Manager, Underwriting - Commercial Lines

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company; Des Moines (IA); On-site; USD 97,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical / dental / vision

Life insurance

401(k) with company match

Pension plan

Paid time off and holidays

Job summary

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company in Des Moines, IA, seeks a Small Commercial Underwriting Manager to lead a team of underwriting professionals, coach performance, and execute underwriting strategies aligned with business objectives. You will balance talent development, portfolio management, and risk control while fostering accountability and collaboration across the organization.

As a manager, you will mentor associates, review referrals, set priorities, and ensure adherence to appetite,

Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor's degree or equivalent work experience preferred.
• License/Certification: INS and/or AU or similar designations; CIC or CPCU preferred.
• Experience: 8–10 years of commercial lines underwriting; supervisory/management experience desired.
• Knowledge and skills: underwriting practices, leadership, communication, and stakeholder collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and develop associates to enhance underwriting quality and outcomes.
• Manage portfolio, workload, and territory; align decisions with appetite, pricing, coverage, and docs.
• Provide technical oversight on complex issues and maintain strong agency relationships.
• Promote process improvements, accountability, and collaborative problem solving across teams.

Skills

Leadership

Coaching & developing

Verbal & written comms

Analytical thinking

Decision making

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent work experience

INS/AU or similar designations

CIC or CPCU

Job description

If you’re passionate about helping people protect what matters most to them at a Fortune 100 company with nearly $70 billion in annual sales, as well as innovating and simplifying processes and operations to provide the best customer value, then Nationwide’s Property and Casualty team could be the place for you! At Nationwide®, “on your side” goes beyond just words. Our customers and partners are at the center of everything we do and we’re looking for associates who are passionate about delivering extraordinary care. The Small Commercial Underwriting Manager is responsible for leading, coaching, and developing a team of underwriting professionals to achieve profitable growth, delivering exceptional customer and agency experiences, and execute underwriting strategies aligned with business objectives. This role balances talent development, portfolio management, operational excellence, and risk management while fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement. This leadership position is charged with: Responsible for coaching and developing associates by providing guidance, performance feedback, technical expertise, and mentorship to enhance underwriting quality, decision-making, and overall team/territory effectiveness. Encourages continuous learning, adaptability, and innovation. Ensuring decisions align with approved appetite, authority, pricing, coverage, and documentation standards on all lines of business. Prioritizing workload, assigning territories, reviewing quality components, and managing service level expectations. Using portfolio and territory data to drive profitable growth, retention, risk selection, and corrective action along with completing read-outs on underwriting and territory results. Serving as an escalation point for agency partners and internal partners. Leading adoption of approved process, automation, reporting, and workflow improvements.

Job Description Summary

Success on our team requires a blend of customer service skill and analytical prowess. There’s no shying away from challenges here. Each account we work on is complex and interesting. Satisfaction comes from finding solutions that provide the best coverage and give our partner agents a way to differentiate themselves from the competition. If you are adaptable, responsive, love customers and really want to make a difference, we want to hear from you! As a Manager, you'll lead commercial lines underwriting functions and staff to drive profitable underwriting results and growth through leadership, development, and engagement. We’ll depend on you to develop leadership within the team and help to identify and prepare future Small Commercial Underwriting leaders within the department. In addition, you'll build and grow agency relationships to ensure objectives are met. We’ll count on you to exhibit extraordinary care to set expectations for the team to meet customer needs and to collaborate with key partners in National Underwriting Organization (NUO), Automation, Business Development (BD), Product, and other leaders across the organization as needed.

Job Description Key Responsibilities

• Establishes best practices and methodology guidelines and ensures implementation guidance in partnership with key partners.
• Identifies needs and potential issues and consults with all business partners in Small Commercial Lines.
• Drives operational changes and ensures implementation of practice standards and procedures.
• Actively participates, supports, and contributes to continuous improvement and problem-solving efforts across Small Commercial Lines.
• Establishes workflow standards and processes.
• Manages performance measurements on the effectiveness of the unit's delivery process, service capabilities and customer satisfaction.
• Interprets underwriting guidelines and standards.
• Resolves advanced issues, applies underwriting appetite in local market and provides technical oversight to complex issues.
• Provides territory management for agency partners in collaboration with Sales and BD Organizations.
• Coaches team to deliver a timely and consultative underwriting experience.
• Reviews referrals for acceptability and handles those within authority.
• Manages associates, including performance, salary planning and administration, training and development, workflow and organization, planning, day-to-day management, hiring and placement and disciplinary actions for direct, and possibly indirect, reports.
• Provides technical advice on complex underwriting and service issues to unit ensuring compliance to state laws and company requirements.
• Consults with partners on policy and practice, customer service issues, sales, claims and underwriting.
• Promotes and monitors agency performance.
• Communicates vision, operational plans, direction, and underwriting results to associates and external partners.
• Strengthens relationships through regular contact on underwriting matters, promoting profit and new business growth, renewal retention and service capabilities.
• May participate and partner in the review and analysis of agency performance based on production results.
• Provides guidance for resolution of relationship issues.
• Leads delivery of appropriate customer service levels.
• Follows up and ensures proper handling of advanced customer service requests.
• May perform other responsibilities as assigned.

Reporting Relationships

Reports to director. Typically, eight to 12 direct report underwriting associates; may include indirect reports.

Typical Skills and Experiences

• Education: Bachelor's degree or equivalent work experience preferred.
• License/Certification/Designation: Completion of INS and/or AU or similar designations. Completion of CIC or CPCU is preferred.
• Experience: Typically, eight to 10 years of commercial lines underwriting experience preferred. Supervisory or management experience desired.
• Knowledge, Abilities and Skills: Knowledge of commercial property and casualty underwriting practices, field underwriting operations and day-to-day underwriting operational needs, The ability to exercise independent judgement and effectively make sound business decisions, Solid understanding of sales, claims, service center, property and casualty field operations, loss control principles and legal issues involving knowledge of commercial contracts, Strong verbal and written communication skills used to interact with all levels of internal and external contacts, Ability to influence, negotiate and engage and develop a team of direct reports, Ability to lead and train associates in all aspects of commercial underwriting activity, Ability to be flexible and adaptable to changing situations, Ability to set work priorities that conform to established standards, Ability to analyze insurance risks, apply logical judgment and use procedures effectively, Ability to operate personal computer and applicable business software, Other criteria, including leadership skills, competencies and experiences may take precedence. Staffing exceptions to the above must be approved by the hiring manager’s leader and Human Resources Business Partner.

Values

Regularly and consistently demonstrates Nationwide Values.

Job Conditions

• Overtime Eligibility: Not Eligible (Exempt)
• Working Conditions: Normal office environment.
• Frequent travel may be required to travel to client or meeting locations.
• Extended or non-standard work hours as required to meet business need.
• ADA: The above statements cover what are generally believed to be principal and essential functions of this job. Specific circumstances may allow or require some people assigned to the job to perform a somewhat different combination of duties.

Benefits We have an array of benefits to fit your needs, including

• medical/dental/vision
• life insurance
• short and long term disability coverage
• paid time off with newly hired associates receiving a minimum of 18 days paid time off each full calendar year pro-rated quarterly based on hire date
• nine paid holidays
• 8 hours of Lifetime paid time off
• 8 hours of Unity Day paid time off
• 401(k) with company match
• company-paid pension plan
• business casual attire
• and more.

Equal Opportunity Employer Statements

Nationwide is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive culture where everyone feels challenged, appreciated, respected and engaged.

Nationwide prohibits discrimination and harassment and affords equal employment opportunities to employees and applicants without regard to any characteristic (or classification) protected by applicable law.

Nationwide is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive culture where everyone feels challenged, appreciated, respected and engaged.

Nationwide prohibits discrimination and harassment and affords equal employment opportunities to employees and applicants without regard to any characteristic (or classification) protected by applicable law.

This position could be filled within any of the lower 48 U.S. states

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, its affiliates and subsidiaries comply with the Iowa Smokefree Air Act. Smoking is prohibited in all enclosed areas on or around company premises as well as company issued vehicles. The Act prohibits retaliation for reporting complaints or violations. For more information on the Iowa Smokefree Air Act, individuals may contact the Smokefree Air Act Helpline at 888-944-2247.

Salary and Compensation

Nationwide pays on a geographic-specific salary structure and placement within the actual starting salary range for this position will be determined by a number of factors including the skills, education, training, credentials and experience of the candidate; the scope, complexity and location of the role as well as the cost of labor in the market; and other conditions of employment. If a Sales job, Sales Incentives, based on performance goals are possible in addition to this range. Note on Compensation for Part-Time Roles: Please be aware that the salary ranges listed below reflect full-time compensation. Actual compensation may be prorated based on the number of hours worked relative to a full-time schedule. The national salary range for Manager, Underwriting - Commercial Lines : $97,000.00-$180,000.00 The expected starting salary range for Manager, Underwriting - Commercial Lines : $97,000.00 - $145,000.00

Company Culture

At Nationwide, we find purpose in protecting people, businesses and futures with extraordinary care – and we’ve been doing that since 1926. Our financial strength and caring culture extend beyond our associates into the communities we serve. You really can feel the difference at Nationwide, which is why we continue to be named one of the Fortune 100 Best Companies To Work For. Check out why others think we're a great place to work, too, and let us know – can you see yourself at Nationwide?