Nationwide is seeking a seasoned life underwriting leader to join our organization as Director, Producer Group Life Underwriting and Broker Relations.

This is a high-impact leadership opportunity supporting Producer Group Underwriting, a relationship-driven environment focused on sophisticated, high-net-worth and large-face-amount life insurance business. The Director will combine deep underwriting expertise with strong leadership, sound judgment, and a genuine commitment to helping producers, brokers, and internal partners deliver excellent outcomes for clients.

This role reports to the Sr. Director, Producer Group Life Underwriting and Broker Relations, and partners closely with senior leaders to support underwriting execution, service, talent development, and strategic priorities.

The successful candidate will be a visible and trusted partner across underwriting, sales, medical, operations, reinsurance, and business leadership. They will help guide complex case decisions, strengthen underwriting consistency and service, develop underwriting talent, and contribute to the continued evolution of the Producer Group function.

What you will do

• Lead day-to-day underwriting for Producer Group business, balancing thoughtful risk selection with responsive, competitive service.
• Serve as a senior resource and escalation point for complex medical, financial, occupational, avocational, and high-face-amount underwriting matters.
• Apply advanced underwriting judgment to support sound mortality outcomes, appropriate reinsurance solutions, and successful case placement.
• Partner directly with reinsurers on complex case consultations, risk selection, capacity, and placement strategy, ensuring solutions align with underwriting philosophy, mortality objectives, and reinsurance requirements.
• Build and maintain trusted relationships with producers, brokers, broker-dealers, reinsurers, sales partners, and internal stakeholders.
• Represent the underwriting function in field conversations, case consultations, presentations, and partner-facing discussions.
• Coach, mentor, and develop underwriters and senior underwriting talent through feedback, knowledge sharing, performance support, and career development.
• Promote underwriting quality, consistency, audit readiness, referral discipline, and decision excellence across the team.
• Identify and sponsor process improvements that strengthen cycle time, efficiency, communication, customer experience, and underwriting effectiveness.
• Collaborate with senior leaders across underwriting, medical, sales, operations, HR, finance, and technology to align business and talent priorities.
• Help strengthen leadership continuity and future-state capability within Producer Group Underwriting.

What we are looking for

• Deep experience in complex medical and financial life underwriting, including sophisticated or large-face-amount cases.
• Demonstrated credibility with producers, brokers, brokerage general agencies, broker-dealers, reinsurers, and other distribution partners, with the ability to navigate complex case discussions and placement strategy.
• Experience working in a competitive, relationship-driven underwriting environment where judgment, responsiveness, and placement strategy matter.
• A track record of leading, coaching, mentoring, or influencing underwriting professionals and cross-functional partners.
• Strong understanding of underwriting philosophy, mortality and risk management, reinsurance considerations, audit expectations, and regulatory requirements.
• The ability to make sound decisions in complex situations, communicate those decisions clearly, and build alignment with varied stakeholders.
• A leadership style grounded in accountability, collaboration, development, curiosity, and service excellence.
• The ability to operate effectively at both the strategic and hands-on level, with a willingness to remain close to the work and the people it supports.
• Professional development or industry designations such as FALU, FLMI, CLU, ACS, or comparable experience are valued.

This role is open to fully remote work.

Some travel may be required.

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Job Description Summary

Job Description

Key Responsibilities:

• Leads and provides oversight to team roles and responsibilities while creating a highly engaged culture. Forward facing; handles performance of customer satisfaction, interaction quality and relationships. Focuses on managing relationships, both internally and externally. Establishes practices for quality, production standards, relationship management, delivering on customer requests and schedule to adhere to compliance guidelines. 

• Participates in, sponsors or owns major projects, leads the activities and staff providing guidance to supporting departments on team - assists in identifying and establishing relationship management guidelines and operational improvements that advance delivery of services to customers aligned with industry and regulatory requirements. Projects often include industry wide committees and involvement of key internal and external partners.

• Hires qualified and highly engaged underwriters.  Drives a culture of coaching and feedback for personal and professional guidance. Develops talent in the organization for succession planning and handles all performance management tasks and related functions for team. Ensures associates are current and knowledgeable about the industry, competition and regulatory environment. Promotes industry training and involvement in related organizations.

• Owns the service relationships requiring a high level of technical expertise and high-touch, highly satisfied relationships are crucial for client and asset retention. Helps build and strengthen relationships through presentations, intermediaries and/or direct contact. Partners closely with Sales to ensure overall satisfaction with Nationwide. Develops staff to find ways to deepen Nationwide relationships and create additional sales opportunities for Sales partners.

• Supervises activities to ensure clients are promptly served and meets/exceeds quality standards. Responds to service issues and calls from Sales, firms, producers and customers. Works closely internal/external partners to ensure resolution. Works with various back office and internal departments to advocate for their relationships.

• Leads the implementation of all enacted state and federal regulations for products and procedures; ensuring Operations is prepared and informed of audits/regulatory/legislative changes in a timely manner. Partners with appropriate teams or individuals for the coordination of responses to regulatory matters, including system partners for data requests. Leads staff responsible for drafting regulatory agency reports and findings and works closely with the office of Corporate Compliance to resolve any issues.

• Uses outside-in approach and services as the "voice of the customer" in driving improvement opportunities. Leads the staff that takes audit recommendations and calibration sessions through the continuous improvement model. Identify key opportunities for processes and procedures to be enhanced and aligned to ensure consistency and adherence to regulatory requirements including improvements outside of their own teams. Identify key process and/or technology needs within the Operation Center.

• Manages expenses to the established budget and finds opportunities and implements solutions to streamline process and reduce operating expenses. Participates in annual budget process to ensure adequate staffing and funding for providing outstanding levels of service. Makes decisions that support those budget goals through proper staffing, requirements management, utilization of third-party services and contractors, fosters the accelerated underwriting process, and holds associates accountable to production and quality standards.

• Receives issues from field and sales partners to renegotiate the underwriting decision and is responsible for mentoring and developing the Underwriter.

• Handling up to $15,000,000 for life, up to $1,000,000 sign off for morbidity underwriting, and sign off authority for exceptions on Intelligent Underwriting.

May perform other responsibilities as assigned.

Reporting Relationships: Reports to Life Underwriting Executive. Leads 10 to 12 Underwriters.

Typical Skills and Experiences:

Education: Undergraduate studies in Business Administration or related field.

License/Certification/Designation: EKG Certified preferred. Professional/technical studies or designation such as the Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU), Fellow of Life Management Institute, (FLMI), or Fellow of the Academy of Life Underwriting (FALU) preferred. FALU (all AALU reqs, ALU 301, Three fellowship electives) preferred with CLU or advance sales concept training. 

Experience: More than 10 years Life Underwriting experience. More than five years of formal leadership experience.

Knowledge, Abilities and Skills: Validated technical Underwriting ability to receive, evaluate and underwrite on a medical or non-medical basis. Extensive knowledge of life underwriting risk selection, brokerage experience, and older age underwriting. Knowledge of sophisticated life underwriting policies, practices, and procedures, and life insurance underwriting techniques. Knowledge of alternative rating methods and plans and pricing theory. Knowledge of regulatory issues, life insurance market conditions, and company operations. Superior communication, teamwork and presentation skills. Superior negotiation skills and ability to partner with reinsurers and outside sales agencies/firms. Agile and adaptable. Advanced ability to take care of ambiguity in a flexible and responsive manner. Able to work with a highly technical team. Ability to coach, train and mentor underwriting personnel. Strong mentoring, coaching experience to a team with diverse levels of expertise. Ability to make decisions on highly complex issues and work with minimal direction. Excellent judgment and creative problem solving skills including conflict resolution skills. Ability to work with the brokerage distribution system. Ability to analyze highly sophisticated insurance risks to resolve acceptability including policy language, alternative rating plans, methodologies, and reinsurance. Demonstrates strong resilience and leads others through change. Cultivates an outside-in perspective; student of the industry who continuously shares findings and ideas with leadership and the team.

Other criteria, including leadership skills, competencies and experiences may take precedence. 

Staffing exceptions to the above must be approved by the hiring manager’s leader and Human Resources Business Partner.

Values: Regularly and consistently demonstrates the Nationwide Values.

Job Conditions: 

Overtime Eligibility: Exempt (Not Eligible)

Working Conditions: Normal office environment. Some travel required.