Sr. AVP, Risk Officer – Specialty Finance

As a team member in Finance at Nationwide, a Fortune 100 company with nearly $70 billion in annual sales, the opportunities are endless! Let Nationwide help create your career journey! At Nationwide®, “on your side” goes beyond just words. Our customers are at the center of everything we do and we’re looking for associates who are passionate about delivering extraordinary care.

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Job Description Summary

Do you have the desire to grow a business and play a critical role in shaping business outcomes? Our Investment and Risk professionals play a key role in using analysis to create insights that enable Nationwide to provide risk solutions to individual and corporate customers and drive business results. Nationwide Specialty Finance employs a research‑driven, team‑oriented, and results‑focused approach to create and manage innovative specialty finance insurance solutions such as fund financing, structured credit, portfolio credit insurance, collateral protection, and residual value products. These solutions cover complex asset risks on the asset side of the balance sheet, delivered through insurance and reinsurance structures that help customers access financial markets more efficiently.

As Sr AVP, Risk Officer, Specialty Finance, you will lead risk, analytics, and reinsurance for the Specialty Finance business. You will establish and govern the frameworks, models, processes, and management reporting that underpin product risk/return evaluation, product structuring, portfolio and capital management, reinsurance strategy and execution, and the related accounting and reserving outcomes—driving disciplined risk-adjusted performance aligned to enterprise capital objectives. You will partner closely with other leaders and senior stakeholders across the company to ensure that risks are identified and quantified appropriately; products and portfolios are modeled and monitored with rigor; reinsurance is structured and placed effectively; and results are booked, reserved, and operated in line with Nationwide’s risk appetite, limits, and financial objectives.

Job Description

Key Responsibilities: 

• Own the end-to-end Specialty Finance risk and analytics framework covering pricing, capital, limits, stochastic and deterministic stress modeling, and performance measurement.

• Develop and maintain product- and portfolio-level risk/return models including loss distributions, capital usage, and return on capital for Specialty Finance products.

• Partner with underwriting and investment leads to embed analytical standards (assumptions, model use, documentation, back‑testing) into product design, deal approval, and ongoing monitoring.

• Define and maintain risk appetite statements and limit structures aligned to enterprise risk appetite and limits.

• Lead Specialty Finance risk governance and oversight, including the Deal Committee and relevant risk/product committees.

• Ensure model risk management standards are met for all models.

• Integrate exposure measurement into the Office of Investments ecosystem and enterprise risk reporting.

• Sponsor and oversee audit, compliance, and regulatory reviews for Specialty Finance models, processes, and controls.

• Partner with Nationwide’s ceding reinsurance leader to design and execute the Specialty Finance reinsurance strategy and structures including quota share, excess of loss, and structured solutions that align with product design, risk appetite, and capital objectives.

• Lead business execution of reinsurance terms, data requirements, and alignment with underwriting and risk views in coordination with Reinsurance, Legal, and Enterprise Risk.

• Partner with Finance, Controllership, Reserving, and Actuarial to ensure appropriate GAAP/statutory treatment and reserving methodologies.

• Build and lead a high-performing team and collaborate across underwriting, investments, controllership, reserving, technology, operations, claims, and reinsurance to deliver risk-adjusted returns.

• Accountable for the talent management process including oversight of recruiting, performance management, diversity and inclusion, development and training.

May perform other responsibilities as assigned.

Reporting Relationships:  Reports to SVP, Chief Risk Officer. Leads a team of 3+ risk, analytics, and reinsurance professionals.

Typical Skills and Experiences: 

Education:  Undergraduate degree in Finance, Mathematics, Actuarial Science, Statistics, Economics, Engineering, or a related quantitative f