Director, Property & Casualty Staff Underwriting

Developing the underwriting strategy and ensuring it meets our risk appetite is essential to Nationwide's profitability and overall success. As a Director, you'll provide oversight and management of commercial or personal line product(s) staff function. We'll count on you to develop and recommend underwriting or product policies, procedures and standards and ensure coordination between corporate office and field operations. This role leads the Personal Lines underwriting rules and technology portfolio, translating underwriting strategy into scalable capabilities that improve decision quality, speed, consistency, customer and agent experience, and profitability. Working conditions: Normal office environment. Frequent travel may be required. Overtime eligibility: Not Eligible (Exempt). This position could be filled within any of the lower 48 U.S. states.

Responsibilities

Lead the strategic development, implementation, governance, and ongoing management of underwriting rules, guidelines, and related control gaps; Own risk-filter management end to end, including new and changed filters, testing, vendor coordination, monitoring, issue resolution, and controls; Oversee model implementation, KPI measurement, performance analysis, recalibration impact analysis, and follow-up actions; Set technology strategy, prioritization, roadmap, and modernization opportunities, with accountability for delivery partners managing scope and budget; Partner with Product, Pricing, Technology, Business Insights, Experience, field underwriting, and other stakeholders to design and implement underwriting solutions and coordinate UAT, post-production validation, and stabilization; Build strong partnerships and feedback loops to improve usability, adoption, workflow effectiveness, and customer, agent, and field-underwriting outcomes; Identify automation and emerging-technology opportunities that improve underwriting speed, accuracy, consistency, and profitability; Lead and develop a specialized team while setting priorities, resolving dependencies, managing delivery risk, and influencing senior stakeholders; Assist in developing strategy and direction for assigned products and reinforce understanding, communication and execution of product/underwriting strategy; Provide technical assistance and support to state/regional underwriting and services leadership; Lead projects for assigned profitability initiatives; Serve on committees, project teams and industry boards as assigned; Ensure support functions including product functional audits, training, vendor selection and management, employee career enhancement, competitive monitoring, systems and liaison to other business units; Manage associates, including performance management, salary planning and administration, training and development, workflow and organizational planning, hiring and placement, and disciplinary actions

Requirements

Personal Lines underwriting knowledge and the ability to connect strategy to day-to-day decisions; Experience across Auto, Property and other lines of business; Experience leading underwriting rules, risk filters, models, decisioning capabilities, or technology-enabled underwriting change; Experience with model performance, KPI analysis, recalibration, or impact assessment; Experience leading delivery through design, UAT, implementation, validation, and stabilization; Ability to build productive partnerships with Experience, field underwriting, Product, Pricing, Technology, Business Insights, Operations, and Distribution; People leadership, talent development, strategic planning, roadmap, budgeting, prioritization, risk management, and executive communication skills; Typically 10 years of property and casualty (personal and/or commercial) lines underwriting, including at least five years of management experience; Exposure to both field and staff office operations preferred; Bachelor's degree or post-graduate studies preferred; Proven knowledge of property/casualty products, insurance company operations, field and staff functions, industry trends, and project management; Demonstrated decision-making and strategic abilities; Ability to drive for results, deal with ambiguity, communicate with upper management, and conceptualize strategic objectives; Ability to lead staff, committees and project participants in all aspects of product/underwriting activities

Nice to have

Relevant professional designation such as CPCU; Experience with underwriting decision platforms, rules engines, decision management, workflow technology, third-party data or vendors, or modernization initiatives; Familiarity with automation, analytics, AI, or other emerging technologies in underwriting

Benefits

Medical/dental/vision; Life insurance; Short and long term disability coverage; Paid time off with a minimum of 18 days per full calendar year for newly hired associates, pro-rated quarterly based on hire date; Nine paid holidays; 8 hours of Lifetime paid time off; 8 hours of Unity Day paid time off; 401(k) with company match; Company-paid pension plan; Business casual attire