Director of Underwriting

Role Description

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).

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.