Head Contracts L&H North America

About the role

The L&H Contracts Team Lead – North America is a senior leadership role with full regional accountability for the Contracts function across traditional reinsurance agreements. This role leads contract drafting discipline, governance rigor, and in-force contractual risk review within a high-volume, performance-driven underwriting environment. You will serve as a business partner to Swiss Re L&H's North America Market Units and translate underwriting intent and legal advice into disciplined, repeatable contract execution that protects performance and long-term value.

Responsibilities

• Strengthen Commercial Discipline
• Ensure contracts reflect underwriting intent and disciplined risk-taking
• Act as a trusted partner to Client Markets and cross-functional stakeholders (Underwriting, Pricing, Claims, Legal), shaping deal structure and contract outcomes on key accounts
• Provide clear, decisive recommendations on wording and structural trade-offs, including hands-on involvement of key client accounts
• Lead interpretation, analysis, and restructuring of existing agreements

Requirements

• 12–15+ years’ experience in Life & Health reinsurance or insurance contracting
• Law degree with strong legal foundation or substantial experience drafting and negotiating reinsurance agreements
• Demonstrated commercial judgment and ability to articulate risk trade-offs
• Experience operating in a regulated, high-complexity reinsurance environment
• Experience leading multi-location teams
• Experience driving workflow modernization and technology-enabled change

Qualifications

• A high-accountability leader who drives performance and sets clear standards
• Decisive and comfortable owning difficult calls
• Commercially pragmatic while uncompromising on risk discipline
• Confident challenging stakeholders constructively
• Committed to developing talent and strengthening capabilities

Skills

• Strong legal foundation or substantial experience drafting and negotiating reinsurance agreements
• Commercial judgment and ability to articulate risk trade-offs
• Experience operating in a regulated, high-complexity reinsurance environment
• Experience leading multi-location teams
• Experience driving workflow modernization and technology-enabled change

Benefits

Full regional accountability across Swiss Re’s largest L&H portfolio
Direct partnership with the North America leadership and the Global Head of L&H Contracts
Mandate to strengthen commercial discipline and governance at scale
Opportunity to shape the evolution of the Contracts function, including integration of workflow and GenAI

Pay

The estimated base salary range for this position for Fort Wayne, IN, is between $156,000 to $234,000, and for Armonk, NY, the range is between $160,000 to $240,000. The specific salary offered for this, or any given role will take into account a number of factors including but not limited to job location, scope of role, qualifications, complexity/specialization/scarcity of talent, experience, education, and employer budget.

Schedule

The specific schedule for this role is a hybrid work model where the expectation is that you will be in the office three days per week.