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Ethos (Nasdaq: $LIFE) is a leading life insurance technology company transforming how life insurance is bought, sold, and underwritten through a three-sided platform serving consumers, agents, and carriers. The company offers instant, accessible products with no medical exams required, democratizing access to life insurance.
You will lead the underwriting production function, accountable for consistent, high-quality output while building and developing a high-performing, scalable team. This is a hands-on leadership role balancing strategic oversight with day-to-day operational rigor. You will champion AI-enabled ways of working, continuously identifying opportunities to remove manual effort, shorten cycle times, and increase team productivity.
Key responsibilities include:
**Underwriting Production & Quality:** Own production output ensuring volume and quality targets are met. Identify and recommend automation opportunities (straight-through processing, AI-assisted case review) to increase throughput without compromising quality. Partner with Underwriting Auditors to track findings and drive corrective action. Ensure decisions align with guidelines, risk appetite, and regulations.
**People Development:** Lead and grow a team of underwriters and supervisors/managers. Oversee onboarding and training programs; build career development pathways. Drive a coaching culture and strong team retention.
**Performance Management:** Establish clear, measurable performance standards across productivity, quality, turnaround time (TAT), and compliance. Drive performance against TAT/SLA targets across case types. Build reporting to track real-time production and SLA performance. Resolve issues causing breaches; coordinate with Sales, Operations, and Claims on escalations. Conduct regular performance reviews using audit findings and production data to identify trends. Lead structured conversations on performance gaps, including formal Performance Improvement Plans where warranted. Ensure consistency in evaluation standards across distributed/cross-geography teams. Recognize and reward high performers.
**Team & Organizational Leadership:** Build and scale teams as business needs grow. Manage capacity planning against volume forecasts. Ensure consistency in underwriting practices across distributed teams. Foster a culture of continuous improvement, experimentation, and openness to new technology.
**Stakeholder Management:** Serve as key underwriting point of contact for Sales, Operations, Compliance, and Engineering. Represent underwriting in cross-functional meetings; influence stakeholders on process changes using data.
**Requirements:**
- 15+ years in Life Insurance Underwriting with strong people management experience
- Proven track record managing production to standards at scale
- Proven experience managing large teams (80–100+ members)
- Experience building/leading underwriting teams (direct and/or cross-geography)
- Strong technical underwriting knowledge, data-driven decision-making, and stakeholder influencing and communication skills
- Bachelor's degree required
- Underwriting certifications (LOMA, FALU) preferred
