Director of Portfolio Underwriting & Operations

Mutual of Enumclaw Insurance Company•Enumclaw, WA

4d•$172,100 - $222,700•Onsite

About The Position

Mutual of Enumclaw is a community-rooted insurer serving individuals, families, farms, and businesses through local independent agents across the West. The Director of Portfolio Underwriting & Operations reports to the AVP, Underwriting Risk & Operations and leads Underwriting Operations and Portfolio Underwriting & Solutions across Personal, Commercial, and Farm lines. The role ensures the company writes an appropriate collection of risks, processes policies accurately and on time, and uses processes, vendors, and technology to free underwriters to focus on risk decisions. In partnership with Field/Production Underwriting, Product Management, Claims, IT, and vendors, the Director is accountable for achieving industry-benchmark staffing efficiency while protecting service and profitability. The successful candidate will work on-site at the Home Offices in the Greater Seattle area and must live within driving distance. The organization has approximately 23 employees across two direct-report managers: the Operations Manager and the Portfolio Underwriting & Solutions Manager. The role leads portfolio monitoring and underwriting quality, operations service and productivity, and the roadmap for underwriting solutions and technology. Hiring range is $172,100–$200,800; salary range is $172,100–$222,700.

Requirements

10+ years of progressive P&C insurance experience, including significant experience in underwriting, portfolio management, or underwriting operations.
5+ years of experience managing teams.
Deep understanding of P&C underwriting principles, portfolio management, premium audit, and profitability drivers, including loss ratio, rate adequacy, retention, and mix.
Strong analytical skills, including comfort with data, business intelligence tools, staffing and productivity models, and predictive model outputs.
Demonstrated leadership of cross-functional, technology-enabled initiatives, process mapping, and workflow redesign.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to distill complex data into concise, actionable executive updates.
Strong leadership skills, including leading through other managers and guiding teams through organizational change.
Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail.
Ability to operate at both strategic and operational levels and deliver strategic initiatives on time.
Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.
Must live within driving distance of the Home Offices in the Greater Seattle area and work on-site.

Nice To Haves

Commercial or Farm experience; Personal Lines familiarity is a plus.
Experience leading managers.
Experience with portfolio analytics, quality review programs, or premium audit.
Experience leading workflow automation or technology implementations; AI-enabled solutions or workflow platforms are a plus.
Advanced degree.
CPCU, CIC, AU, or other insurance industry designation or certification.
Project management, process improvement, or change management certification.

Responsibilities

Lead an organization of approximately 23 through the Operations Manager and Portfolio Underwriting & Solutions Manager; manage, mentor, coach, and guide staff, and perform succession planning.
Set goals, accountability structures, and performance expectations; build leadership bench strength and foster data-driven decision-making, continuous improvement, and accountability.
Manage external vendor relationships for underwriting data, tools, inspections, and service providers.
Monitor portfolio loss performance, appetite, segmentation, growth, retention, rate adequacy, and mix by line, segment, territory, and agency.
Lead a disciplined review, investigation, recommendation, partnership, and measurement cycle; bring guideline and authority recommendations to the Field/Production Underwriting Director and line managers, and measure outcomes after changes.
Oversee the underwriting quality program, including file reviews, guideline adherence, and exception analysis, and route findings to UW Training for targeted training.
Oversee premium audit, including audit ordering, exposure verification, and class validation; use audit results to identify exposure, class, and agency patterns.
Direct inspection strategy as an expense and insurance-to-value lever, partnering with Loss Control / Risk Services and Product Management.
Lead the Personal, Commercial, and Farm Operations team through the Operations Manager; own service levels, accuracy, timeliness, workflow, and flexible capacity across lines during volume or project spikes.
Set standards for associate- and operations-level work, maintain a dotted line to underwriting, and build a career path into underwriting.
Own the operations KPI framework, including SLA attainment, throughput, first-pass quality, cycle time, touch ratios, and straight-through processing.
Lead workforce and capacity planning using time studies, touch-ratio studies, process mapping, and productivity models measured against industry staffing benchmarks.
Own the underwriting solutions roadmap, including AI-enabled new business underwriting, renewal and endorsement efficiency, agent self-service, account dashboards, and workflow automation; prioritize enhancements using performance data and underwriter pain points.
Serve as business lead for underwriting technology initiatives with IT; create project charters and CBAs and ensure clear business cases, requirements, testing, measurable ROI, and success metrics.
Track initiative benefits and released capacity, translating them into staffing plans through attrition and no-backfill decisions.
Lead vendor evaluation, selection, contracting, and performance management to ensure solutions deliver measurable value.
Champion adoption and change management for new tools and processes across underwriting and operations.
Deliver concise, bottom-line-first executive reporting on portfolio performance, operational KPIs, benchmark status, and initiative results.