[Hiring] Head of Americas @Descartes Underwriting

Role Description

Descartes is hiring a Head of Americas to lead the region and deliver the Americas business plan across all lines of business and distribution channels:

• US reinsurance
• Wholesale
• Alternative risk transfer (ART)
• Retail business
• Latin American business
• Local underwriting

Reporting to the Chief Insurance Officer and working closely with the Executive team, the Head of Americas owns the commercial performance of the region and represents Descartes with key brokers, clients, capacity providers, and partners across the Americas.

This role calls for a seasoned insurance leader with an entrepreneurial, builder's mindset — someone who combines deep industry credibility and a strong grasp of underwriting and the alternative risk landscape, with the ability to lead senior managers, structure a multi-channel regional organization, and scale a fast-growing business with discipline.

The Americas team is distributed across multiple US states and Mexico. The successful candidate will lead through a team of senior leaders and experienced professionals and must be comfortable driving performance across a distributed, multi-country organization while traveling regularly to be in the market with brokers, clients, and partners.

Qualifications

• Significant experience in the insurance and/or reinsurance industry, including senior leadership roles with regional or business-line commercial responsibility.
• Deep knowledge of the US commercial insurance and reinsurance market and its distribution channels.
• Proven track record leading senior leaders and multi-disciplinary teams across multiple locations or countries.
• Strong underwriting and portfolio management understanding.
• Established network among US brokers, reinsurers, carriers, and corporate risk managers.
• A proven record of beating sales targets and building teams that can build a book of business from scratch.
• Experience building a sales engine including KPIs, pipeline reviews, forecasting, and CRM discipline.
• A Player-coach mentality, and a natural bias towards speed and action.
• A track record of building strong teams: hires strong closers, sets quotas and incentives, addresses underperformance quickly.
• Comfortable being measured against ambitious targets.

Requirements

• Experience with parametric insurance, specialty lines, or climate/natural catastrophe risk (preferred but not compulsory).
• Experience in a scaling company, MGA, or insurtech environment (preferred but not compulsory).
• Experience working in a multi-national company with headquarters and key partners in other countries (preferred but not compulsory).

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance plans.
• Life and disability insurance.
• 401k savings plan and matching employer contribution.
• Generous paid time off.
• Generous paid parental leave.

Company Description

At Descartes Underwriting, we cherish the value of diversity whatever it may be. We are committed to fighting against all forms of discrimination and for equal opportunities. We foster an inclusive work environment that respects all differences.

With equal skills, all our positions are open to people with disabilities.