Director, Technical Underwriting - Casualty

Farmers Insurance

1d•$156,300 - $297,125

About The Position

As Director, Technical Underwriting - Casualty, you will serve as Farmers' senior technical authority for commercial casualty underwriting. You will lead the development of underwriting strategy, governance, referral frameworks, and portfolio management practices while providing expertise on complex casualty exposures. This newly created role offers the opportunity to shape casualty underwriting within a transforming Business Insurance organization. The role combines deep underwriting expertise, strategic leadership, and organizational influence. The Director will help shape underwriting appetite, governance frameworks, authority structures, quality programs, and portfolio performance while building technical capabilities across the broader underwriting organization. Farmers is particularly interested in experienced external underwriting leaders who can bring specialized expertise and innovative thinking to advance its underwriting capabilities. The Director will play a pivotal role in building technical excellence, enhancing underwriting quality, improving profitability, and developing the next generation of underwriting talent. The position may be performed at a Farmers office or virtually at an approved alternative work location. Employees living within 50 miles of a corporate office have a hybrid arrangement with at least three days in the office and up to two virtual days; applicants beyond 50 miles may also be considered. The job is performed indoors in a climate-controlled environment and requires rare, if any, travel.

Requirements

Commercial casualty underwriting expertise, including complex casualty exposures, liability trends, and technical referral authority.
At least 10 years of experience in insurance underwriting or insurance compliance.
At least 5 years of experience leading people.
Bachelor's degree required.
Ability to drive multiple projects to successful completion.
Ability to lead cross-functional work, drive decisions, and build alignment across underwriting, product, pricing/actuarial, IT, data/analytics, and operations.
Demonstrated change leadership, including adoption planning, training enablement, measurement, and continuous improvement; ability to instill commitment to organizational goals.
Ability to understand the vision and direction of the business and develop and execute a plan to achieve business results.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor's degree preferably in mathematics, business, or finance.
CPCU or CIC designation preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead authority management strategy and the underwriting governance framework, including corporate authority templates, referral triggers, and decision rules.
Define and enforce how underwriting decisions are made to ensure consistency with underwriting strategy and risk appetite.
Exercise elevated underwriting authority and provide guidance on complex or high-exposure risks.
Own underwriting performance and profitability for assigned lines of business, including accountability for loss ratio, combined ratio, growth, and retention.
Monitor performance and take action to achieve financial and business objectives.
Own the underwriting quality program and control environment, including quality standards, leakage monitoring, audits, and compliance frameworks.
Identify control gaps and implement corrective actions to ensure adherence to underwriting guidelines, regulatory requirements, and internal policies.
Translate underwriting strategy and risk appetite into technical frameworks, including guidelines, authority structures, and operational rules.
Ensure consistent execution across lines of business through clear standards and governance mechanisms.
Partner with actuarial and data and analytics teams to develop and deploy portfolio analytics, underwriting models, and decision-support tools.
Establish and lead emerging risk identification and governance processes.
Collaborate cross-functionally to assess impacts and drive updates to underwriting guidelines, authority frameworks, and control structures.
Provide direct technical guidance and support to underwriting centers, ensuring responsiveness, effective decision-making, and alignment with underwriting standards.
Lead, develop, and retain talent in either quality or loss control functions.
Build deep technical expertise and governance discipline within the organization.
Implement feedback loops to continuously improve underwriting decision quality, pricing discipline, and overall performance, including coordination and portfolio management of individual account reinsurance placements and collaboration with the reinsurance team on annual facility placements.
Perform other duties as assigned.