Head of Data & AI

Novacore•Conshohocken, PA

About The Position

Why join the Novacore team? Because your next stellar chapter starts here — and we’re building something bold and meaningful. At Novacore, we’re not your average insurance company. We’re a team of driven professionals passionate about redefining the specialty insurance experience for our agents, carrier partners — and for each other. We specialize in tailored solutions for niche industries, powered by advanced analytics, modern technology and a culture of innovation. Backed by strong leadership and strategic growth initiatives, Novacore is poised to scale and lead in the specialty insurance market. But at our core, we believe it’s not just what we do — it’s how we do it and who we do it with. Recognized as a top workplace, Novacore is a place where ambition is supported, growth is continuous and culture matters. From day one, you’ll find mentorship, hands-on learning and clear paths for advancement. You’ll grow your skills, expand your expertise and become even more exceptional — because when you succeed, we all do. We offer: A collaborative, results-driven environment Competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits Year-round social and community events Ongoing mentorship and professional development Endless opportunities for upward mobility So if you're ready to be part of something extraordinary — with a team that’s transforming commercial insurance — we want to meet you. Head of Data & AI We are hiring a transformational SVP of Data & AI to architect and scale the data foundation and AI capabilities that will define Novacore’s underwriting advantage. This role partners directly with underwriting, finance, reinsurance, and executive leadership. This is not a reporting function; this is a value-creation function. Novacore is a leading specialty insurance MGA operating across commercial P&C and reinsurance programs. Backed by New Mountain Capital, we are executing a multi-year transformation to build a modern underwriting intelligence platform powered by enterprise data architecture, AI-driven risk modeling, and proprietary analytics. In this role, you will build and operate a differentiated underwriting intelligence platform that: • Improves loss ratio performance • Increases underwriting speed and precision • Enhances reinsurance negotiations and capital efficiency • Protects proprietary rating and aggregation logic • Scales responsibly across multiple specialty programs

Requirements

15+ years in data, analytics, or AI leadership
5+ years in senior executive role (SVP / Head of Data / CDAO / VP Analytics)
Experience in P&C insurance, MGA, reinsurance, or financial services preferred
Proven success building enterprise data platforms at scale
Demonstrated delivery of production AI/ML systems
Deep understanding of portfolio risk, loss ratios, and underwriting economics
Experience in PE-backed or transformation-driven environments preferred
Ability to operate at Board level and translate technical strategy into enterprise value
Builder who can architect and ship
Insurance-fluent technologist
Data strategist with operational discipline
Executive comfortable driving cross-functional change
Leader who understands that governance is as important as innovation

Nice To Haves

Experience in P&C insurance, MGA, reinsurance, or financial services preferred
Experience in PE-backed or transformation-driven environments preferred

Responsibilities

Enterprise Data Platform Lead architecture of enterprise data ecosystem (Microsoft Fabric, OneLake, Databricks, Azure)
Design canonical insurance + reinsurance data model
Implement domain-driven data products across business units
Establish modern data engineering practices (ELT, dbt, CI/CD, feature store)
AI & Advanced Analytics Build predictive underwriting and loss modeling capabilities
Deploy AI-powered submission intake and risk enrichment
Develop portfolio optimization and aggregation intelligence
Implement production ML lifecycle management (MLOps)
Advance agentic workflows across underwriting operations
Reinsurance & Capital Analytics Modernize treaty and layer performance modeling
Deliver real-time portfolio and attachment point analytics
Support capital allocation and carrier negotiations with data transparency
Data Governance & IP Protection Establish enterprise data governance framework
Implement role-based access, data lineage, auditability
Protect proprietary underwriting models from vendor lock-in
Ensure regulatory alignment and model explainability
Organizational Leadership Build and lead high-performing Data & AI organization: Data Engineering Analytics Engineering Data Science / ML BI & Reporting
Implement hub-and-spoke analytics model
Embed analytics into underwriting workflows
Develop talent, standards, and operating rhythm