 and certification as a Great Place to Work® in 2025 for the sixth consecutive year.

Employees are empowered and encouraged to Be Uniquely You by being their true, unique selves and contributing their diverse talents, experiences, and perspectives to our shared success. Together, we are a high-performing team working to serve our customers responsibly by helping to mitigate loss, keep them safe, and restore their lives and businesses after an insured loss occurs.
Overview
Lead innovation initiatives throughout the innovation lifecycle. Consume, leverage, and communicate innovation research and insights in close collaboration with the innovation team members, and the Strategy team. Lead strategic efforts related to Insur Tech-focused Venture Capital (VC) partners and other VC firms, directing all innovation activities within a transparent innovation pipeline, and consistently communicating program status and outcomes. Continuously source opportunities, partner with external parties in co-creation efforts, and drive innovation through all levels of the organization through an active role as a leader in relevant community efforts.

Lead proof-of-concept solutions with a focus on client validation to ensure the proposed solutions meet customer/agent/employee requirements. All job duties and responsibilities must be carried out in compliance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.

Note:

(For NJ candidates) This role will be located at our future headquarters in Short Hills, N.J. Until the new headquarters is operational, the successful candidate will be offered the ability to work in our Branchville, N.J. location during this interim period.

Responsibilities

• Closely align with the strategic research and insights function. Provide continuous feedback to the research function and actively leverage and communicate insights to continuously source new concepts into the innovation lifecycle. Collaborate with Corporate Strategy to identify priority domains of innovation and maintain ongoing dialog around insights coming from internal innovation efforts.
• Lead strategic efforts related to Insur Tech-focused VC partners by engaging with potential vendor partnerships in areas of key strategic priority, evaluating and presenting to business partners of VC partner recommended relationships, and others on an ad hoc basis.
• Direct organic and inorganic innovation activities, ensuring a transparent innovation pipeline, aligned with key strategic priority areas, and direct initiatives through the plan, explore, deploy, and scale phases of the innovation lifecycle.
• Lead ongoing collaboration with business partners to identify innovative use cases based on key business priorities. Ensure the pipeline is visible and available for anyone in the organization to view and understand on what basis solutions are being rank ordered. Engage in concept design and iteration activities. Run pilots/Proof of Concept’s (POC’s) to evaluate innovation concepts for viability. Develop and implement plans for deployment and scaling of multiple simultaneous viable concepts.
  
  Evaluate innovation success and quickly alters course, where necessary.
• Consistently communicate innovation program status and…