Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Insurance Manager

🎯 Role Definition

The Insurance Manager leads and oversees insurance operations across underwriting, claims, policy administration, reinsurance placement and risk-control programs. This role is accountable for developing insurance strategy, ensuring regulatory compliance, optimizing loss ratios, managing vendor and broker relationships, and delivering excellent policyholder service while controlling costs and protecting company assets. The Insurance Manager collaborates with legal, finance, sales, and operations to design sustainable insurance solutions that align with organizational goals.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Senior Underwriter with demonstrated portfolio management and negotiation experience.
Claims Supervisor who has managed complex reserves, third-party administrators, and litigation.
Risk Analyst experienced in enterprise risk assessments and mitigation planning.

Advancement To:

Senior Insurance Manager / Regional Insurance Manager responsible for multiple lines or geographies.
Director of Insurance Operations or Director of Risk Management overseeing strategy and governance.
Head of Insurance / VP of Insurance & Risk responsible for enterprise risk, captive programs, and reinsurance strategy.

Lateral Moves:

Product Manager — Insurance (product development and pricing).
Compliance Manager (regulatory oversight, AML/insurance compliance).
Broker or Carrier Relationship Manager (strategic partner management).

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Develop, implement and own the end-to-end insurance strategy and operating model across property, casualty, liability, professional indemnity, and specialty lines to support corporate objectives while optimizing cost and coverage.
Manage the full-cycle claims function including triage, investigation, liability determination, reserve setting, settlements, and litigation oversight; ensure timely, compliant, and cost-effective claim resolution.
Lead underwriting governance by establishing underwriting guidelines, risk appetite, pricing frameworks, portfolio limits, and referral thresholds to improve retention and profitability.
Negotiate and manage reinsurance and excess placement programs with brokers and carriers, including treaty negotiations, facultative placements, performance monitoring, and renewal strategy.
Design and administer policy issuance and endorsements through policy administration systems, ensuring accuracy of policy documents, endorsements, cancellations, and renewals.
Build and maintain strong relationships with external brokers, carriers, loss adjusters, legal counsel, TPAs (third-party administrators), and service vendors to ensure high-quality delivery and favorable commercial terms.
Conduct regular loss runs analysis, trend identification, catastrophe exposure assessment, and root-cause analysis to drive targeted loss-control and risk-mitigation programs.
Establish and maintain reserves and provisioning processes, including IBNR (incurred but not reported) methodologies and regular actuarial alignment for financial reporting and solvency.
Ensure full compliance with local, state and federal insurance regulations and licensing requirements; lead audits, regulatory filings, and responses to regulatory inquiries.
Partner with Finance and Actuarial teams to provide budgeting, forecasting, premium and claims modeling, P&L impact analysis, and KPI/reporting for executive leadership and board review.
Implement and continuously improve claims and underwriting metrics (loss ratio, combined ratio, case reserves, claims cycle time, retention rate) and deliver actionable dashboards and executive summaries.
Lead cross-functional projects to integrate digital claims and policy administration technologies (OCR, workflow automation, claims portals, policy issuance APIs) to enhance customer experience and operational efficiency.
Oversee customer service and policyholder communications related to underwriting decisions, claims status updates, premium billing, and dispute resolution to drive improved NPS and retention.
Design and deliver loss prevention and risk-control programs, including safety training, onsite risk assessments, contract review, and insurance requirements for vendors and clients.
Coach, mentor and develop a high-performing insurance team including underwriters, claims handlers, coordinators, and administrators; set performance objectives, conduct reviews and succession planning.
Manage and approve large or complex claims, large loss plans, catastrophes and coordinated response plans to mitigate exposure and protect the organization’s balance sheet and reputation.
Lead contract review and insurance clause negotiation with legal and procurement teams to ensure indemnity, hold harmless, and insurance requirements appropriately shift or limit risk.
Develop and implement fraud detection and investigation protocols, working with special investigation units and law enforcement as required to reduce fraud losses and maintain program integrity.
Oversee policy rating, premium audits and reconciliation processes to ensure correct premium calculation and recoveries while minimizing billing disputes.
Manage vendor and TPA performance through SLAs, KPI scorecards and regular business reviews to ensure cost-effectiveness and service quality.
Drive continuous process improvement using Six Sigma/Lean, automation and best-practice workflows to reduce cycle times and lower operating costs across insurance operations.
Serve as primary liaison for internal stakeholders — Legal, Finance, Sales, HR and Operations — providing insurance expertise for M&A, contracts, new products, and enterprise risk assessments.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
Provide subject matter expertise for internal training programs on insurance principles, claims handling and underwriting standards.
Assist with the development and roll-out of insurance-related policies and standard operating procedures (SOPs).
Represent the company at industry forums, vendor conferences and regulatory meetings to stay current on market trends and compliance changes.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Deep knowledge of insurance products and lines of business: Property, Casualty, General Liability, Professional Liability (E&O), D&O, Cyber, Workers’ Compensation.
Claims management and reserves setting experience, including familiarity with IBNR, case reserves, loss runs analysis and actuarial interfaces.
Underwriting skills: risk assessment, pricing, exposure analysis, policy wordings, and underwriting guidelines development.
Reinsurance placement and treaty management capabilities, including broker negotiation and facultative underwriting.
Familiarity with policy administration systems (e.g., Guidewire, Duck Creek, Majesco, Insurity) and claims management platforms (e.g., CCC, ClaimCenter).
Strong financial acumen: P&L impact analysis, premium budgeting, rate-making fundamentals, and collaboration with finance/accounting.
Regulatory and compliance knowledge relevant to insurance licensing, solvency, privacy (GDPR/CCPA), and local insurance statutes.
Data analytics and reporting skills: Excel (advanced), SQL, Power BI/Tableau for dashboard creation and KPI monitoring.
Vendor and TPA management skills: contracting, SLA negotiation, performance measurement and cost control.
Experience with contract review for insurance clauses, indemnity language, and risk transfer mechanisms.
Exposure to fraud detection tools, forensic investigation methods and anti-fraud program management.
Project management capability for implementing system migrations, digital initiatives, and process redesign (Agile, PMP experience a plus).
Familiarity with loss control programs and workplace safety standards for risk mitigation.

Soft Skills

Strategic leadership with demonstrated ability to set vision, align teams and deliver measurable results.
Strong communication skills — able to translate complex insurance concepts for non-technical stakeholders and executive leadership.
Negotiation and influencing skills for working with carriers, brokers and internal stakeholders to secure favorable terms.
Analytical problem-solving with attention to detail and ability to synthesize data into actionable insights.
Stakeholder management and cross-functional collaboration across legal, finance, sales and operations.
Decision-making under uncertainty, prioritization and the ability to manage competing deadlines.
Coaching and talent development to build a resilient, engaged insurance team.
Customer-centric mindset focused on improving policyholder experience and operational responsiveness.
Integrity and sound judgment when handling confidential claims and sensitive legal matters.
Adaptability and change management skills to lead transformation and technology adoption.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Finance, Risk Management, Insurance, or a related field.

Preferred Education:

Master’s degree (MBA, MSc Risk Management) or professional insurance designations such as CPCU, ARM, AIC, ACII, or equivalent.
Certifications in project management (PMP) or data analytics (Power BI, Tableau) are advantageous.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Insurance
Risk Management
Finance
Business Administration
Actuarial Science
Law (useful for contract review)

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

5–10 years of progressive insurance experience across underwriting, claims, or risk management, with at least 2–4 years in a supervisory or managerial role.

Preferred:

7+ years of industry experience including direct responsibility for claims or underwriting teams, reinsurance negotiations, vendor management, and demonstrated achievements improving loss ratios, reducing cycle times or delivering cost savings.
Experience in multi-jurisdictional/regulatory environments, digital transformation initiatives, and large-volume policy administration systems.