The work we do has an impact on millions of lives, and you can be a part of it.
We help protect our customers against life’s uncertainties. Regardless of where you work within the company, you’ll be helping provide protection and peace of mind when our customers need it most.
The Vice President, Head of Underwriting is a senior leadership role accountable for defining, leading, and building the underwriting function across all Employee Benefits product lines. This executive will oversee a multi‑disciplinary underwriting organization and serve as a primary underwriting advisor to the SVP of Employee Benefits and leadership team on pricing strategy, risk selection, portfolio performance, and market growth opportunities.
This role is ideal for a strategic, entrepreneurial, and tech‑forward underwriting leader with deep product expertise and a strong track record building scalable teams and processes for high‑growth Employee Benefits businesses.
Key Responsibilities
1. Strategic Leadership & Underwriting Excellence
Serve as the underwriting leader for all Employee Benefits products, ensuring consistent, profitable, and market‑competitive underwriting strategies.
Drive underwriting governance, guidelines, philosophy, and portfolio performance.
Partner with Product, Distribution, Actuarial, Finance, and Operations to align underwriting strategy with market growth ambitions.
Provide thought leadership in emerging market trends, pricing needs, and competitive dynamics, particularly in the small business segment.
Define and maintain the EB Underwriting Governance Framework, ensuring consistent decision-making and clear risk-appetite management.
Use UW insights to influence EB divisional strategy, portfolio mix and pricing approaches.
2. Build & Scale a High‑Performing Underwriting Organization
Lead, mentor, and develop a multi‑level underwriting team across product lines.
Recruit top‑tier talent and build a future‑ready team highly skilled in data‑driven and automated underwriting.
Establish clear performance expectations, career paths, and succession planning within the underwriting function.
Establish management and departmental governance routines that ensure consistent execution and performance accountability.
Develop a leadership bench and structured succession plans across all tiers of UW leadership.
3. Complex Case & Aggregation Underwriting
Oversee underwriting strategy and execution for large, complex aggregation opportunities such as:
PEOs (Professional Employer Organizations)
Payroll companies
General Agencies (GAs)
National brokers
Develop scalable, repeatable frameworks for evaluating aggregator risk, pricing, guarantees, and block‑on‑block underwriting.
Deeply understand distribution economics and underwriting levers within the aggregator ecosystem.
Define aggregator specific governance standards to ensure disciplined growth, pricing alignment and controlled risk exposure.
4. Technology, Data, Automation, and AI Enablement
Champion adoption of modern underwriting technologies, automated risk engines, and AI‑driven decision support tools.
Collaborate with Technology partners to build digital underwriting workflows, rules engines, dashboards, and analytics capabilities.
Improve quote‑to‑bind cycle time, accuracy, and consistency through automation and modernization.
Use data insights to inform risk selection, segmentation, pricing recommendations and performance improvement.
5. Process Design, Operational Rigor & Continuous Improvement
Architect underwriting processes that scale—from intake to risk assessment to issuance.
Establish efficient workflows for small‑business underwriting while ensuring appropriate segmentation for larger or complex cases.
Implement process controls, audit routines, and quality assurance practices.
Partner with Operations to ensure downstream processes (policy issue, servicing, billing) align with underwriting requirements.
Define underwriting quality thresholds and embed continuous improvement routines
6. Stakeholder Leadership & Cross‑Functional Partnership
Serve as a key member of the Employee Benefits leadership team, contributing to enterprise strategy and long‑term planning.
Partner closely with:
Distribution leaders on sales strategies and broker/aggregator engagement
Product & Actuarial on pricing and portfolio management
Claims on risk‑experience feedback loops
Technology on modernization and automation initiatives
7. Portfolio, Performance, & Risk Management
Own underwriting profitability goals and portfolio analytics.
Monitor trends, mix of business, loss ratios, rate actions, and underwriting leakage.
Ensure reserve adequacy and collaborate with Actuarial during annual planning cycles.
Qualifications
15+ years of Employee Benefits underwriting experience with deep knowledge of small‑group and mid‑market segments.
Direct experience underwriting Dental, Vision, Life, STD, LTD, Paid Leaves, and Supplemental Health.
Proven leadership of underwriting teams; VP‑level or equivalent experience preferred.
Demonstrated ability to underwrite and negotiate large aggregators: PEOs, payroll providers, GAs, and national brokers.
Strong process‑engineering mindset with experience building underwriting operations from ground up.
Experience implementing technology modernization, automation, and AI‑enabled decisioning.
Highly collaborative, entrepreneurial, tech‑forward mindset.
Excellent communication skills and comfort presenting at the executive level.
Why Join Us?
Influence the future of a rapidly scaling Employee Benefits business.
Build and transform the underwriting organization during a pivotal growth phase.
Work alongside forward‑thinking leaders embracing technology, data, and modern underwriting.
High‑visibility role reporting directly to the SVP and shaping enterprise strategy.
Employee Benefits:
We aim to protect the wellbeing of our employees and their families with a broad benefits offering. In addition to offering comprehensive health, dental and vision insurance, we support emotional wellbeing through mental health benefits and an employee assistance program. Work/life balance is important and Protective offers a variety of paid time away benefits (e.g., paid time off, paid parental leave, short-term disability, and a cultural observance day). The financial health of our employees is just as important as physical and emotional health. Some of the financial wellbeing benefits include contributions to healthcare accounts, a pension plan, and a 401(k) plan with Company matching. All employees are encouraged to protect their overall wellbeing by engaging in ProHealth Rewards, Protective’s platform to improve wellbeing while earning cash rewards.
Eligibility for certain benefits may vary by position in accordance with the terms of the Company’s benefit plans.
Accommodations for Applicants with a Disability:
If you require an accommodation to complete the application and recruitment process due to a disability, please email eric.hess@protective.com. This information will be held in confidence and used only to determine an appropriate accommodation for the application and recruitment process.
Please note that the above email is solely for individuals with disabilities requesting an accommodation. General employment questions should not be sent through this process.
We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer committed to being inclusive and attracting, retaining, and growing an inclusive workforce.
