Director, Portfolio Management

Location: Waltham, MA (hybrid)

ERGO NEXT’s mission is to help entrepreneurs thrive. We’re building the only technology-led, full-stack provider of small business insurance in the industry, transforming the customer experience across the entire value chain. Since 2016, we’ve helped hundreds of thousands of small business customers across the United States get fast, customized, and affordable coverage. Backed by industry leaders in insurance and tech, we’re growing—and that’s where you come in.

About the Role

ERGO NEXT is looking for a high-caliber commercial insurance professional dedicated to informing and aligning execution against ERGO NEXT’s loss ratio goals. This individual will develop, maintain, and align company-wide execution on a roadmap to meet loss ratio targets. Operating under a joint accountability model, this role serves as the technical and diagnostic counterweight to Insurance Product Management (IPM), partnering strategically to balance growth initiatives with bottom-line considerations.

This high-visibility, high-impact role collaborates closely with actuarial, insurance product management, finance, claims, and ERGO global teams to achieve profitability objectives.

Responsibilities

• In partnership with the VP and Chief Actuary, develop a strategic profitability roadmap and align execution across Product, Claims, Sales Channels, and Actuarial Pricing.
• Manage the portfolio dynamically with IPM, ensuring growth plans and loss ratio trends are anticipated, modeled, and owned prospectively.
• Develop a holistic organizational perspective on profitability drivers and proactively identify and resolve bottlenecks to achieving goals.
• Leverage actuarial profitability, underwriting quality, and other portfolio management metrics to ground the strategic roadmap in data.
• Proactively flag concerns and co-lead escalation paths with VP Actuarial and VP IPM to resolve strategic or risk disagreements.
• Use high EQ to build relationships and apply indirect influence in ambiguous situations to advance profitability objectives.
• Clearly communicate status, risks, and opportunities related to the strategic roadmap to ERGO NEXT and ERGO corporate executive teams.

Requirements

• 12+ years of experience in P&C insurance, including underwriting management, state management, product management, or actuarial functions.
• Top-to-bottom understanding of underwriting strategy across appetite, guidelines, rules, and quality measurement.
• Ability to drive critical initiatives to completion using a chief-of-staff mindset and indirect influence.
• Financial literacy related to P&C insurance metrics such as loss ratios and earned premiums.
• Understanding of insurance portfolio dynamics, including accumulation risk, growth/profitability trade-offs, and impacts of underwriting guidelines.
• Exceptional executive communication skills, with the ability to explain complex topics clearly and simply.

Qualifications

• Experience with bottom-line accountability for a P&C insurance portfolio (e.g., territory, line of business, or program).
• Actuarial credentials (FCAS or ACAS) or underwriting credentials (CPCU) are a plus.
• Experience evaluating and optimizing the quality of automated underwriting systems.
• An AI-forward mindset, proactively leveraging AI and cutting-edge technology for data evaluation and strategic planning.
• Strong enterprise influence, building credibility and trust across all levels of the organization without relying on direct authority.

Pay

US Annual Base Salary Range for this full-time position: $196,000—$265,000 USD.

Benefits

• Partially subsidized medical plan.
• Fully subsidized vision and dental options.
• Life insurance and disability insurance.
• 401(k) retirement plan.
• Flexible paid time off.
• Parental leave.
• Annual performance-based incentive program.