Liability Zone Leader - West

Joinimagine; Illinois; On-site; USD 185,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Allianz Commercial in the United States seeks a Liability Zone Leader – West to guide a high-performing underwriting team, manage large client engagements, and drive regional strategy. This role emphasizes governance, pricing, and partnership with brokers to achieve profitability and growth.

The ideal candidate has 8+ years in liability underwriting with leadership experience, strong market networks, and a solid grasp of AI/ML applications in risk selection and pricing.

Qualifications

• Minimum 8 years in underwriting profitable liability business with leadership experience.
• Strong broker relationships and regional/local market knowledge.
• Deep understanding of AI/ML and its strategic application in underwriting.
• Bachelor’s degree in Economics, Finance, Insurance Management or Business Administration.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of underwriters and drive profitable new/renewal liability business.
• Negotiate participation, pricing and terms for large clients.
• Manage key accounts and broker relationships.
• Oversee underwriting governance and contract certainty.
• Develop regional underwriting strategy and lead cross-functional collaboration.

Skills

Underwriting leadership

Team development

Strategic thinking

Stakeholder management

AI/ML knowledge

Regulatory knowledge

Communication

Negotiation

MS Office

Mentoring

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Economics/Finance/Insurance Management or Business Administration

Tools

MS Office

Job description

We are looking for Liability Zone Leader – West based in the Western Region

Your Team

The North American Liability team offers a wide range of liability insurance solutions. These include National Accounts Excess, Multinational, Reverse Flow, Environmental Liability and some Primary General Liability in the United States and Canada.

The Impact You Will Have

Reporting to the Head of National Accounts, Liability, the Liability Zone Leader – West will:

• Lead a team of underwriters/team leads to underwrite profitable new and renewal business to meet Liability targets regionally and/or globally;
• Lead team in negotiating participation, pricing and terms and conditions for large/critical clients;
• Take ownership of large/critical accounts/clients and will have ultimate responsibility for accounts within the team;
• Lead and manage a team, including training and development and act as the referral point for other underwriters; and
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with brokers and clients.

Some of your specific responsibilities could include:

• Managing a team of underwriters, including delegating tasks to team in order to achieve overall results, managing/supervising portfolio and acting as point of referral and managing cost center budget within plan.
• Contributing to the development and execution of the regional underwriting strategy for Liability.
• Managing referrals from underwriters and spokes and re-underwriting complex business as appropriate.
• Responsibility for zonal performance within National Accounts sub-Lob and acting as a "champion" for any matters relating to the sub-LoB.
• Underwriting oversight on large/critical new and renewal accounts to meet top and bottom line targets (regional and/or global), including negotiating participation, pricing and terms and conditions with brokers, as well as proactively managing capacity.
• Underwriting and evaluating Natural Catastrophe Accumulation, ensuring an understanding of catastrophe modelling and interpretation of scenarios for Liability, as well as underwriting International Insurance Programs for Liability.
• Overseeing underwriting in line with Liability governance framework (e.g., underwriting authorities, global MSU, Underwriting Guidelines, and Rules and Principles).
• Ensuring contract certainty is achieved on all accounts at time of inception.
• Ensuring utilization of global/regional pricing tools.
• Ensuring placing and binding of FAC Reinsurance prior to policy inception.
• Ensuring adherence to reinsurance treaty terms/conditions.
• Proactively supporting acquisition of new business and retention of existing business (including client and producer negotiations where necessary) and liaising with Distribution on market management initiatives.
• Positively representing Allianz Commercial externally to the market.
• Proactively driving involvement of functional areas in Underwriting process, including Distribution, ARC, Claims, and Operations.
• Developing and maintaining strong relationships with key producers and clients and other relevant stakeholders (e.g., risk managers).

What You’ll Bring to the Role

• A minimum of 8 years of experience in underwriting profitable Liability business, including specialized expert understanding of sub-LoB products and portfolio;
• Recognized, well-established long term relationship building with brokers at peer group level and within the local market;
• Specialized understanding of regional/local Liability insurance markets and competitor landscape, including global elements;
• Understanding of legal and regulatory framework;
• Ability to assess risk inherent exposures and natural hazards relevant to Liability;
• Ability to analyze current performance against benchmarks applying how the market operates and functions, the business needs and customer needs;
• Experience designing, developing and implementing consistent, robust wordings;
• Robust understanding of policy administration life cycle, information collection, policy issuance, premium bookings, credit control, and cancellation;
• Ability to analyze highly complex data, from multiple sources, in detail, identifying and resolving issues before they transpire;
• Excellent written and verbal communications skills, with an ability to influence others;
• Experience with MS Office tools;
• Significant experience in leadership and development of direct teams, including coaching, mentoring and developing team members and performance assessment;
• Ability to persuade and motivate others to act, without executive authority;
• A deep knowledge of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), with the ability to leverage AI-driven insights to shape strategic decisions and drive innovation across the organization; and
• Bachelor’s degree, preferably in Economics, Finance, Insurance Management or Business Administration.

Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States without the need for current or future employment-based sponsorship. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment visas at this time, nor can we guarantee future sponsorship.

The annualized base pay range for this role is $185,000 - $250,000. The annual base salary range represents a nationwide market range. The actual salary for this position may be above and will be determined by a number of factors, including the scope, complexity and location of the role; the skills, education, training, credentials and experience of the candidate. The base pay is just one component of the AzC total compensation package. As part of our comprehensive compensation and highly rated benefits programs, employees are also eligible for annual performance-based cash incentive awards.

100415 | Underwriting | Management | Allianz Executive | Allianz Commercial | Full-Time | Permanent