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About the Role

The Head of Underwriting leads the company’s underwriting function, driving risk selection, pricing discipline, and portfolio performance. This role combines strategic ownership with team leadership, ensuring underwriting excellence through strong guidelines, data-driven decision-making, and consistent execution. The Head of Underwriting plays a critical role in balancing growth and profitability, particularly in catastrophe-exposed portfolios, while building a high-performing underwriting team. This role also proactively identifies opportunities to streamline processes and implement automation, leveraging a forward-thinking approach to position the organization for long-term success in an evolving industry.

Responsibilities

Define and execute underwriting strategy aligned with company risk appetite and growth goals
Establish clear underwriting frameworks, guidelines, and authority structures
Lead and develop the underwriting team to ensure consistent, high-quality decision-making
Manage, mentor, and scale a team of underwriters
Set performance expectations, KPIs, and accountability standards
Foster a culture of discipline, collaboration, and continuous improvement
Own portfolio performance, including loss ratio, exposure, and concentration risk
Monitor trends and adjust underwriting strategy based on performance and market conditions
Actively manage catastrophe exposure, including wildfire and other perils
Ensure alignment between underwriting decisions and pricing models
Partner with actuarial and data teams to refine segmentation and risk selection
Maintain balance between growth targets and profitability
Drive adoption of data-driven underwriting tools, models, and risk scores
Collaborate with data science teams to improve model performance and usability
Ensure underwriting decisions are informed by robust analytics and insights
Partner with reinsurance to align underwriting strategy with risk transfer programs
Ensure portfolio construction reflects reinsurance structures and constraints
Support optimization of retention and exposure
Ensure underwriting practices meet regulatory requirements and internal controls
Maintain clear documentation, auditability, and consistency
Support regulatory interactions and internal reviews
Collaborate with claims, finance, and revenue teams to align on performance and strategy
Provide insights into loss drivers and emerging risks
Serve as a key advisor to executive leadership on portfolio risk and growth

Requirements

10–15+ years of underwriting experience, preferably in property insurance
Active Property & Casualty (P&C) insurance license in at least one U.S. state is required. If not currently licensed in California, candidates must be able to obtain a California Non-Resident Property & Casualty license within 90 days of hire.
Proven leadership experience managing and developing underwriting teams
Strong expertise in catastrophe-exposed risks; wildfire experience strongly preferred
Deep understanding of underwriting, pricing, and portfolio management
Experience in insurtech or data-driven underwriting environments preferred
Familiarity with regulatory and compliance frameworks

Skills

Underwriting
Risk Selection
Pricing Discipline
Portfolio Performance
Team Leadership
Data-Driven Decision-Making
Catastrophe Exposure Management
Process Streamlining
Automation Implementation
Risk Appetite Alignment
Underwriting Frameworks
Authority Structures
Mentoring
Performance Management
KPI Setting
Accountability Standards
Collaboration
Continuous Improvement
Loss Ratio Management
Exposure Management
Concentration Risk Management
Market Condition Analysis
Pricing Models
Segmentation Refinement
Growth Target Balancing
Profitability Balancing
Data Analytics Integration
Risk Scores
Model Performance Improvement
Reinsurance Partnership
Risk Transfer Programs
Portfolio Construction
Reinsurance Structures
Retention Optimization
Regulatory Compliance
Internal Controls
Documentation
Auditability
Regulatory Interaction Support
Internal Review Support
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Claims Alignment
Finance Alignment
Revenue Alignment
Loss Driver Analysis
Emerging Risk Identification
Executive Advisory

Location

United States

Work Type

Remote
Full-time

Experience Level

10-15+ years

Salary/Compensations

Competitive salary plus equity stock options

Benefits

Unlimited PTO, including sick leave and company holidays
Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, and life insurance. (25% paid by employee, 75% covered by Delos including dependents)
401(k) retirement savings plan
Professional development opportunities and tuition assistance