Vice President, Underwriting Strategy and Portfolio Insights (Hybrid)

Selective Insurance Company of America•Short Hills, NJ

10d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Underwriting Strategy & Portfolio Insights Leader is a senior strategic partner to the SVP, Underwriting Strategy, responsible for helping build and lead Selective’s underwriting strategy function. This role combines portfolio analytics, strategic planning, and cross-functional leadership to identify emerging risks and opportunities, guide underwriting strategy, and improve portfolio performance across the enterprise. All job duties and responsibilities must be carried out in compliance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.

Requirements

Strong understanding of commercial P&C economics, pricing, loss trends, profitability drivers, and underwriting performance.
Demonstrated ability to turn complex data into clear business insights and strategic recommendations.
Experience influencing senior stakeholders across functions.
Strong analytical, communication, and presentation skills.
Comfort operating in ambiguity and building new processes or frameworks.
Experience with underwriting strategy, portfolio management, enterprise planning, or executive-level strategy support.
Experience with external market data sources and analytics tools such as Power BI, SQL, Python, or R.
Familiarity with predictive modeling, AI, and machine learning applications in insurance.
People leadership and talent development experience.
College degree in a relevant field such as Actuarial Science, Statistics, Economics, Finance, Business, or Risk Management preferred.
10+ years of P&C insurance experience in underwriting, actuarial, portfolio management, claims analytics, pricing, strategy, or a related field.

Nice To Haves

Professional designation such as CPCU, FCAS, ACAS, or ARM preferred.

Responsibilities

Partner with the SVP to shape and execute enterprise underwriting strategy.
Analyze portfolio performance across lines, segments, geographies, and risk characteristics.
Identify trends, profitability issues, growth opportunities, concentration risks, and shifts in risk quality.
Develop strategic recommendations related to portfolio mix, pricing direction, appetite, and performance improvement.
Lead portfolio reviews, strategic analyses, and executive-level reporting.
Translate internal performance data and external market intelligence into actionable underwriting insights.
Build analytical frameworks, leading indicators, and tools to monitor portfolio health.
Partner across Underwriting, Product, Actuarial, Claims, Finance, Analytics, and regional leadership.
Support strategic initiatives, execution tracking, and accountability measures.
Help recruit, mentor, and develop a high-performing strategy team.