We need an ambitious, curious leader to become the Director, New Business & Underwriting Operations on the Enterprise Operations Team to help drive the biggest change in the company's
history.
Responsibilities
The Role
The Director, New Business & Underwriting Operations provides strategic leadership for AAA Life's end-to-end New Business and Underwriting Operations. This leader is responsible for delivering exceptional operational performance while building trusted relationships with executive field leadership, distribution partners, and enterprise stakeholders. The role balances operational excellence, underwriting expertise, analytics, automation, and collaborative influence to support profitable growth and an exceptional customer experience.
The Next Phase
Our mission is to provide those services for as many people as we can. To achieve that we need to evolve. We need to boldly embrace innovation and technology. Your leadership will help us deliver on our mission together and achieve our transformation. At AAA Life, empathy and progress go hand in hand, creating a culture where bright ideas flourish and meaningful impact grow. If you are drawn to
an environment that values purpose as much as potential, we invite you to join us. Because here, being there for people isn’t just a promise, it is our driving force.
Position Responsibilities
- Develop and execute the strategic vision for New Business and Underwriting Operations aligned with enterprise growth objectives.
- Lead end-to-end operations including application intake, case management, underwriting operations, requirements management, policy issue, and operational support.
- Build trusted partnerships with executive field leadership, sales leadership, AAA Clubs, and cross-functional business partners to achieve shared business outcomes.
- Lead challenging conversations with professionalism, transparency, empathy, and respect while influencing decisions and maintaining productive relationships.
- Provide experienced leadership to a well-established team by fostering engagement, accountability, collaboration, and continuous development.
- Drive operational excellence through KPI management, service level oversight, capacity planning, workflow optimization, and quality assurance.
- Leverage operational analytics, dashboards, and business intelligence to improve placement ratios, cycle times, customer satisfaction, and productivity.
- Lead automation and digital transformation initiatives including workflow automation, AI-enabled underwriting capabilities, intelligent case routing, and process modernization.
- Partner with Underwriting, Product, Technology, Compliance, Legal, Actuarial, Customer Experience, and Distribution on strategic initiatives.
- Oversee relationships with reinsurers, laboratories, paramedical vendors, EHR providers, and technology partners.
- Manage budgets, staffing strategies, succession planning, and vendor performance.
- Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements, company policies, and underwriting governance.
Core Competencies – How You Will Contribute
- Executive Relationship Management
- Influencing Without Authority
- Strategic Leadership
- New Business & Underwriting Operations Expertise
- Operational Analytics & Business Intelligence
- Data-Driven decision-making
- Operational Excellence
- Digital Transformation & Automation
- Cross-functional Collaboration
- Executive Communication
- Change Leadership
- Talent Development
- Customer & Distribution Focus
Qualifications
Basic Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Insurance, Finance, or related field.
- 10+ years of progressive experience in life insurance New Business and Underwriting Operations leadership.
- Minimum 7 years of leadership experience managing leaders and operational teams.
- Demonstrated expertise in underwriting operations, new business administration, and life insurance processing.
- Proven experience partnering with executive sales, distribution, and field leadership.
- Experience leading operational improvement, analytics, and transformation initiatives.
Preferred Qualifications
- Master's degree (MBA or related discipline).
- FLMI, FALU, ACS, AIRC, or other LOMA designations.
- Experience implementing workflow automation, AI-enabled underwriting, RPA, or intelligent document processing.
- Experience with Power BI, Tableau, SQL, or similar analytics platforms.
- Lean Six Sigma certification or equivalent process improvement experience.
- Experience leading enterprise technology implementations and vendor management.
How You’ll Work
- Work Solution: Hybrid
- Relocation Eligibility: Available
What We Bring to the Table
- Hybrid work environment that promotes work-life balance
- Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage starting from your first day
- Employer 401k match and employer contribution to a pension plan · Generous PTO and paid parental leave to support your family needs
- Various associate resource groups and community involvement initiatives
Essential Job Functions
While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to stand, walk, sit, use hands to finger, handle, or feel and talk or hear. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.
This job requires the ability to perform duties contained in the job description for this position, including, but not limited to, the above requirements. Reasonable accommodation will be provided for otherwise qualified applicants as needed to enable them to fulfill these requirements.
