SVP, Chief Underwriting Officer

Company Details

Vela Insurance Services provides specialized Excess and Surplus Lines Casualty and Professional Liability insurance solutions in the following four market segments: Construction, Specialty Casualty, and Professional Liability. We offer national service and local knowledge to our exclusive wholesale broker network and the businesses they serve.

The company is an equal opportunity employer.

Responsibilities

The Senior Vice President & Chief Underwriting Officer (CUO) is an executive leader responsible for driving underwriting excellence, portfolio performance, and strategic growth at Vela Insurance Services.

Reporting to the President, s/he will lead a unified underwriting strategy across all segments, ensuring profitable growth through a “One Underwriting” mindset.

This role will oversee the redesign of the CUO role to foster stronger collaboration with MSEs, foster a sales-driven culture, and align underwriting operations with emerging opportunities in technology, data analytics, and market diversification.

The CUO will champion a future-focused vision, enhancing leadership capabilities, talent retention, and broker relationships to build a defensible sales flywheel and promote sustainable profitability.

Responsibilities Include

• Lead and Manage Underwriting Strategy Across All Segments: Develop and execute a comprehensive underwriting strategy that ensures profitability, optimizes portfolio performance, and aligns with Vela’s three-year strategic vision. Drive cross-functional collaboration to address gaps in vision, alignment, and execution, particularly in an E&S market with intensifying competition. Work closely with SLT constituents to form and execute optimal profitable growth strategies, track portfolio performance and adjust plans to ensure success.
• Foster a High-Performance Sales Culture: Integrate underwriting with sales and marketing to create a unified “One Team” approach. Support the redesign of the CUO role to include additional MSEs, ensuring consistency in best practices and capabilities, and clearly defining shared accountability for results.
• Drive Product Development and Innovation: Lead the identification and development of new insurance products, leveraging data analytics and AI to meet emerging market needs. Oversee the upgrade of product development (PMO) and analytics into the Underwriting Operations Group, focusing on digitization, STP, and predictive analytics to enhance decision-making and upstream risk selection.
• Enhance Leadership and Talent Development: Address leadership gaps by recruiting industry leaders with proven experience to introduce complementary business segments. Implement a robust recruitment, retention, and
• performance management program, including a UA role Internship and Trainee Program, to build a pipeline of talent and promote career laddering.
• Build a Defensible Sales Flywheel: Establish and collaborate with a newly formed Distribution Strategies Group to develop a market-competitive hybrid technology, sales, marketing, and relationship-driven engine. Promote success for underwriters (UWs) through sales oriented mindset, equipped with tools to drive territory growth, full integration of Kalepa into workflows, additional AI tools, and dashboards to support decision-making at all levels.
• Strengthen Broker Relationships: Through Distribution Strategies Group formation, work closely with MSEs to redesign the role of a production underwriter to include goals for assigned regions and teams, creating an incentive-based compensation plan for production UWs. Design sales and underwriting acumen training with a career laddering approach, including territory responsibility and reviews. Organize an annual broker qualification trip and establish a Producer Council to strengthen ties with key brokers.
• Promote Entrepreneurial Mindset: Encourage individual contributors to drive product diversification and sustainable profit growth through select product initiatives. Support the “One Team” model with Broker Specialists at the forefront, assigning underwriters to the same brokers for renewal UWs and underwriting operations support.
• Leverage Data and Analytics: Invest in data and analytic tools to maximize accuracy, efficiency, and speed. Oversee pricing model upgrades, and underwriting analytics/AI investments through the Underwriting Operations Group.
• Address Legacy Business Challenges: Surgically address legacy operating activities to ensure continuity and stability in profitability
• Develop Future Value Propositions: Work closely with the President and SLT to create a clear, ambitious vision for employees and brokers, emphasizing entrepreneurial contribution, leadership accountability, and a “One” mindset. Play a key role in the development and execution of Vela’s new strategic vision.
• Other duties as assigned
  
  

Qualifications

• Four (4) year College Degree, or commensurate experience and training
• Industry designations preferred: CPCU, ASLI, ARM
• Minimum of 15 years’ commercial lines underwriting experience, with strong foundation in portfolio analytics
• Strong sales acumen and drive – Demonstrated success in building and sustaining a sales-driven culture
• Demonstrated success in product development, innovation, and launching new products
• Excellent communication, interpersonal and leadership skills
• Demonstrated technical expertise in underwriting
• Experience in and understanding the competitive E&S marketplace is a significant advantage
  
  

Additional Company Details

We do not accept any unsolicited resumes from external recruiting firms.

Benefits

The company offers a competitive compensation plan and robust benefits package for full time regular employees which for this role include:

• Eligible to participate in annual discretionary bonus.
• Benefits: Health, Dental, Vision, Life, Disability, Wellness, Paid Time Off, 401(k) and Profit-Sharing plans. '
  
  

The actual salary for this position will be determined by a number of factors, including the scope, complexity and location of the role; the skills, education, training, credentials and experience of the candidate; and other conditions of employment.

Sponsorship Details

Sponsorship not Offered for this Role