Ethos is a leading life insurance technology company on a mission to protect families by democratizing access to life insurance and empowering agents at scale. With its robust three-sided technology platform, Ethos is transforming the life insurance experience for consumers, agents, and carriers alike. Ethos offers instant, accessible products and a seamless online process that requires no medical exams and just a few health questions; it eliminates traditional barriers, making it easier than ever for everyone to protect their families. Ethos is redefining how life insurance is bought, sold, and underwritten.
Senior Life Underwriting Manager will play a critical role in overseeing and driving the performance of US based life underwriters at Ethos. This leadership role is responsible for managing and optimizing life underwriting production, ensuring a seamless, customer-centric, and profitable underwriting process while maintaining the company’s risk management and compliance standards.
The role will lead a small team of underwriting professionals who are focused on production underwriting as well as cross functional projects. They will collaborate with other departments and utilize data-driven insights to implement best practices, streamline operations, and improve underwriting efficiency. This position requires a strong combination of leadership, technical underwriting expertise, and operational management experience.
Duties and Responsibilities:1. Leadership & Strategic Oversight- Provide leadership, vision, and direction to the life underwriting team, fostering a culture of excellence, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
- Develop and implement underwriting policies and processes that improve operational efficiency, enhance customer experience, and support profitable business growth.
- Mentor and develop a high-performing team of underwriters and build a strong bench of future leaders.
- Ensure that the underwriting team operates within established quality and productivity standards, compliance frameworks, and regulatory requirements.
- Oversee the day-to-day operations of the production underwriting and underwriting special projects, ensuring that policies are underwritten in accordance with company guidelines, regulatory standards, and risk tolerance.
- Monitor and manage underwriting capacity and resource allocation to ensure service level agreements (SLAs) are met, underwriting quality is maintained and projects are delivered on time.
- Support carrier partners with day to day operational needs to help the teams meet their long term strategic goals
- Collaborate with underwriting strategies and engineering teams to implement innovative technologies (e.g., automation, AI, machine learning) that improve underwriting accuracy, speed, and efficiency.
Leverage data analytics to assess the effectiveness of production underwriting practices, identify trends, and improve decision-making processes. Develop and present key performance metrics (KPIs) and operational reports to senior leadership, providing insights into underwriting performance, productivity, and profitability.
- Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Finance, Actuarial Science, Insurance, or a related field (Master's degree preferred).
- A minimum of 7+ years of experience in life insurance underwriting, with at least 3 years in a leadership role.
- Extensive knowledge of life insurance products, underwriting processes, and industry regulations.
- Proven experience in leading and managing underwriting teams, and driving performance improvements.
- Strong understanding of data analytics, underwriting technology platforms, and automation tools.
- Professional certifications such as FLMI, ALMI, or other relevant underwriting/designations preferred.
- Leadership: Demonstrated ability to lead and inspire a diverse team, drive change, and develop talent.
- Strategic Thinking: Strong ability to set a vision and execute strategic initiatives to achieve business goals.
- Analytical Skills: Excellent quantitative and qualitative analysis skills, with a focus on data-driven decision-making.
- Communication: Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to engage and influence stakeholders at all levels.
- Problem Solving: Creative and resourceful in identifying solutions to complex operational and underwriting challenges.
- Technology Savvy: Familiarity with underwriting software, automation tools, and data analytics platforms.
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The US national base salary range for this full-time position is $133,000 - $235,000. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.Please note that the compensation details listed in US role postings reflect the base salary only and do not include applicable bonus, equity, or benefits.You can find further details of our US benefits at https://www.ethoslife.com/careers/
Don’t meet every single requirement? If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. At Ethos we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace.
We are an equal opportunity employer.. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Pursuant to the SF Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider employment for qualified applicants with arrests and conviction records.
To learn more about what information we collect and how it may be used, please refer to our California Candidate Privacy Notice.
Recruitment Notice: Please be aware of recruitment scams. All legitimate communication from our team will only come from email addresses ending in @ethos.com or @getethos.com.
We will never ask for payment, banking details, or sensitive personal information during the hiring process. If you are contacted by someone claiming to represent us from a different email address, please treat it as fraudulent.
Top Skills
What We Do
Ethos makes getting life insurance instant and easy. Our approach blends technology and industry expertise, and the human touch to deliver an incredible life insurance experience.
Ethos has raised over $400 million of capital from Sequoia, Accel, Google Ventures, Goldman Sachs, Softbank and more. We are one of the largest U.S. life insurance issuers. We continue to scale quickly and are looking for passionate Ethosaurs to protect the next million families.
Why Work With Us
Ethos is powered by people from all kinds of backgrounds. We embrace a one-team, one-dream mentality, while encouraging Ethosaurs to speak their mind and act boldly, even in the absence of consensus. We believe in decentralized decision making - not decisions made by committee.
Here you can have an impact and true ownership over your successes.
