Commercial Surety - Manager, Underwriting Specialty (Remote)

For more than 170 years, The Hanover has been committed to delivering on our promises and being there when it matters the most. We live our values every day, demonstrating we CARE through our values, Sustainability initiatives and inclusive corporate culture.


The Hanover’s Commercial Surety business unit is seeking an experienced Surety - Commercial Surety - Manager, UW Specialty who brings strong technical expertise, a sales-minded approach, and a collaborative spirit. This role is ideal for a relationship-driven professional who enjoys developing agency partnerships, identifying growth opportunities, and delivering tailored surety solutions that drive profitable results and is focused on Small Commercial Accounts and Transactional Surety

The Manager, UW Specialty, oversees an assigned book of business, with a primary focus on key agency relationships and accounts of increased complexity. This role is responsible for evaluating current and future staffing needs and providing the leadership, coaching, and development necessary to build and sustain a high performing team that supports business objectives across the West region. The Manager partners closely with agents and brokers to strengthen market presence and cultivate trusted, long term relationships. Success in this role depends on strong collaboration with leadership teams to consistently deliver high quality outcomes and exceptional service to our customers.

The way we work continues to evolve. This role offers flexible work arrangements and may be hybrid or fully remote, with the ability to travel as needed to support agency engagement, market development, and key meetings throughout the West region. The position may be based in CA, OR, WA, AZ, UT,ID or CO.

At The Hanover, our culture is grounded in our Care Values—we care about our people, our customers, and the communities we serve. We foster an inclusive, supportive environment where experienced professionals are empowered to make decisions, share ideas, and grow their careers while working together toward shared goals.

The Hanover is a diverse and inclusive organization committed to attracting, developing, and retaining top talent. We believe diverse perspectives and experiences strengthen our teams, our performance, and the relationships we build every day.
Position Overview:
This role resides within Commercial Surety areas of the Specialty division. Underwrites, manages, and coaches team of Underwriters within defined territory, with support and guidance from regional management. Provides oversight on day-to-day underwriting functions. Collaborates with underwriting assistants, manages assigned book of business, primarily with key agents and increased level of complexity. Responsible for assessing the present and future resource needs for employees and provide the leadership, mentoring and guidance necessary to build and sustain a high performing workforce.
This is a full-time, exempt role.
IN THIS ROLE YOU WILL:
Technical Underwriting:
• Knows and applies advanced underwriting concepts including risk selection, exposure and hazard identification and control, coverage implications, and loss analysis.
• Understands pricing components and rating methodology and correlates pricing to exposure, financial and competitive analysis.
• Adheres to UW guidelines and underwriting discipline to minimize exposure and appropriately price.
• Effectively identifies root cause and brings forth solutions to problems.
• Participates in referrals and consultations from UAs and UWs within assigned territory
Portfolio & Sales Management:
• Reviews key metrics and uncovers trends that may lead to new business opportunities with agents while achieving profitable growth in accordance with business strategies.
• Understands the relationship between changes in business strategies and financial results (e.g., loss ratio’s, premium, retention, and non-rate and book mix strategies).
• Keeps current on state/territory issues, regulations, and trends.
• Coaching and mentoring the territory UW team, providing business direction, driving UW actions towards our business objectives, training, and development of employees.
• Underwriting management, development, and execution of specific territorial business plan strategies, including territorial business cultivation and agency management.
• Manage agency related functions for personal book of business.
• Involvement in key new business and renewals.
• Stays current with and ensures team adheres to underwriting best practices and guidelines.
• Oversee the operational and technical work of the team and where applicable implement claim handling best practices.
Leadership & Coaching:
• Managing underwriters, coaching, and mentoring, providing business direction, driving UW actions towards o