Team Lead, Underwriting Associates

The Underwriting Associate Team Lead oversees the day-to-day operations and development of Underwriting Associates.  The team is composed of Underwriting Associates  who support Underwriting teams across multiple distribution channels and work closely with internal and external partners.  The Underwriting Associate Team Lead will provide guidance and instruction to help support all UA functions, coordinate with the Partner Experience team on agent communications and assist with improving existing processes.  This role leads team members but also has tactical level responsibility as well.  Skills required include strong attention to detail, advanced interpersonal skills, a metrics-based approach to operations and the ability to work cooperatively with other teams and departments.  Serves as an escalation point for complex customer inquiries, questions and concerns.

How You’ll Do It

Provide guidance and instruction to support Underwriting Associate team members:

• Manage Underwriting Associate team's delivery of targeted service levels.
• Oversee UA adherence to guidelines and procedures, while also evaluating processes and implementing improvements to better serve partners.
• Coordinate "load balancing" with other UW teams as necessary to meet SLAs.
• Ensure the team is trained and up to date on product appetite, pricing models, industry trends, etc.
• Provide regular and frequent training to your team on process changes and system updates, update and maintain training and SOP materials.
• Guide the team to execute on strategy as laid out by your department leader. 

Mentor, develop and grow team members for future needs and operational excellence:

• Develop goals and metrics and coach team members to meet and exceed performance indicators. Set clear expectations for deliverables and assign priorities that support the goals of the business.
• Provide continuous feedback and opportunities for professional development.
• Document performance, and provide recognition/reward for progress and share feedback for improvement. Work in partnership with your leader on performance management.
• Build and maintain useful documentation to help identify team knowledge gaps and build individual accountability and performance plans.
• Identify hiring needs and recommend solutions to your leader. Participate in the interview process as needed to scale the team and organization as well as execution of effective team onboarding and training.

Ad hoc leadership responsibilities:

• Gather feedback from both internal teams and partners to improve efficiency.
• Work across departments to implement new processes, products or services specific to the partner channel.
• Assist your department leader in providing data and benchmarking reports to Pie leadership.
• Assist your department leader in decisions on staffing.
• Facilitate cross functional teamwork and collaboration.

The Right Stuff

• A High school diploma/GED is required.
• Bachelor's Degree or equivalent experience with some college coursework is preferred.
• Minimum of 1-year experience in Underwriting Associate or similar role is required.
• Minimum of 6-months experience mentoring peers and/or direct reports is required.
• Experience directly supervising others in a production environment is preferred.
• Knowledge of insurance underwriting and customer experience operations, best practices and processes is required.
• Intermediate communication (written and verbal) skills, to deliver more complex information effectively.
• Intermediate problem solving skills to be able to manage complex tasks and work through to solutions with little guidance and direction.
• Intermediate awareness of your own tasks, and how it impacts the team and deliverables.
• Basic leadership skills and some general experience leading work groups or task forces in specific projects.
• Familiarity with G-Suite and cloud based programs is preferred.
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to build rapport and relationships with individuals at all levels across the organization, as well as outside parties.
• Developing analytical skills: demonstrated ability to take various data points, interpret them, and create deliverables and action items.
• Ability to analyze current operations and develop options for improved efficiency, conversion or cost reduction.
• Key knowledge of service metrics and how to apply them.