Senior Underwriting Manager

About Ethos Ethos was built to make it faster and easier to get life insurance for the next million families. Our approach blends industry expertise, technology, and the human touch to find you the right policy to protect your loved ones. We leverage deep technology and data science to streamline the life insurance process, making it more accessible and convenient. Using predictive analytics, we are able to transform a traditionally multi-week process into a modern digital experience for our users that can take just minutes! We’ve issued billions in coverage each month and eliminated the traditional barriers, ushering the industry into the modern age. Our full-stack technology platform is the backbone of family financial health. We make getting life insurance easier, faster and better for everyone. Our investors include General Catalyst, Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, Google Ventures, SoftBank, and the investment vehicles of Jay-Z, Kevin Durant, Robert Downey Jr and others. This year, we were named on CB Insights' Global Insurtech 50 list and BuiltIn's Top 100 Midsize Companies in San Francisco. We are scaling quickly and looking for passionate people to protect the next million families!

About the Role:

Senior Life Underwriting Manager will play a critical role in overseeing and driving the performance of US based life underwriters at Ethos. This leadership role is responsible for managing and optimizing life underwriting production, ensuring a seamless, customer-centric, and profitable underwriting process while maintaining the company’s risk management and compliance standards. The role will lead a small team of underwriting professionals who are focused on production underwriting as well as cross functional projects. They will collaborate with other departments and utilize data-driven insights to implement best practices, streamline operations, and improve underwriting efficiency. This position requires a strong combination of leadership, technical underwriting expertise, and operational management experience.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Leadership & Strategic Oversight
• Provide leadership, vision, and direction to the life underwriting team, fostering a culture of excellence, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Develop and implement underwriting policies and processes that improve operational efficiency, enhance customer experience, and support profitable business growth.
• Mentor and develop a high-performing team of underwriters and build a strong bench of future leaders.
• Underwriting Operations & Efficiency
• Ensure that the underwriting team operates within established quality and productivity standards, compliance frameworks, and regulatory requirements.

Oversee the day-to-day operations of the production underwriting and underwriting special projects, ensuring that policies are underwritten in accordance with company guidelines, regulatory standards, and risk tolerance.

• Monitor and manage underwriting capacity and resource allocation to ensure service level agreements (SLAs) are met, underwriting quality is maintained and projects are delivered on time.
• Support carrier partners with day to day operational needs to help the teams meet their long term strategic goals
• Collaborate with underwriting strategies and engineering teams to implement innovative technologies (e.g., automation, AI, machine learning) that improve underwriting accuracy, speed, and efficiency.
• Data & Analytics

Leverage data analytics to assess the effectiveness of production underwriting practices, identify trends, and improve decision-making processes. Develop and present key performance metrics (KPIs) and operational reports to senior leadership, providing insights into underwriting performance, productivity, and profitability.

Qualifications and Skills:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Finance, Actuarial Science, Insurance, or a related field (Master's degree preferred).
• A minimum of 7+ years of experience in life insurance underwriting, with at least 3 years in a leadership role.
• Extensive knowledge of life insurance products, underwriting processes, and industry regulations.
• Proven experience in leading and managing underwriting teams, and driving performance improvements.
• Strong understanding of data analytics, underwriting technology platforms, and automation tools.
• Professional certifications such as FLMI, ALMI, or other relevant underwriting/designations preferred.
• Leadership: Demonstrated ability to lead and inspire a diverse team, drive change, and develop talent.
• Strategic Thinking: Strong ability to set a vision and execute strategic initiatives to achieve business goals.
• Analytical Skills: Excellent quantitative and qualitative analysis skills, with a focus on data-driven decision-making.
• Communication: Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to engage and influence stakeholders at all levels.

Problem Solving: Creative and resourceful in identifying solutions to complex operational and underwriting challenges. Technology Savvy: Familiarity with underwriting software, automation tools, and data analytics platforms. #LI-Remote #LI-TT

The US national base salary range for this full-time position is $120,00 - $212,000. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.Please note that the compensation details listed in US role postings reflect the base salary only and do not include applicable bonus, equity, or benefits.You can find further details of our US benefits at https://www.ethoslife.com/careers/ Don’t meet every single requirement? If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. At Ethos we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace. We are an equal opportunity employer who values diversity and inclusion and look for applicants who understand, embrace and thrive in a multicultural world. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Pursuant to the SF Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider employment for qualified applicants with arrests and conviction records. To learn more about what information we collect and how it may be used, please refer to our California Candidate Privacy Notice.