Vice President of Commercial Lines Operations

Schill Insurance; Surrey; On-site; CAD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Benefits package

Health benefits

Dental benefits

Vision benefits

RRSP matching

Education support

Licensing support

Professional development

Team environment

Career growth

Work-life balance

Vacation 3 weeks

You days

Wellness funding

Job summary

Schill Insurance in British Columbia is seeking a Vice President of Commercial Lines Operations to lead Commercial Lines, Strata, and Underwriting, translating strategic priorities into clear direction while driving performance, profitability, and client service excellence.

Reporting to the COO, you will build leadership capability, uphold governance, and align cross-functional teams with market needs, ensuring sustainable growth and a best-in-class broker experience.

Qualifications

• Level 2 license required, Level 3 preferred.
• CAIB, CIP, or CRM an asset.
• Significant progressive commercial insurance experience, including senior leadership responsibility within a complex insurance operation.
• Strong knowledge of underwriting governance, risk selection, rating and policy guidelines, and portfolio performance.
• Proficiency with Epic and comfort working with underwriting systems, operational data, performance measures, and reporting.

Responsibilities

• Oversee operational performance across Commercial Lines Service, Strata, and Underwriting, ensuring priorities, workflows, and service expectations are clear and aligned.
• Establish and monitor meaningful performance measures to understand service levels, retention, workload, portfolio health, and overall practice effectiveness.
• Use operational insight, market conditions, and team feedback to identify risks, capacity needs, and opportunities for improvement.
• Lead or support improvements to processes, technology, resources, and ways of working that strengthen consistency, efficiency, and long-term scalability.
• Coach and support team leads and other commercial leaders, building their confidence, judgement, leadership capability, and ownership of results.
• Set clear expectations for leadership performance and ensure accountability, development needs, and team concerns are addressed appropriately and early.
• Create regular opportunities for leaders across Commercial Lines, Strata, and Underwriting to align priorities, share insight, and solve issues together.
• Assess leadership capacity and team structure as the commercial practice evolves, ensuring responsibilities and decision-making remain clear.
• Champion a consistent 5-star experience across Commercial Lines and Strata while ensuring Underwriting provides responsive, professional support to brokers and internal partners.
• Ensure significant client, broker, insurer, or operational concerns are escalated appropriately and resolved with sound judgment and follow-through.
• Maintain strong relationships with key insurer and market partners and ensure relevant market insight is shared across the commercial practice.
• Keep teams responsive to changing client needs, insurer appetite, underwriting expectations, and broader market conditions.
• Oversee the performance and direction of Schill's in-house underwriting programs, supporting profitable growth, appropriate risk selection, and strong retention.
• Ensure underwriting guidelines, rating practices, procedures, policy wordings, and decision authorities remain clear, current, and consistently applied.
• Monitor underwriting performance, documentation, reporting, and portfolio trends, identifying concerns or opportunities that require action.
• Ensure the Underwriting team works effectively with Commercial Lines and Strata while maintaining appropriate underwriting discipline and judgement.
• Bring the Commercial Lines, Strata, and Underwriting perspective into executive discussions, identifying emerging risks, opportunities, resource needs, and operational priorities.
• Partner with Commercial Sales, Business Development, Learning & Development, People & Culture, Finance, IT, and other teams where priorities or changes affect commercial operations.
• Ensure organizational initiatives are appropriately prioritized and translated into realistic expectations for commercial teams.
• Strengthen alignment and handoffs between Commercial Lines, Strata, Underwriting, and other areas of Schill so teams can work effectively towards shared goals.

Skills

Leadership

Commercial insurance

Governance

Underwriting knowledge

Epic experience

Strategic thinking

Tools

Epic

Job description

Commercial Lines, Strata, and Underwriting each play an important role in protecting our clients and supporting the strength of Schill's commercial practice. As Vice President of Commercial Lines Operations, you provide leadership across these teams, translating organizational priorities into clear direction while creating alignment, accountability, and support leaders need to succeed. Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, you strengthen performance, underwriting discipline, client and partner experiences, and collaboration across the commercial practice while supporting sustainable growth and profitability.

Responsibilities

Commercial Practice & Operational Excellence

• Oversee operational performance across Commercial Lines Service, Strata, and Underwriting, ensuring priorities, workflows, and service expectations are clear and aligned.
• Establish and monitor meaningful performance measures to understand service levels, retention, workload, portfolio health, and overall practice effectiveness.
• Use operational insight, market conditions, and team feedback to identify risks, capacity needs, and opportunities for improvement.
• Lead or support improvements to processes, technology, resources, and ways of working that strengthen consistency, efficiency, and long-term scalability.

Leadership & Team Development

• Coach and support team leads and other commercial leaders, building their confidence, judgement, leadership capability, and ownership of results.
• Set clear expectations for leadership performance and ensure accountability, development needs, and team concerns are addressed appropriately and early.
• Create regular opportunities for leaders across Commercial Lines, Strata, and Underwriting to align priorities, share insight, and solve issues together.
• Assess leadership capacity and team structure as the commercial practice evolves, ensuring responsibilities and decision-making remain clear.

Client, Broker & Market Experience

• Champion a consistent 5-star experience across Commercial Lines and Strata while ensuring Underwriting provides responsive, professional support to brokers and internal partners.
• Ensure significant client, broker, insurer, or operational concerns are escalated appropriately and resolved with sound judgment and follow-through.
• Maintain strong relationships with key insurer and market partners and ensure relevant market insight is shared across the commercial practice.
• Keep teams responsive to changing client needs, insurer appetite, underwriting expectations, and broader market conditions.

Underwriting & Portfolio Oversight

• Oversee the performance and direction of Schill's in-house underwriting programs, supporting profitable growth, appropriate risk selection, and strong retention.
• Ensure underwriting guidelines, rating practices, procedures, policy wordings, and decision authorities remain clear, current, and consistently applied.
• Monitor underwriting performance, documentation, reporting, and portfolio trends, identifying concerns or opportunities that require action.
• Ensure the Underwriting team works effectively with Commercial Lines and Strata while maintaining appropriate underwriting discipline and judgement.

Strategic Alignment & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Bring the Commercial Lines, Strata, and Underwriting perspective into executive discussions, identifying emerging risks, opportunities, resource needs, and operational priorities.
• Partner with Commercial Sales, Business Development, Learning & Development, People & Culture, Finance, IT, and other teams where priorities or changes affect commercial operations.
• Ensure organizational initiatives are appropriately prioritized and translated into realistic expectations for commercial teams.
• Strengthen alignment and handoffs between Commercial Lines, Strata, Underwriting, and other areas of Schill so teams can work effectively towards shared goals.

Success Factors

How You Show Up

• Clear, credible communicator who creates direction without overcomplicating the message
• Calm and practical decision-maker, comfortable balancing client needs, team realities, risk, and business results
• Strong leadership presence that builds trust while maintaining clear expectations for accountability and follow-through
• Able to stay connected to operational realities while keeping leaders accountable for day-to-day ownership

What You Know

• Level 2 license required, Level 3 preferred.
• CAIB, CIP, or CRM an asset.
• Significant progressive commercial insurance experience, including senior leadership responsibility within a complex insurance operation
• Strong knowledge of underwriting governance, risk selection, rating and policy guidelines, and portfolio performance
• Strong understanding of commercial insurance operations, insurer relationships, renewals and retention, underwriting principles, and market dynamics
• Proficiency with Epic and comfort working with underwriting systems, operational data, performance measures, and reporting.

About Us

At Schill Insurance, we've grown from a small, one-person office into a trusted brokerage with multiple locations across British Columbia. While we're part of a larger national network, we've stayed true to our roots as a family-operated business that values people first.

Our culture is built on curiosity, collaboration, and continuous growth. We invest in our team through coaching, training, and development opportunities - because when our people succeed, so do our clients.

Why Join Schill Insurance?

• Competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package
• Extended health, dental, vision care, and RRSP matching
• Paid education, licensing, and professional development
• Supportive, team-oriented work environment
• Opportunities for career growth and advancement
• Work-life balance with consistent scheduling and no Sunday shifts
• Three weeks (15 days) of vacation to start
• Three paid "You" days per year (volunteer day, personal day, and your birthday off with pay)
• $600 annual wellness spending account

As part of our hiring process, successful candidates must consent to a background/credit check and employment verification screening before starting employment.