Retail Property Underwriting Director - Equity & Growth

Shepherd; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 250,000 - 350,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Premium healthcare

Dental & vision coverage

Unlimited PTO

Office flexibility in NYC/LA/CHI/ SF /

Professional development

Job summary

Shepherd is seeking a Commercial Property Underwriting Leader (Director) to build a new retail property vertical. The role defines underwriting strategy, goes‑to‑market plans, and long‑term profitable growth with modern tech and a forward‑thinking team.

You’ll lead underwriting, leverage existing retail broker networks, and shape authority, guidelines, and pricing tools while driving excellent risk management and cross‑functional collaboration across Product, Engineering, and Data.

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.
• Proven record of profitable growth: quoting, binding, and building a property book while managing to loss‑ratio and combined‑ratio targets.
• Strong technical command of risk selection, COPE analysis, valuation, pricing, coverage, primary and excess layering, and manuscript forms.
• Hands‑on CAT modeling experience (RMS / AIR / Verisk) and disciplined aggregate and exposure management.
• Established retail broker relationships at the regional and national level that can drive submission flow from day one.
• People leadership experience leading, mentoring, or managing underwriters, including setting authority and running underwriting audits.

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 the 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 relationships

CAT modeling

Risk assessment

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience

Tools

RMS

AIR

Verisk

Job description

Shepherd is seeking a Commercial Property Underwriting Leader (Director) to build a new retail property vertical. The role defines underwriting strategy, goes‑to‑market plans, and long‑term profitable growth with modern tech and a forward‑thinking team.

You’ll lead underwriting, leverage existing retail broker networks, and shape authority, guidelines, and pricing tools while driving excellent risk management and cross‑functional collaboration across Product, Engineering, and Data.