Commercial Casualty Underwriting Leader (Director)

Shepherd is launching a Retail Commercial Casualty vertical, as an expansion to its current Primary and Excess Casualty offerings. The Commercial Casualty Underwriting Leader will play a lead role in building and shaping new industry segments from the ground up. This is an opportunity to help define the underwriting strategy, go-to-market, and drive long-term profitable growth for a core pillar of Shepherd's business.

Responsibilities

Define the strategy for retail commercial casualty, including target classes, lines of business, limits, attachment points, geographies, appetite, and growth and loss-ratio targets; Support the development of underwriting guidelines, authority framework, referral rules, and rating approach; 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 casualty within your authority; Own premium, profit, loss-ratio, retention, and expense results for the vertical; Use retail broker relationships to drive submission flow in the first year, and serve as Shepherd's senior casualty voice with brokers, clients, and other stakeholders; Hire, coach, and grow a team of casualty underwriters and support staff 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

10+ years of commercial casualty underwriting, with deep expertise in retail middle market and large accounts across classes such as real estate, retail, hospitality, manufacturing, and technology; A proven record of profitable growth: originating new business, quoting, binding, and building a casualty book while managing to loss-ratio and combined-ratio targets; Strong technical command of risk selection, exposure and loss analysis, loss development and trends, pricing, and coverage across Commercial General Liability, Commercial Auto, Workers' Compensation and Excess Casualty; Experience structuring both primary and excess casualty programs, including guaranteed-cost and loss-sensitive programs such as large deductibles and self-insured retentions; Sound judgment on contractual risk transfer, additional insured requirements, manuscript endorsements, and emerging exposures; Disciplined portfolio management, including limits, accumulation, and clash exposure; Established retail broker relationships at the regional and national level that can drive submission flow from day one; 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: making sound decisions with incomplete information and adapting quickly as the business evolves; Willingness to travel about 25% to meet brokers, partners, and the team; A bachelor's degree or equivalent experience

Benefits

100% contribution to top-tier health, dental, and vision; Fertility benefits and family building support; Unlimited PTO; Daily lunches, dinners, and snacks; Professional development with access to premium coaching, including leadership development; Competitive 401(k) plan; Dog-friendly office in the SF office