Head of Programs

Novella

$130K — $180K *
Finance & Insurance
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 8+ years in Property & Casualty (P&C) insurance with in-depth underwriting experience, ideally in Excess & Surplus (E&S) markets.
  • Proven ability to build and scale insurance programs from scratch.
  • Experience in senior underwriting or product roles with MGAs, carriers, or program administrators.
  • Strong knowledge of commercial property and general liability underwriting.
  • Passion for leveraging technology to enhance underwriting processes, with experience in automation or AI tools.
  • Ability to adapt quickly in a fast-paced startup environment.

Responsibilities

  • Collaborate with data and producers to create a comprehensive program roadmap.
  • Develop underwriting guidelines and pricing models for initial programs.
  • Forge scalable capacity relationships across multiple programs.
  • Partner with engineering to establish a rules system that automates quoting for mid- to large-sized accounts.
  • Engage with capacity partners to align on underwriting guidelines.
  • Recruit underwriting talent to support the automated flows developed by the team.

Benefits

  • Significant ownership in a pivotal leadership role.
  • Opportunity to shape and scale multiple insurance programs.
  • Engagement with cutting-edge technology to automate underwriting processes.
  • Dynamic work environment typical of an early-stage startup.
Full Job Description
The Role

Our Head of Programs will build, and scale P&C insurance programs based on Novella's data models. As a wholesaler, we have unique insight into what capacity gaps exist in the E&S market. Our Head of Programs will help fill those gaps by building AI-powered MGAs. Not one program, but dozens of them over the next few years.

The ideal candidate comes from an underwriting background and has hands-on experience building and scaling programs. You understand the nuances of risk selection, pricing, and portfolio management - but you're frustrated by how manual and inefficient traditional underwriting processes are.

This is a leadership role with significant ownership. Programs will become a major part of our business, and the Head of Programs will be responsible for building and scaling it.

The Day to Day

  • Work with our data and producers to build a program roadmap.
  • Build underwriting guidelines and pricing models for our first programs.
  • Develop capacity relationships that can scale across multiple programs over years.
  • Work with engineering to build complex rules system to automate quoting for middle market and large accounts.
  • Work with capacity partners to make them comfortable with our underwriting guidelines.
  • Hire underwriting talent specific to programs you build to supplement the automated underwriting flows our team develops

What We're Looking For

  • 8+ years in P&C insurance with deep underwriting experience, ideally in E&S markets.
  • Proven track record of building and scaling insurance programs from the ground up.
  • Experience working with MGAs, carriers, or program administrators in a senior underwriting or product role.
  • Strong understanding of commercial property and/or general liability underwriting.
  • Passion for using technology to improve underwriting - you've implemented or worked closely with underwriting systems, automation, or AI tools.
  • Someone flexible who understands every day at an early stage startup is like a decade in the corporate world. We move quickly and do whatever needs to get done no matter your title.

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