Director, Underwriting Appetite & Standards

WCF Insurance•Peoria, AZ

2d•$120,000 - $185,000•Onsite

About The Position

WCF is an A Rated insurance carrier that is growing in the western U.S. and is looking for an applicant that wants to join a company with a great culture, competitive pay, and outstanding benefits. The Underwriting Standards department has an immediate opening for someone who can demonstrate the WCF values to join their team as a Director, Underwriting Appetite & Standards, reporting to the VP, Underwriting Appetite & Standards. This is a full-time, exempt position based out of Arizona. This position is open to external and internal candidates.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in finance, economics, risk management, or related field; master's degree preferred.
CPCU strongly preferred.
Minimum of 8–10 years of progressive underwriting experience across Workers' Compensation, Commercial Auto, General Liability, Commercial Property, and Umbrella, across a variety of industries.
Deep, advanced technical knowledge of risk assessment, coverage, pricing methodology, and regulatory requirements across all lines of business.
Demonstrated experience handling large, complex, and non‑standard risks.
Demonstrated experience defining, interpreting, or governing underwriting appetite, eligibility, and underwriting standards.
Solid understanding of underwriting governance concepts, including guidelines, authority structures, referrals, and underwriting controls.
Strong consultative, analytical, and decision-making skills.
Experience partnering with Product, Actuarial/Pricing, Claims, Safety/Loss Control, Compliance, and Sales to support profitable growth and risk discipline.

Responsibilities

Assist with the development and maintenance of underwriting guidelines, ensuring clarity, consistency, and alignment across Small Business, Middle Market, and Large Commercial portfolios
Handle underwriting referrals across all lines of business for unique, complex, large, or high‑severity risks, exercising a high level of technical authority and judgment.
Provide enterprise underwriting quality assurance, including individual file reviews and targeted QA initiatives, to assess underwriting accuracy, consistency, and adherence to appetite.
Aggregate QA findings to identify trends, gaps, and training opportunities; share insights with underwriting leadership.
Partner with Underwriting Training to identify, create, and deliver technical training topics driven by QA findings, appetite expansion, and product growth needs.
Assist in the creation, documentation, and ongoing refinement of underwriting guidelines, standards, and processes to support profitable growth and underwriting consistency.
Serve as a technical and consultative resource to underwriting and business units on complex exposures, unfamiliar industries, and coverage considerations.
Participate in strategic initiatives and projects as a technical underwriting voice, including new products, appetite expansion, and process optimization efforts.
Monitor market conditions, regulatory changes, and industry trend
Assist with underwriting referral and authority governance, including ineligible operations, escalation processes, documentation expectations, and letter‑of‑authority (LOA) structures.
Manage and develop a team.
Accountable for referral decision quality, underwriting consistency, and timely referral turnaround to support business needs and preferred partner relationships.
Supports underwriting leaders by supplementing technical expertise and industry knowledge.
Demonstrates strong attention to detail, sound judgment, and ability to manage competing priorities in a high‑impact environment.
Accountable for ensuring underwriting standards and appetite are supported by appropriate onboarding and ongoing development.
Build strong relationships with underwriting leaders and other departments by fostering transparency, trust, and consistency in underwriting governance and decision‑making.
Supports product expansion through high quality and timely delivery of underwriting guidelines and resources, in partnership with Product Development team.