Director, Underwriting - Life

Nationwide•Grandview Heights, OH

3d•$138,000 - $206,000•Remote

About The Position

This is a high-impact opportunity for a market-facing underwriting leader who can bring together three strengths: sophisticated technical judgment, trusted distribution relationships, and the ability to develop people. The successful candidate will help shape a focused operating model in which dedicated underwriting teams align to national brokerage relationships, build capacity around the business coming through the door, and deliver a consistent, high-touch experience to producers and business partners. As a Director, you'll lead the day-to-day operations for the Life Underwriting team within Nationwide Financials’ Life New Business organization. The team is responsible for mortality risk assessment and protecting Nationwide against sooner than expected mortality expenses, as well as morbidity risk management for long term care insurance. The Underwriter approves, modifies, or declines applications through an underwriting assessment including evaluation of medical history, occupational hazards, financial background, insurable interest and other relevant information. The business mix consists mostly of universal life, term, long term care and variable universal life. The team handles the largest mortality risks within underwriting.

Requirements

Deep life underwriting expertise, with the ability to make sound decisions in complex and ambiguous situations.
Meaningful experience handling or overseeing large-case life underwriting; experience with $10 million-plus cases is strongly preferred.
Experience in a BGA, brokerage, broker-dealer, producer group, or similarly relationship-driven life insurance environment.
Prior carrier experience is preferred.
A relationship-first, sales-minded approach and the ability to confidently communicate and advocate for underwriting decisions.
People leadership experience, including the ability to coach experienced professionals, build capability, and create meaningful career paths.
The flexibility to use underwriting guidelines as a foundation while applying sound judgment, documenting rationale, and developing practical solutions for unique situations.
Strong communication, negotiation, analytical, and influencing skills.
Undergraduate studies in Business Administration or related field.
More than 10 years Life Underwriting experience.
More than five years of formal leadership experience.
Validated technical Underwriting ability to receive, evaluate and underwrite on a medical or non-medical basis.
Extensive knowledge of life underwriting risk selection, brokerage experience, and older age underwriting.
Knowledge of sophisticated life underwriting policies, practices, and procedures, and life insurance underwriting techniques.
Knowledge of alternative rating methods and plans and pricing theory.
Knowledge of regulatory issues, life insurance market conditions, and company operations.
Superior communication, teamwork and presentation skills.
Superior negotiation skills and ability to partner with reinsurers and outside sales agencies/firms.
Agile and adaptable.
Advanced ability to take care of ambiguity in a flexible and responsive manner.
Able to work with a highly technical team.
Ability to coach, train and mentor underwriting personnel.
Strong mentoring, coaching experience to a team with diverse levels of expertise.
Ability to make decisions on highly complex issues and work with minimal direction.
Excellent judgment and creative problem solving skills including conflict resolution skills.
Ability to work with the brokerage distribution system.
Ability to analyze highly sophisticated insurance risks to resolve acceptability including policy language, alternative rating plans, methodologies, and reinsurance.
Demonstrates strong resilience and leads others through change.
Cultivates an outside-in perspective; student of the industry who continuously shares findings and ideas with leadership and the team.

Nice To Haves

EKG Certified preferred.
Professional/technical studies or designation such as the Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU), Fellow of Life Management Institute, (FLMI), or Fellow of the Academy of Life Underwriting (FALU) preferred.
FALU (all AALU reqs, ALU 301, Three fellowship electives) preferred with CLU or advance sales concept training.

Responsibilities

Lead a team of life underwriters aligned to a portfolio of national BGA, brokerage, and producer relationships
Own the relationship-level underwriting experience, partnering with distribution and internal stakeholders to understand needs, solve complex issues, and deliver sound, competitive decisions.
Provide senior judgment on complex medical and financial underwriting, including large-case opportunities and cases that require thoughtful interpretation beyond a purely transactional or rules-based approach.
Use production, case-mix, and capacity insights to help align talent and workflow to the needs of each relationship and face-amount segment.
Build technical depth and confidence across the team through coaching, mentoring, feedback, and exposure to increasingly complex large-case work.
Serve as a credible, field-facing representative of Nationwide—explaining underwriting decisions, navigating negotiations, and helping strengthen partnerships and capture market opportunity.
Partner across sales, reinsurance, medical, operations, and underwriting leadership to support case outcomes, service excellence, risk discipline, and profitable growth.
Leads and provides oversight to team roles and responsibilities while creating a highly engaged culture. Forward facing; handles performance of customer satisfaction, interaction quality and relationships. Focuses on managing relationships, both internally and externally. Establishes practices for quality, production standards, relationship management, delivering on customer requests and schedule to adhere to compliance guidelines.
Participates in, sponsors or owns major projects, leads the activities and staff providing guidance to supporting departments on team - assists in identifying and establishing relationship management guidelines and operational improvements that advance delivery of services to customers aligned with industry and regulatory requirements. Projects often include industry wide committees and involvement of key internal and external partners.
Hires qualified and highly engaged underwriters. Drives a culture of coaching and feedback for personal and professional guidance. Develops talent in the organization for succession planning and handles all performance management tasks and related functions for team. Ensures associates are current and knowledgeable about the industry, competition and regulatory environment. Promotes industry training and involvement in related organizations.
Owns the service relationships requiring a high level of technical expertise and high-touch, highly satisfied relationships are crucial for client and asset retention. Helps build and strengthen relationships through presentations, intermediaries and/or direct contact. Partners closely with Sales to ensure overall satisfaction with Nationwide. Develops staff to find ways to deepen Nationwide relationships and create additional sales opportunities for Sales partners.
Supervises activities to ensure clients are promptly served and meets/exceeds quality standards. Responds to service issues and calls from Sales, firms, producers and customers. Works close internal/external partners to ensure resolution. Works with various back office and internal departments to advocate for their relationships.
Leads the implementation of all enacted state and federal regulations for products and procedures; ensuring Operations is prepared and informed of audits/regulatory/legislative changes in a timely manner. Partners with appropriate teams or individuals for the coordination of responses to regulatory matters, including system partners for data requests. Leads staff responsible for drafting regulatory agency reports and findings and works closely with the office of Corporate Compliance to resolve any issues.
Uses outside-in approach and services as the "voice of the customer" in driving improvement opportunities. Leads the staff that takes audit recommendations and calibration sessions through the continuous improvement model. Identify key opportunities for processes and procedures to be enhanced and aligned to ensure consistency and adherence to regulatory requirements including improvements outside of their own teams. Identify key process and/or technology needs within the Operation Center.
Manages expenses to the established budget and finds opportunities and implements solutions to streamline process and reduce operating expenses. Participates in annual budget process to ensure adequate staffing and funding for providing outstanding levels of service. Makes decisions that support those budget goals through proper staffing, requirements management, utilization of third-party services and contractors, fosters the accelerated underwriting process, and holds associates accountable to production and quality standards.
Receives issues from field and sales partners to renegotiate the underwriting decision and is responsible for mentoring and developing the Underwriter.
Handling up to $15,000,000 for life, up to $1,000,000 sign off for morbidity underwriting, and sign off authority for exceptions on Intelligent Underwriting.
May perform other responsibilities as assigned.