Director of Underwriting – Commercial & Personal Lines

Location: Florida/ Sarasota or Orlando
Employment Type: Full-Time

Compensation: $150-170K plus bonus

Industry: Property & Casualty Insurance
Focus: Commercial Lines & Personal Lines
Experience: 10+ years of carrier underwriting experience
Leadership Experience: 5+ years
CPCU: Preferred, not required

Position Overview

An established Property & Casualty insurance carrier is seeking an experienced Director of Underwriting to provide strategic and operational leadership across its Commercial and Personal Lines underwriting operations.

This individual will play a key role in underwriting strategy, portfolio performance, profitable risk selection, underwriting quality, operational efficiency, agency relationships, technology initiatives, and talent development.

The ideal candidate will bring significant carrier-side Commercial Lines underwriting experience, strong leadership capabilities, and a track record of developing underwriting strategies, guidelines, processes, and high-performing teams. Personal Lines experience is a plus.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and execute underwriting strategies supporting profitable growth across Commercial and Personal Lines.
• Establish and maintain underwriting appetite, eligibility guidelines, referral authority, and risk selection standards.
• Monitor portfolio performance, market conditions, catastrophe exposure, agency performance, and underwriting trends.
• Partner with Product Management and Actuarial/Pricing to evaluate profitability, product performance, and competitive positioning.
• Develop and execute corrective action plans for underperforming products, territories, agencies, or business segments.
• Lead underwriting operations with responsibility for service, quality, productivity, and operational efficiency.
• Coach, mentor, and develop underwriting leaders and staff while supporting succession planning and professional development.
• Utilize data and analytics to monitor portfolio results, underwriting consistency, premium leakage, and operational performance.
• Establish underwriting KPIs and dashboards and communicate results, trends, risks, and strategic recommendations to senior leadership.
• Provide business leadership for underwriting technology initiatives, workflow automation, and system enhancements.
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with key agency and business partners.
• Oversee underwriting-related vendor relationships, including loss control, inspection, premium audit, and related services.
• Ensure underwriting practices comply with applicable regulatory requirements, underwriting authority guidelines, and internal controls.
• Partner cross-functionally with Claims, Sales, Product, Actuarial, IT, Compliance, Accounting, and Customer Service.
• Support broader strategic business initiatives as needed.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• MBA and/or CPCU preferred.
• 10+ years of carrier underwriting experience, primarily within Commercial Lines.
• 5+ years of progressive underwriting leadership and management experience.
• Experience across multiple P&C lines of business preferred.
• Personal Lines experience is a plus.
• Demonstrated experience developing and implementing underwriting strategies, guidelines, programs, processes, and procedures.
• Experience with underwriting operations, quality assurance, agency performance management, loss control, premium audit, and vendor management.
• Strong experience utilizing data and analytics to evaluate underwriting results and drive corrective action.
• Experience with underwriting technology, workflow improvement, automation, and/or system implementations.
• Strong understanding of P&C insurance regulatory requirements and underwriting compliance.
• Proven ability to lead, coach, and develop underwriting teams.
• Strong analytical, communication, business judgment, and decision-making skills.
• Ability to collaborate across functions and influence senior stakeholders.
• Experience presenting underwriting performance and strategic recommendations to executive leadership.
• Ability to travel as required.