Senior Manager, Commercial Lines Underwriting

Current job opportunities are posted here as they become available.

Please note, employment offered to residents in the following states only: Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont.

At Preferred, we understand the importance of holistic health. To meet the diverse needs of our employees, we offer a comprehensive set of benefits:

• Short-term disability, long-term disability, and life insurance coverage are provided at no cost
• Optional benefits include enhanced life insurance and critical illness plans
• 401k plan with an employer contribution that you will receive regardless of your own contribution to the plan
• Student Loan Repayment Assistance
• A short-term incentive plan for all employees

Social

• Generous paid time off, offering of 25 days at hire (prorated based on start date for the first year)
• 7 days of paid sick leave
• 10 paid company holidays
• Personalized paid time off after 3 years!

Emotional

• Access to 26 sessions with a Better Help therapist each year for you and up to 5 dependents, as well as access to all of Better Help’s group and digital resources
• Access to Family First, a team of care experts who can provide you and your loved ones 1:1 assistance with a variety of caregiving solutions, from elder care to legal and financial challenges, insurance and Medicare navigation, and more!

Physical

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage options begin on the first day of employment
• Health Savings Accounts (with a generous employer contribution!)

To provide leadership to a team of Commercial Lines underwriting professionals within a designated territory/product line, while partnering across territories/product lines, to attain growth and profitability. This role plays a critical part in ensuring underwriting quality, improving operational workflows, and enhancing the ease of doing business for our agency partners. The Senior Manager, Commercial Lines Underwriting:

• Develop and execute a multi-year growth strategy for commercial lines; identify and evaluate new market opportunities, including emerging industries, underserved regions, or specialized coverage needs.
• Build, develop and manage strategic partnerships with Agency Partners, fostering meaningful relationships with Company customer base, including policyholders and consumers
• Oversee underwriting guidelines, pricing strategies, and risk appetite to ensure profitable growth.
• Develop service-level standards to ensure agencies receive timely, responsive underwriting decisions.
• Partner cross-functionally with Sales, Actuary, Product Development, Claims and other key business units to design & drive process improvement, anticipate risks, forecast and propose key products, identify trends, discuss referrals, to set product pricing/rate setting
• Partner with IT and Transformation teams to align underwriting requirements with modernization initiatives, ensuring new systems support business needs.
• Work closely with Personal Lines counterpart in the territory to grow across a shared agency plant
• Engage and develop a staff of underwriting professionals; set departmental goals and initiatives and guide, monitor, and facilitate progress towards achievement; complete bi-annual performance reviews
• Manage team workload and capacity; identify, address and manage performance related issues with staff members; complete yearly performance reviews of staff members; identify and develop future leaders for succession planning
• Actively participate in the sourcing of candidates, conduct interview and make hiring decisions for your team; onboard new hires, including training, orientation, and engagement
• Facilitate/Lead Department Meetings
• Manage operational budget & staffing
• Ensure overall compliance with state and industry regulations
• Participate in and drive Company vision, mission and value proposition
• Travel 35% of the time to agents, company events, company headquarter, team events, etc.

• High School Diploma or equivalent, required
• Bachelor’s Degree from an accredited university or college preferred
• Completion of advanced professional development coursework including, but not limited to; CPCU, CIC, ARM, AU or equivalent at Company’s discretion
• 7+ years of experience in commercial lines insurance, with at least 3 years in a leadership role.
• Demonstrated experience expanding commercial lines into new markets and specialized coverages
• Excellent oral and written communication, listening, team building, organizational and negotiation skills
• Extensive customer service experience and proven ability to manage conflict
• Track record of training, coaching and motivating individuals, groups and teams, enabling them to achieve established metrics for standards of performance
• Strong time and project management skills that support continued process improvement, as well as the achievement of goals and objectives
• Strong portfolio analysis skills and knowledge of personal lines products,…