Team Lead - Underwriting Operation

About the role

In this highly visible role, you will provide leadership to a team of experienced underwriting analysts supporting a high growth Business Unit. You will be a people-first person with a growth mindset, responsible for driving operational excellence, championing continuous improvement, and experienced in capacity planning to achieve service delivery, timeliness, productivity and quality goals. In this exciting and challenging role, you will solve problems, work with senior leaders and stakeholders, and make a real impact.

Key Responsibilities:

Leading Teams

• Direct People Management responsibility.

• Oversee development, training and cross training of employees for quality, performance, and professional development.

• Leverage individual strengths to drive overall team performance.

• Provide constructive feedback and improvement opportunities using coaching sessions, one-on-one interactions, process confirmations, business partner feedback, and performance reviews.

• Ensures appropriate development plans are in place with staff and progress is being made.

• Monitor and address employee satisfaction and retention to maximize employee effectiveness and minimize turnover while maintaining an inclusive work environment that supports diversity.

• managing performance improvement issues swiftly and appropriately

• Skilled in conflict management and business processes.

Stakeholder management

• Partner with Operations and Underwriting leadership to assure business objectives are met and review monthly operational metrics and trends

• Liaise with underwriting teams to deliver operational processing, escalate issues, and address queries/questions.

• Liaise with Underwriters and Brokers on behalf of the Underwriting Support Unit as needed to communicate account status and drive resolution of outstanding tasks

• Partners with offshore operations team to support and enhance delivery standards

• Act as key point of contact for mitigation of any operational issues/concerns raised by stakeholders or customers. This role will also be the key contact person for areas outside of operations (eg finance, credit control, etc)

Operational Metrics

• Establish credibility and work effectively to achieve key performance goals.

• Responsible for management and performance of the teams’ service levels/KPIs, quality and timeliness of delivery, issue resolution, corrections, audit and benchmarking.

Change Agent (Process Improvement and Technology Adoption)

• Understand end-to-end customer experience and seek opportunities for process improvement and reduce processing friction.

• Leadership skills with an innovative mindset, driving continuous improvement.

• Drive process standardization to streamline and optimize processing variations.

• Provide governance and structure to document and maintain SOP’s.

• Accountable for identifying, escalating, and responding to any Compliance related issues.

• Be a change agent for new tools and technology to help team increase team productivity.
   

Qualifications:

• 4+ years of underwriting operational experience (eg submissions, clearance, binding/booking, etc)

• 1+ years experience leading a team Insurance/Financial Services Industry strongly preferred

• Commercial insurance experience required

• Ability to work collaboratively with a geographically distributed team structure

• Experience managing hybrid/remote teams a plus

• Must be able to handle multiple priorities and work with limited direct supervision

• Proven track record of delivering improved and sustained results over time

• Ability to foster a high-performing team environment

• Possesses exceptional interpersonal skills and strong influencing abilities

• Demonstrated capacity to communicate across small and large groups

• Readily able to adapt and lead others through change management

• Strong organization, planning, time management and delegation skills

• Good business acumen and professional demeanor

For positions based in NJ, the base salary range is $72,000 to $84,500 and the position is eligible for a bonus in accordance with the terms of the applicable incentive plan. In addition, we’re proud to offer a range of competitive benefits, a summary of which can be viewed here: :