Retail Property Underwriting Director

Shepherd; New York (NY); On-site; USD 250,000 - 350,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Premium Healthcare

Fertility Benefits & Family Building

Unlimited PTO

Daily Lunches, Dinners & Snacks

SF, NYC, Dallas–Fort Worth, Chicago &/

Professional Development

Competitive 401(k) Plan

Dog-Friendly Office

Job summary

Shepherd seeks a Commercial Property Underwriting Leader to build and lead the new retail property vertical. You will shape underwriting strategy, set growth and loss targets, and own the book from day one with a strong broker network and modern AI-enabled tools.

You bring 10+ years of commercial property underwriting, deep expertise in retail middle market and large accounts, and a proven leadership record.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of commercial property underwriting, with deep expertise in retail middle market and large accounts across classes such as real estate, retail, hospitality, manufacturing, and technology.
• A proven record of profitable growth: quoting, binding, and building a property book while managing loss and combined ratio targets.
• Strong technical command of risk selection, COPE analysis, valuation, pricing, coverage, primary and excess layering, and manuscript forms.

Responsibilities

• Define the production strategy for retail commercial property, including target classes, TIV bands, geographies, appetite, and growth and loss-ratio targets.
• Support in writing underwriting guidelines, authority framework, referral rules, and rating approach.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, and Data to design the submission-to-bind workflow, pricing tools, and CAT-exposure views.
• Underwrite new and renewal primary and excess property within your authority.
• Own premium, profit, loss-ratio, retention, and expense results for the vertical.
• Use your retail broker relationships to drive submission flow in the first year, and serve as Shepherd's senior property voice with brokers, clients, and other stakeholders.
• Hire, coach, and grow a team of property underwriters and support staff as the book scales.
• Work with Corporate Underwriting to help set letters of authority, run underwriting audits, and coach from the results.
• Work with Claims, Actuarial, Customer Experience and Finance so the business is underwritten, serviced, and reported well.

Skills

Property underwriting

Leadership

Retail broker network

Executive presence

Decision making under ambiguity

Travel readiness

Underwriting strategy

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience

Tools

RMS

AIR

Verisk

Job description

Shepherd seeks a Commercial Property Underwriting Leader to build and lead the new retail property vertical. You will shape underwriting strategy, set growth and loss targets, and own the book from day one with a strong broker network and modern AI-enabled tools.

You bring 10+ years of commercial property underwriting, deep expertise in retail middle market and large accounts, and a proven leadership record.