Carrier Partnerships Lead

Harper•San Francisco, CA

3d•$150,000 - $220,000•Onsite

About The Position

Harper is an AI-native commercial insurance company in San Francisco. We're rebuilding the entire business as software, turning expert human judgment into compute. This role owns carrier relationships at the portfolio level, focusing on access, appointments, capacity, economics, senior relationships, and escalation channels. It's a hands-on, relationship-driven job focused on ensuring Harper's AI-generated demand can be met by willing and able carriers, wholesalers, MGAs, and programs. The goal is to build the infrastructure and relationships that allow the licensed account team to place business effectively.

Requirements

Experience building carrier, wholesaler, MGA, or distribution partnerships in commercial insurance.
Proven track record of personally opening and developing senior insurance relationships.
Understanding of how appointments, programs, commissions, capacity, and distribution economics function.
Ability to differentiate between a signed agreement and a productive relationship, with a focus on measurable production outcomes.
Skill in using operating data to build a credible carrier-development case and negotiate effectively from it.
Commercial aggressiveness without over-promising operational capabilities.
Ability to leverage AI tools for tasks like generating urgency lists, pulling production data, and preparing carrier reviews, freeing up time for direct carrier engagement.
Capacity to collaborate with account teams, underwriters, and market partners while maintaining clear ownership of portfolio relationships.

Responsibilities

Build and maintain a market map of Harper's carriers, wholesalers, MGAs, and programs, including appointments, constraints, production paths, relationship history, agreements, appetite changes, contacts, and commitments.
Secure appointments, preferred access, new programs, and senior relationships with carriers where Harper has credible demand.
Serve as the primary point of contact for carriers, owning relationships with key decision-makers in appetite, capacity, operations, and distribution strategy.
Manage an 'urgency list' for each carrier, highlighting pending quotes, outstanding binds, upcoming renewals, and stuck submissions, and track these items to resolution.
Translate Harper's demand into carrier cases by demonstrating volume, risk mix, submission quality, conversion rates, and operating capabilities to negotiate terms like commissions, fees, service expectations, data exchange, and escalation paths.
Track portfolio performance, including submission volume, quoting markets, bound placements, service issues, and relationship ROI, using carrier reviews to tie relationship efforts to outcomes.
Establish clear escalation paths for account teams to address stuck issues without taking over account ownership.