Director, Underwriting Appetite & Standards

WCF Insurance is an “A” rated, innovative property and casualty carrier with more than a century of experience serving businesses across the Western United States. Since 1917, we have built our reputation on doing the right thing, being great at what we do, and helping others succeed.

About the role

This full-time, exempt position is based at WCF Insurance's Sandy headquarters and reports to the VP, Underwriting Appetite & Standards. Relocation assistance may be available based on business needs and candidate qualifications.

Responsibilities

• Assist with the development and maintenance of underwriting guidelines, ensuring clarity, consistency, and alignment across Small Business, Middle Market, and Large Commercial portfolios.
• Handle underwriting referrals across all lines of business for unique, complex, large, or high-severity risks, exercising a high level of technical authority and judgment.
• Provide enterprise underwriting quality assurance, including individual file reviews and targeted QA initiatives, to assess underwriting accuracy, consistency, and adherence to appetite.
• Aggregate QA findings to identify trends, gaps, and training opportunities; share insights with underwriting leadership.
• Partner with Underwriting Training to identify, create, and deliver technical training topics driven by QA findings, appetite expansion, and product growth needs.
• Assist in the creation, documentation, and ongoing refinement of underwriting guidelines, standards, and processes to support profitable growth and underwriting consistency.
• Serve as a technical and consultative resource to underwriting and business units on complex exposures, unfamiliar industries, and coverage considerations.
• Participate in strategic initiatives and projects as a technical underwriting voice, including new products, appetite expansion, and process optimization efforts.
• Monitor market conditions, regulatory changes, and industry trends.
• Assist with underwriting referral and authority governance, including ineligible operations, escalation processes, documentation expectations, and letter-of-authority (LOA) structures.
• Manage and develop a team.
• Accountable for referral decision quality, underwriting consistency, and timely referral turnaround to support business needs and preferred partner relationships.
• Support underwriting leaders by supplementing technical expertise and industry knowledge.
• Demonstrate strong attention to detail, sound judgment, and ability to manage competing priorities in a high-impact environment.
• Accountable for ensuring underwriting standards and appetite are supported by appropriate onboarding and ongoing development.
• Build strong relationships with underwriting leaders and other departments by fostering transparency, trust, and consistency in underwriting governance and decision-making.
• Support product expansion through high-quality and timely delivery of underwriting guidelines and resources, in partnership with the Product Development team.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in finance, economics, risk management, or related field; master's degree preferred.
• CPCU strongly preferred.
• Minimum of 8–10 years of progressive underwriting experience across Workers' Compensation, Commercial Auto, General Liability, Commercial Property, and Umbrella, across a variety of industries.
• Deep, advanced technical knowledge of risk assessment, coverage, pricing methodology, and regulatory requirements across all lines of business.
• Demonstrated experience handling large, complex, and non-standard risks.
• Demonstrated experience defining, interpreting, or governing underwriting appetite, eligibility, and underwriting standards.
• Solid understanding of underwriting governance concepts, including guidelines, authority structures, referrals, and underwriting controls.
• Strong consultative, analytical, and decision-making skills.
• Experience partnering with Product, Actuarial/Pricing, Claims, Safety/Loss Control, Compliance, and Sales to support profitable growth and risk discipline.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• Company-paid life insurance.
• 401K with a generous 6% employer match.
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
• Time off to volunteer in the local community.
• All employees earn 4 weeks of vacation their first year.

Pay

The expected salary range for this position is $114,800.00–$182,600.00, depending on experience, education, and location.

Working Conditions

This position is based in an office environment with adequate temperature and lighting control. There are no known hazardous or unpleasant conditions caused by noise, dust, or other environmental factors. There are potentially high-stress situations that require meeting deadlines. The employee must meet the job attendance requirements for this position.