[Hiring] Personal Lines Underwriting Director Strategy @The Hanover Insurance Group

Role Description

The Director, PL Underwriting Strategy – Risk Appetite & Portfolio Strategy is a strategic leader responsible for defining, monitoring, and optimizing the risk and growth posture of the Personal Lines portfolio. This role owns the strategic articulation of risk appetite, target returns, growth priorities, and portfolio guardrails, and ensures these are clearly communicated and operationalized across the organization.

This leader provides an enterprise view of portfolio performance and risk tradeoffs, proactively identifying opportunities and vulnerabilities. The role partners closely with Product, Actuarial, Finance, Underwriting, and Enterprise Risk to influence where and how the company chooses to compete.

In this role you will:

• Define and evolve the Personal Lines risk appetite framework, including growth targets, profitability thresholds, volatility tolerance, and concentration limits.
• Develop and maintain a portfolio strategy view across products, segments, geographies, and distribution channels (for example, high value and agency partnership strategy).
• Assess portfolio performance relative to risk appetite and strategic objectives; identify emerging risks, exposure shifts, and opportunity areas.
• Lead scenario analysis and stress testing to understand portfolio impacts under varying market, weather, and competitive conditions.
• Partner with Actuarial and Finance to ensure alignment between underwriting strategy, pricing adequacy, capital considerations, and financial outcomes.
• Translate portfolio insights into clear strategic direction for Product, Underwriting, and Underwriting teams.
• Provide strategic recommendations on where to grow, where to maintain, and where to pull back, supported by rigorous analysis (for example, aggregation).
• Establish key portfolio KPIs and dashboards to support senior leadership oversight and decision-making.
• Prepare and present executive- and Board-level materials on portfolio health, tradeoffs, and strategic options.
• Lead cross-functional initiatives that require a portfolio-level perspective, including rebalancing actions and growth pivots.
• Manage and develop a team of strategy professionals; provide coaching, feedback, and career development.
• Serve as a strategic thought partner to PL leadership on long-term market positioning and enterprise risk tradeoffs, including reinsurance strategy.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of relevant work experience and 3+ years of proven experience leading cross-functional teams.

Requirements

• Portfolio & Risk Strategy Expertise – Strong understanding of insurance portfolio dynamics, risk appetite frameworks, and return tradeoffs.
• Enterprise Thinking – Ability to connect underwriting, pricing, capital, and growth strategies into a coherent portfolio view.
• Advanced Analytical Judgment – Comfortable interpreting complex analyses, scenarios, and tradeoffs without oversimplification.
• Strategic Influence – Able to challenge assumptions, influence senior leaders, and drive difficult tradeoff discussions.
• Future-Oriented Mindset – Proactively anticipates market, competitive, regulatory, and climate-related portfolio shifts.
• People Leadership – Proven experience leading and developing high-performing strategy teams.
• Executive Presence – Strong written and verbal communication skills; credible and persuasive with senior leaders and Boards.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance.
• 401K with a company match.
• Tuition reimbursement.
• PTO.
• Company paid holidays.
• Flexible work arrangements.
• Cultural Awareness Day in support of IDE.
• On-site medical/wellness center (Worcester only).