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)
What You Bring
Required 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