Kemper
Affordable protection in an ever-changing world.
Director, Underwriting
Location
Illinois + 4 moreAll locations: Illinois, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio, Massachusetts
Posted
30 days ago
Salary
$111.9K - $186.7K / year
Bachelor Degree10 yrs expEnglish
Job Description
• Define and execute the long-term underwriting strategy, balancing growth, profitability, and automation goals.
• Provide enterprise oversight of underwriting risk across both manual and automated decisioning, with particular emphasis on governance, controls, and outcomes of rules-based and straight-through processing to ensure appropriate risk selection.
• Establish enterprise-wide underwriting policies, standards, and risk frameworks that ensure regulatory compliance, financial integrity, and alignment with pricing assumptions and defined risk tolerances to support profitable growth.
• Lead and develop underwriting leaders and teams, including direct supervision of the Business Systems Analyst, Underwriting.
• Ensure seamless integration of underwriting policies with the UW Pro rules engine to support high STP rates and appropriate risk tolerances.
• Set and monitor performance metrics for both underwriting outcomes and system-enabled efficiency.
• Champion digital transformation by guiding the configuration and optimization of the UW Pro system in partnership with the BSA and IT teams.
• Drive initiatives to automate underwriting decisions, leveraging analytics and business rules engines to improve speed, accuracy, and customer experience.
• Oversee testing, change management, and audit readiness for system updates and enhancements.
• Partner with executive leadership, actuary, product, legal, and IT to inform risk selection, pricing strategies, and product development.
• Represent the underwriting organization in strategic planning, vendor negotiations, and external stakeholder meetings.
• Stay current on industry trends, regulatory developments, and emerging underwriting technologies, and lead the evaluation and implementation of tools and capabilities that enhance risk assessment, efficiency, and customer experience.
• Build a high-performing, inclusive underwriting culture with clear succession planning and leadership development.
• Provide coaching and career development for managers, underwriters, and the BSA to foster continuous improvement and innovation.
Job Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in business, finance, actuarial science, or related field; advanced degree or professional designations (e.g., FALU, FLMI, CLU) strongly preferred.
- 10+ years of progressive life insurance underwriting experience, with at least 5 years in senior management or executive leadership.
- Demonstrated success integrating underwriting strategy with technology platforms and automation initiatives.
- Deep expertise in life underwriting principles, risk assessment, and regulatory requirements.
- Strong understanding of business rules engines or decisioning tools.
- Experience with Sapiens UW Pro and STP (Straight Through Processing) is preferred.
- Exceptional strategic thinking, analytical ability, and executive-level communication skills.
Benefits
- Medical
- Dental
- Vision
- PTO
- 401k