Director, Underwriting

Location(s)

Details

Kemper is one of the nation’s leading specialized insurers. Our success is a direct reflection of the talented and diverse people who make a positive difference in the lives of our customers every day. We believe a high-performing culture, valuable opportunities for personal development and professional challenge, and a healthy work-life balance can be highly motivating and productive. Kemper’s products and services are making a real difference to our customers, who have unique and evolving needs. By joining our team, you are helping to provide an experience to our stakeholders that delivers on our promises.  

Position Summary:

The Director, Underwriting provides strategic and operational leadership for the life underwriting function, ensuring profitability, risk discipline, and continued modernization. This role sets the enterprise underwriting vision, drives innovation, and partners with senior executives to influence product design, risk appetite, and digital underwriting transformation.
The Director also oversees a team responsible for underwriting, business systems analytics, and compliance & quality analytics, ensuring tight alignment between underwriting policy and the Sapiens Underwriting Pro (UW Pro) platform to achieve Kemper Life’s goal of 90% Straight Through Processing (STP).

Position Responsibilities:

• Define and execute the long-term underwriting strategy, balancing growth, profitability, and automation goals.
• Provide enterprise oversight of underwriting risk across both manual and automated decisioning, with particular emphasis on governance, controls, and outcomes of rules-based and straight-through processing to ensure appropriate risk selection.
• Establish enterprise-wide underwriting policies, standards, and risk frameworks that ensure regulatory compliance, financial integrity, and alignment with pricing assumptions and defined risk tolerances to support profitable growth.
• Lead and develop underwriting leaders and teams, including direct supervision of the Business Systems Analyst, Underwriting.
• Ensure seamless integration of underwriting policies with the UW Pro rules engine to support high STP rates and appropriate risk tolerances.
• Set and monitor performance metrics for both underwriting outcomes and system-enabled efficiency.
• Champion digital transformation by guiding the configuration and optimization of the UW Pro system in partnership with the BSA and IT teams.
• Drive initiatives to automate underwriting decisions, leveraging analytics and business rules engines to improve speed, accuracy, and customer experience.
• Oversee testing, change management, and audit readiness for system updates and enhancements.
• Partner with executive leadership, actuary, product, legal, and IT to inform risk selection, pricing strategies, and product development.
• Represent the underwriting organization in strategic planning, vendor negotiations, and external stakeholder meetings.
• Stay current on industry trends, regulatory developments, and emerging underwriting technologies, and lead the evaluation and implementation of tools and capabilities that enhance risk assessment, efficiency, and customer experience.
• Build a high-performing, inclusive underwriting culture with clear succession planning and leadership development.
• Provide coaching and career development for managers, underwriters, and the BSA to foster continuous improvement and innovation.
• Additional duties as assigned

Position Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in business, finance, actuarial science, or related field; advanced degree or professional designations (e.g., FALU, FLMI, CLU) strongly preferred.
• 10+ years of progressive life insurance underwriting experience, with at least 5 years in senior management or executive leadership.
• Demonstrated success integrating underwriting strategy with technology platforms and automation initiatives.
• Deep expertise in life underwriting principles, risk assessment, and regulatory requirements.
• Strong understanding of business rules engines or decisioning tools. Experience with Sapiens UW Pro and STP (Straight Through Processing) is preferred.
• Exceptional strategic thinking, analytical ability, and executive-level communication skills.
• Sponsorship is not accepted for this opportunity
• This is a remote role and can be worked from any US-based home
•  The range for this position is $111,900 to $186,700. When determining candidate offers, we consider experience, skills, education, certifications, and geographic location among other factors. This job is eligible for an annual discretionary bonus and Kemper benefits (Medical, Dental, Vision, PTO, 401k, etc.)  

Kemper is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran, disability status or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. We are committed to supporting diversity and equality across our organization and we work diligently to maintain a workplace free from discrimination.

Kemper is focused on expanding our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts to align with our vision, mission, and guiding principles.  

Kemper does not accept unsolicited resumes through or from search firms or staffing agencies. All unsolicited resumes will be considered the property of Kemper and Kemper will not be obligated to pay a placement fee.

Kemper will never request personal information, such as your social security number or banking information, via text or email.  Additionally, Kemper does not use external messaging applications like WireApp or Skype to communicate with candidates.  If you receive such a message, delete it. 

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