[Hiring] Director, Underwriting - Life @Nationwide

Role Description

Are you passionate about being part of a team at a Fortune 100 company with nearly $70 billion in annual sales that delivers extraordinary care to help individuals and businesses prepare for and protect their future? If so, then Nationwide Financial could be the place for you! At Nationwide®, “on your side” goes beyond just words. Our customers and partners are at the center of everything we do and we’re looking for associates who are passionate about delivering extraordinary care.

This is a high-impact opportunity for a market-facing underwriting leader who can bring together three strengths: sophisticated technical judgment, trusted distribution relationships, and the ability to develop people. The successful candidate will help shape a focused operating model in which dedicated underwriting teams align to national brokerage relationships, build capacity around the business coming through the door, and deliver a consistent, high-touch experience to producers and business partners.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead a team of life underwriters aligned to a portfolio of national BGA, brokerage, and producer relationships.
• Own the relationship-level underwriting experience, partnering with distribution and internal stakeholders to understand needs, solve complex issues, and deliver sound, competitive decisions.
• Provide senior judgment on complex medical and financial underwriting, including large-case opportunities and cases that require thoughtful interpretation beyond a purely transactional or rules-based approach.
• Use production, case-mix, and capacity insights to help align talent and workflow to the needs of each relationship and face-amount segment.
• Build technical depth and confidence across the team through coaching, mentoring, feedback, and exposure to increasingly complex large-case work.
• Serve as a credible, field-facing representative of Nationwide—explaining underwriting decisions, navigating negotiations, and helping strengthen partnerships and capture market opportunity.
• Partner across sales, reinsurance, medical, operations, and underwriting leadership to support case outcomes, service excellence, risk discipline, and profitable growth.

Qualifications

• Deep life underwriting expertise, with the ability to make sound decisions in complex and ambiguous situations.
• Meaningful experience handling or overseeing large-case life underwriting; experience with $10 million-plus cases is strongly preferred.
• Experience in a BGA, brokerage, broker-dealer, producer group, or similarly relationship-driven life insurance environment.
• Prior carrier experience is preferred.
• A relationship-first, sales-minded approach and the ability to confidently communicate and advocate for underwriting decisions.
• People leadership experience, including the ability to coach experienced professionals, build capability, and create meaningful career paths.
• The flexibility to use underwriting guidelines as a foundation while applying sound judgment, documenting rationale, and developing practical solutions for unique situations.
• Strong communication, negotiation, analytical, and influencing skills.

Requirements

• More than 10 years Life Underwriting experience.
• More than five years of formal leadership experience.
• Validated technical Underwriting ability to receive, evaluate and underwrite on a medical or non-medical basis.
• Extensive knowledge of life underwriting risk selection, brokerage experience, and older age underwriting.
• Knowledge of sophisticated life underwriting policies, practices, and procedures, and life insurance underwriting techniques.
• Knowledge of alternative rating methods and plans and pricing theory.
• Knowledge of regulatory issues, life insurance market conditions, and company operations.
• Superior communication, teamwork and presentation skills.
• Superior negotiation skills and ability to partner with reinsurers and outside sales agencies/firms.
• Agile and adaptable.
• Ability to coach, train and mentor underwriting personnel.
• Strong mentoring, coaching experience to a team with diverse levels of expertise.
• Ability to make decisions on highly complex issues and work with minimal direction.
• Excellent judgment and creative problem-solving skills including conflict resolution skills.
• Ability to analyze highly sophisticated insurance risks to resolve acceptability including policy language, alternative rating plans, methodologies, and reinsurance.
• Demonstrates strong resilience and leads others through change.

Benefits

• Medical/dental/vision.
• Life insurance, short and long term disability coverage.
• Paid time off with newly hired associates receiving a minimum of 18 days paid time off each full calendar year pro-rated quarterly based on hire date.
• Nine paid holidays.
• 8 hours of Lifetime paid time off.
• 8 hours of Unity Day paid time off.
• 401(k) with company match.
• Company-paid pension plan.
• Business casual attire.