Chief Underwriting & Market Strategy Leader

Selective Insurance; Short Hills (NJ); On-site; USD 264,000 - 342,000; Full time

Job summary

Selective Insurance, a leading U.S. property and casualty insurer, seeks a Senior Underwriting Leader in New Jersey. This role provides strategic direction for transactional underwriting, coaching teams across regions, and aligning with enterprise standards to ensure fast, high-quality risk decisions.

The position requires deep Commercial Lines underwriting experience, leadership acumen, and the ability to drive underwriter performance while mentoring staff in a complex market.

Qualifications

• Strong problem-solving ability and the capacity to make decisions under ambiguity or imperfect information.
• Excellent customer service, sales and negotiation skills.
• Strong written, verbal and presentation skills; networking and relationship building.

Responsibilities

• Provide senior underwriting leadership over teams handling referrals and consultations to align with underwriting appetite and strategies.
• Coach and mentor teams with training and knowledge transfer; ensure field visibility.
• Monitor external factors affecting market segments and guide tactics to capitalize on opportunities or mitigate risk.
• Drive adoption of underwriting strategies balancing growth with disciplined risk selection; communicate guidelines across regions.
• Engage with customers to understand operations, exposures and evolving needs.
• Collaborate with actuarial, analytics, claims, product, and compliance to inform underwriting strategy and align with business goals.
• Identify emerging risks and insights to drive portfolio growth and profitability across segments.
• Develop bench strength through structured coaching and feedback; build succession readiness.

Skills

Strong problem-solving

Decision making under ambiguity

Project management

Customer service

Sales and negotiation

Leadership

Communication skills

Education

College-degree preferred

Job description

Selective Insurance, a leading U.S. property and casualty insurer, seeks a Senior Underwriting Leader in New Jersey. This role provides strategic direction for transactional underwriting, coaching teams across regions, and aligning with enterprise standards to ensure fast, high-quality risk decisions.

The position requires deep Commercial Lines underwriting experience, leadership acumen, and the ability to drive underwriter performance while mentoring staff in a complex market.