Professional Liability Underwriting Lead

Shepherd is launching a Professional Liability product to support its existing Construction and Energy verticals as well as future verticals. The Professional Liability Underwriting Lead will play a lead role in building and shaping the new product expansion, with an initial focus on Errors & Omissions (E&O) and Miscellaneous Professional Liability (MPL). This is an opportunity to help define the underwriting strategy, go-to-market, and drive long-term profitable growth for the core pillars of Shepherd's business.

Responsibilities

Define the strategy for professional liability, including target classes, lines of business, limits, attachment points, geographies, appetite, and growth and loss-ratio targets; support the development of underwriting guidelines, rating approach, authority framework and referral rules; partner with Product, Engineering, and Data to design the submission-to-bind workflow, pricing tools, and exposure and loss-trend views; underwrite new and renewal primary and excess professional liability within your authority; own premium, profit, loss-ratio, and retention results for the book; use broker relationships to drive submission flow in the first year and actively market Shepherd's professional lines products; hire, coach, and grow a team of professional liability underwriters as the book scales; work with Corporate Underwriting to help set letters of authority, run underwriting audits, and coach from the results; work with Claims, Actuarial, Customer Experience and Finance so the business is underwritten, serviced, and reported well

Requirements

8+ years of professional liability underwriting experience; deep expertise across architects and engineers E&O, with exposure to other industries such as technology, financial services, real estate, manufacturing or healthcare; proven record of profitable growth, including originating new business, quoting, binding, and building a professional liability book while managing to loss-ratio and combined-ratio targets; strong technical command of risk selection, underwriting models, exposure and loss analysis, loss development and trends, pricing, and coverage across E&O and MPL; strong technical command of application and financial review, including claims-made forms, retroactive dates, prior acts, extended reporting periods, retentions, and primary and excess structures; sound judgment on manuscript endorsements, contractual liability, and emerging exposures across professional services; established regional and national broker relationships; people leadership experience leading, mentoring, or managing underwriters, including setting authority and running underwriting audits; executive presence to present strategy and results to leadership, capacity partners, and reinsurers; comfort with ambiguity; willingness to travel about 25% to meet brokers, partners, and the team; bachelor's degree or equivalent experience

Benefits

Premium healthcare with 100% contribution to health, dental, and vision; fertility benefits and family building support; flexible PTO; daily lunches, dinners, and snacks; professional development including premium coaching and leadership development; competitive 401(k) plan; annual performance bonus; equity in Shepherd; dog-friendly office in the SF office