Vice President – Product Development Leader

Starr Insurance•Philadelphia, NY

About The Position

Join Starr, a global leader in commercial insurance with over a century of expertise. We empower our employees to innovate, make impactful decisions, and build lasting client relationships worldwide. At Starr, you'll work in an entrepreneurial culture alongside accessible leaders, leveraging our financial strength and vast industry experience to deliver solutions for our clients, no matter how complex. Grow your career with a rapidly growing company that invests in its people and their ability to drive real progress. The Vice President – Product Development Leader is a senior leadership role responsible for managing and coordinating Starr’s development and continuous enhancement of insurance products and their introduction to market across Starr’s profit centers and segments. Product opportunities and business priorities will be identified by the profit centers in alignment with Starr’s Chief Underwriting Office; this leader will convert those priorities into disciplined, executable product strategies and will provide senior-level coordination among relevant stakeholders and across functional areas, including underwriting, actuarial, claims, legal, compliance, IT, operations, and distribution. The role is accountable for ensuring product development and enhancement initiatives advance effectively through creation, approval, filing, launch, and lifecycle management while supporting product competitiveness, regulatory discipline, operational readiness, and Starr’s broader growth objectives.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Risk Management, Insurance, or related field; advanced degree or professional designation (CPCU, ARM) strongly preferred.
10+ years of progressive experience in commercial insurance product development, underwriting, or product leadership, including recent Director- or VP-level experience within casualty, excess, property, or financial lines.
Expert knowledge of insurance product development, policy forms, pricing methodologies, regulatory requirements, and product governance practices.
Knowledge and familiarity with systems and tools that support product development, regulatory filings, workflow management, project tracking, reporting, documentation, and product lifecycle management.
Demonstrated success in leading the creation, approval, launch, and lifecycle management of profitable commercial insurance products.
Extensive experience leading, influencing, and aligning senior cross-functional teams in a matrixed environment.
Enterprise leadership with strong commercial judgment.
Exceptional senior stakeholder engagement, influence, and executive communication skills.
Advanced project management and organizational capabilities.
Strategic, commercially oriented, and creative problem-solving mindset.
Strong executive-level writing, verbal communication, presentation, and decision-framing skills.
Executive presence required, with the ability to represent the organization credibly and confidently with senior internal leaders and other external stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

advanced degree or professional designation (CPCU, ARM)

Responsibilities

Provide senior leadership for the creation and continuous enhancement of insurance products, endorsements and coverage enhancements based on opportunities, product needs, and strategic priorities identified by the profit centers.
Translate profit-center opportunities into clear and actionable product development plans, including business case, scope, stakeholder inputs, required approvals, implementation milestones, and success measures.
Lead cross-functional engagement across underwriting, actuarial, claims, legal, compliance, IT, operations, and distribution to drive product initiatives through development, review, filing, launch, and post-launch management.
Partner with actuarial and underwriting leadership to support pricing models, product structures, and risk guidelines that support profitable growth, underwriting discipline, and long-term portfolio performance.
Provide strategic oversight of state rate, rule and form filings and related state regulatory approval efforts, ensuring alignment among product, actuarial, legal, compliance, and business stakeholders.
Ensure product-line compliance with applicable state regulatory requirements.
Serve as a senior business representative in supporting the resolution of regulatory inquiries regarding product coverage.
Coordinate cross-functional execution of product launches and enhancements, ensuring stakeholders and functions understand their responsibilities, timing, dependencies, deliverables, and facilitate escalation of open issues.
Support product education and rollout activities for internal teams and distribution partners to ensure consistent and effective implementation of approved products.
Own the enterprise product lifecycle management framework after launch, including coordinating periodic product reviews, performance monitoring, underwriting and claims feedback, and identifying and providing recommendations regarding product enhancement, corrective action, refresh, consolidation, or retirement.
Maintain executive visibility into the full product inventory and development pipeline, including product status, ownership, filing posture, launch readiness, dependencies, open issues, and key milestones across profit centers and functional stakeholders.
Use insights from profit centers, customers, distribution partners, and internal stakeholders to identify strategic product enhancements, operational process improvements, and portfolio opportunities.
Champion a culture of continuous improvement, ensuring the product portfolio remains competitive, relevant, profitable, and aligned with evolving market, regulatory, and business needs.