Director, Underwriting Operations

Next Insurance; Boston (MA); Hybrid; USD 236,000 - 319,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual incentive program

Partial subsidized medical plan

Vision & dental options

Life insurance

Disability insurance

401(k)

Paid time off

Parental leave

Job summary

ERGO NEXT, a tech-enabled small business insurer, seeks a seasoned Director of Underwriting Excellence in Massachusetts to own audit, risk review, renewal standards, and vendor partnerships. The role leads QA across lines, guides regulatory compliance, and elevates underwriting process integrity.

You will manage Insurance Product Ops teams, drive data-driven decisioning, and collaborate with cross-functional leaders to optimize performance and governance.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in commercial P&C underwriting, operations, or quality/compliance.
• Experience building or running underwriting audit, risk review, or QA programs.
• Exposure to renewal underwriting mechanics: exposure modeling, data capture, and pricing/underwriting strategy.
• Vendor management experience with underwriting data, rating, or tooling vendors.
• People leadership, incl. managing distributed or contractor teams.
• Familiarity with underwriting compliance frameworks in regulated environments.
• Strong process design and documentation discipline with standards ownership.
• Excellent written and verbal communication with peer leads.

Responsibilities

• Own underwriting audit process and continuously improve adherence to standards and documentation quality.
• Own risk review process and improve the discipline for surfacing quality issues.
• Establish renewal underwriting standards, data capture, capping, and pricing strategy at the renewal level.
• Support product analytics, competitive intelligence, and dashboard builds.
• Lead QA and UAT for tools, rate updates, and remediation plans with Tech coordination.
• Manage relationships with third-party vendors for data, tooling, and services.
• Maintain underwriting compliance standards aligned to governance requirements.
• Lead a team of Insurance Product Ops staff and data vendor management staff across lines.

Skills

Ten+ years experience

Audits & QA programs

Renewal underw. mechanics

Vendor management

People leadership

Regulatory/compliance awareness

Process design & documentation

Clear communication

Bachelor's degree

CPCU/AU credentials

Education

Bachelor's degree

CPCU / AU preferred

Job description

Location: Waltham, MA (hybrid)

ERGO NEXT's mission is to help entrepreneurs thrive. We’re doing that by building the only technology-led, full-stack provider of small business insurance in the industry, taking on the entire value chain and transforming the customer experience.

Simply put, wherever you find small businesses, you’ll find ERGO NEXT.

Since 2016, we’ve helped hundreds of thousands of small business customers across the United States get fast, customized and affordable coverage. We’re backed by industry leaders in insurance and tech, and we still have room to grow — that’s where you come in.

The Director, Underwriting Excellence owns capability build, tooling, and process management for underwriting execution across NEXT's commercial P&C and WC lines.

This role is the standard-bearer for how underwriting gets done well: it builds and runs the audit and risk review disciplines that verify process quality, sets renewal underwriting standards, manages the underwriting vendor ecosystem, and leads quality assurance and testing for enablement- and line-level initiatives.

The role absorbs and formalizes capabilities previously distributed across underwriting leadership, and gives NEXT a dedicated, accountable owner for underwriting process integrity, compliance, and continuous improvement.

What You'll Do:

• Own the underwriting audit process, including the execution and continuous improvement of audits that assess adherence to underwriting standards, authority, and documentation quality
• Own the risk review process, including the execution and continuous improvement of the risk review discipline that surfaces individual account and referral-level underwriting quality issues
• Establish and maintain renewal underwriting standards, including exposure model design and upkeep, standards for capturing the data needed to price and underwrite effectively, capping methodology and application, and writing company strategy at the renewal underwriting level
• Support insurance product analytics, including competitive intelligence, rating factor analysis, product amendment project management, ad hoc analysis, and performance dashboard builds
• Lead Quality Assurance (QA) and User Acceptance Testing (UAT) for line-level and enablement tools, rating updates, and bug remediation plans in coordination with Tech
• Own the relationship with third party vendors including: performance, and contract-level accountability for third-party underwriting data, tooling, and service vendors
• Own the underwriting-side compliance standards that keep the book audit-ready and aligned to regulatory and enterprise governance requirements
• Manage a team of Insurance Product Ops staff, the Data Vendor Manager, and Independent Contractor underwriting staff across all lines of business
• Maintain a service/support relationship with the line of business leaders, providing underwriting process expertise, audit findings, and QA support
• Resolve internal stakeholder inquiries and product quality issues, including manual policy tasks and binding moratoriums
• Serve as the key Insurance Product contact for the ERGO NA Hub and regional affiliates while supporting product analytics, competitive intelligence, and compliance

What We Need:

• 10+ years of progressive experience in commercial P&C underwriting, underwriting operations, or underwriting quality/compliance, with exposure to multiple lines (GL, PL, Property, WC preferred).
• Demonstrated experience building or running underwriting audit, risk review, or QA programs — including designing standards, executing reviews, and driving remediation.
• Experience with renewal underwriting mechanics: exposure modeling, data capture standards, capping, and account-level pricing/underwriting strategy.
• Vendor management experience, ideally with underwriting data, rating, or workflow tooling vendors.
• People leadership experience, including managing distributed or contractor-based teams.
• Working knowledge of underwriting compliance frameworks and comfort operating within a regulated, audited environment (Munich Re / reinsurance-affiliated governance experience a plus).
• Strong process design and documentation discipline; comfortable being the standards owner that other functions rely on and are audited against.
• Clear, direct communicator who can hold a service/support relationship with peer-level Line Leads without formal authority over them.
• Bachelor's degree required; industry credentials (CPCU, AU, or equivalent) preferred.

US annual base salary range for this full-time position:

$236,000 — $319,000 USD

ERGO NEXT employees are also potentially eligible for our annual performance-based incentive program, in addition to our benefits package, consisting of our partially subsidized medical plan, fully subsidized vision/dental options, life insurance, disability insurance, 401(k), flexible paid time off, parental leave and more.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that some underrepresented people are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At ERGO NEXT, we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and respectful workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

One of our core values is 'Play as a Team'; this means making sure everyone has an equal chance to participate and make a difference. We win by playing together. ERGO Next Insurance is an equal opportunity employer and prioritizes building a diverse and inclusive workplace. We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants of any type and do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, genetic information or characteristic, gender identity and expression, veteran status, or other non-job-related characteristics or other prohibited grounds specified in applicable federal, state, and local laws. ERGO Next's policy is to comply with all applicable laws related to nondiscrimination and equal opportunity and will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.