Director, Life Underwriting

About the role

We are looking for a Director, Life Underwriting to lead our underwriting production function, with a strong emphasis on team performance, people development, and operational excellence. This role is accountable for ensuring consistent, high-quality underwriting output while building and developing a high-performing, scalable team that meets production targets, turnaround time (TAT), and service level agreement (SLA) commitments.This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who can balance strategic oversight with day-to-day operational rigor, and who is equally comfortable coaching underwriters as they are managing dashboards and production metrics. You will be a champion of AI-enabled ways of working, continuously looking for ways to remove manual effort, shorten cycle times, and raise the productivity of every team member.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• UW Production & Quality:
  • Own underwriting production output, ensuring volume and quality targets are met
  • Identify and recommend automation opportunities (straight-through processing, AI-assisted case review) to increase throughput without compromising quality
  • Partner with Underwriting Auditors to track audit findings and drive corrective action
  • Ensure decisions align with guidelines, risk appetite, and regulations
• People Development:
  • Lead and grow a team of underwriters and supervisors/managers
  • Oversee onboarding/training programs and build career development pathways
  • Drive a coaching culture and strong team retention
• Performance Management:
  • Establish clear, measurable performance standards for underwriters and supervisors across productivity, set productivity targets, quality standards, TAT, and compliance
  • Drive performance against TAT/SLA targets across case types
  • Build reporting to track real-time production and SLA performance
  • Resolve issues causing breaches; coordinate with Sales/Ops/Claims on escalations
  • Conduct regular performance reviews, using audit findings and production data to identify trends and root causes of underperformance
  • Lead structured, constructive conversations on performance gaps, including formal Performance Improvement Plans where warranted
  • Ensure consistency in performance evaluation standards across teams, especially in distributed/cross-geography setups
  • Recognize and reward high performers to reinforce a strong performance culture alongside accountability
• Team & Org Leadership:
  • Build and scale teams as business needs grow
  • Manage capacity planning against volume forecasts
  • Ensure consistency in UW practices across distributed teams
  • Foster a culture of continuous improvement, experimentation, and openness to new technology
• Stakeholder management:
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration: Key UW point of contact for Sales, Operations, Compliance, and Engineering
  • Represent UW in cross functional meetings; influence stakeholders on process changes using data

Qualifications and Skills:

• 15+ years in Life Insurance Underwriting, with strong people management experience
• Proven track record managing production to standards at scale
• Proven experience managing large teams (80/100+ members).
• Experience building/leading UW teams (direct and/or cross-geography)
• Strong technical UW knowledge, data-driven decision-making, and stakeholder influencing and communication skills
• Bachelor's degree required; UW certifications (LOMA, FALU) are preferred

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