Director of Underwriting

At Navy Mutual, our mission is rooted in serving members of the uniformed services and their families with financial strength, integrity, and care. We are seeking a Director of Underwriting to lead and modernize our Underwriting and New Business functions-driving both operational excellence and a best-in-class member experience.

This is a high-impact leadership role responsible for translating strategy into scalable, efficient operations while ensuring disciplined risk management, strong compliance, and sustained growth.

What You'll Do

Strategic Leadership & Execution

• Develop and execute underwriting and new business strategies aligned to organizational goals, risk appetite, and service standards
• Translate enterprise strategy into disciplined, scalable, and measurable operating practices
• Lead transformation initiatives to modernize underwriting and new business processes

Operational Excellence

• Oversee end-to-end new business lifecycle: intake, underwriting, requirements, offers, reconsiderations, and policy activation
• Optimize workflows, case assignment, and throughput to improve cycle times, productivity, and consistency
• Establish and monitor service level agreements (SLAs) and performance standards

Underwriting Leadership & Risk Management

• Provide technical underwriting guidance on complex life insurance risks
• Ensure decisions are well-documented, compliant, and aligned with mortality expectations and reinsurance requirements
• Review and approve complex cases within authority and escalate as needed

Transformation & Innovation

• Lead adoption of automation, accelerated underwriting, and third-party data solutions
• Evaluate and implement digital tools and workflow enhancements to improve speed and accuracy
• Advance real-time decisioning capabilities and member experience improvements

Performance & Analytics

• Develop and monitor KPIs and KRIs, including:

• Cycle time and throughput

• Quality and post-issue audit results

• Requirement aging and placement rates

• Productivity and vendor performance

• Identify trends, risks, and improvement opportunities; drive corrective action

People Leadership

• Lead, coach, and develop underwriting and new business teams, including managers and senior technical staff
• Drive performance management, workforce planning, succession planning, and talent development
• Foster a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and high performance

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Collaborate with Sales, Inforce, Claims, Finance, Legal, Compliance, and Technology
• Partner with reinsurance carriers on complex cases and program optimization
• Ensure alignment across teams to deliver a seamless, member-first experience

Governance & Compliance

• Maintain underwriting guidelines, SOPs, audit readiness, and regulatory compliance
• Support escalations, member complaints, and risk-related reviews (e.g., rescissions, contestable claims)
• Manage vendor relationships (e.g., medical exams, labs, data providers)

What You Bring

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a related field

• 8+ years of life insurance underwriting experience, including complex case review

• Proven leadership experience managing teams and/or senior technical professionals

• Deep understanding of:

• Medical underwriting and terminology

• Mortality risk assessment

• Reinsurance practices

• Experience leading:

• Process improvement and operational transformation

• Automation and accelerated underwriting initiatives

• KPI/KRI development and performance analytics

• Strong working knowledge of underwriting systems, workflow tools, and policy administration platforms

• Excellent communication, leadership, and stakeholder management skills

• Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, production-driven environment

Preferred Qualifications

• Professional designations such as CLU, FLMI, ALU, or FALU
• Experience with vendor management and underwriting data providers
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel and reporting tools