Vice President, Underwriting - Life, Absence, Disability

Role Description

The next part of your journey is right around the corner — with The Standard. A genuine desire to make a difference in the lives of others is the foundation for everything we do. With a customer-first mindset and an intentional focus on building strong teams, we’ve been able to uphold our legacy of financial stability while investing in new, innovative technologies that support the needs of our customers. Our high-performance culture focused on operational excellence thrives thanks to remarkable people united by compassion and a customer-first commitment. Are you ready to make a difference?

In Life Absence and Disability Underwriting (LAD), our mission is to help build the financial foundation for The Standard to deliver on our promise. We sell a promise every day. Responsible risk selection and management, pricing and growth helps ensure we can back that promise.

The VP of LAD Underwriting is a highly influential level role that reports to the head of Life, Absence and Disability (LAD). You are part of the LAD executive team and closely collaborating with the senior leadership in LAD Actuarial and Sales to drive profitability and premium growth through solid risk selection decisions. You are responsible for leading nearly 200 employees in both the LAD risk and LAD medical underwriting department in the Employee Benefits division, creating vision and strategy, and driving profitable growth objectives. In this leadership role, you will build on an already strong foundation with deep expertise and experience, while helping shape the future through innovation, technology and people development.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the Employee Benefits Underwriting Organization
• Own the LAD underwriting strategy, risk management and operations ensuring appropriate pricing, plan design and overall risk selection to drive profitable growth, strong consistency and sustainable financial outcomes.
• Manage the entire lifecycle of the customer.
• Design and implement consistent underwriting strategies and practice.
• Invest in and develop the LAD Underwriting department to continue creating a culture of high performance, accountability, and innovation across teams.
• Build a high-performing leadership bench, develop future underwriting talent, strengthen succession plans, and foster a culture of accountability, innovation and collaboration.
• Collaborate with sales in an unrivaled way to produce industry leading underwriting results that create a competitive advantage for The Standard.
• Partner with cross-functional teams in actuarial, compliance, legal, client management, IT, Strategy, AI Applications, Claims and Customer Service.
• Innovate and implement tools and processes that improve efficiency and compliance with metrics.
• Ensure a sustainable future through laser focus on compliance and ethical standards and solutions.
• Monitor industry trends and integrate new technologies to improve underwriting accuracy and efficiency, with a mind toward marketplace competitive advantages.
• Serve as a senior member of the LAD executive team, helping shape enterprise strategy and represent underwriting in key business decisions.
• Influence across Sales, Actuarial, Claims, Finance, Technology, and other enterprise partners to align underwriting priorities with profitable growth, customer experience, and long-term strategic objectives.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Math or related field.
• Preferred advanced degree.
• Minimum of twelve to fifteen years progressive experience in Group Insurance or financial services industries.
• At least ten years of progressively responsible group underwriting experience, including 5 years in complex national accounts business.
• A minimum of seven years of progressively responsible experience in management positions.
• Demonstrated experience in successfully partnering cross organization to achieve business results.
• Strong background in workplace benefits life, absence and disability products.

Key Behaviors of a Successful Candidate

• Driving Success - Leads with a sense of purpose and direction; tackles challenges directly and adapts plans in response to setbacks or constraints.
• Adaptability - Acts as an ambassador of change for the organization by supporting and advocating for change initiatives across the organization.
• Winning Together - Fosters an environment that encourages strong debate on critical organizational issues; challenges established ideas, assumptions and views to encourage new thinking that propels the organization forward.
• Engaging Hearts and Minds - Demonstrates authenticity and holds management teams accountable for establishing a culture of mutual respect and appreciation across the organization.

Benefits

• A rich benefits package including medical, dental, vision and a 401(k) plan with matching company contributions.
• An annual incentive bonus plan.
• Generous paid time off including 11 holidays, 2 wellness days, and 8 volunteer hours annually — PTO increases with tenure.
• A supportive, responsive management approach and opportunities for career growth and advancement.
• Paid parental leave and adoption/surrogacy assistance.
• An employee giving program that double matches your donations to eligible nonprofits and schools.

Salary Range

$211,250.00 - $357,500.00