Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Underwriting Support Manager

🎯 Role Definition

The Underwriting Support Manager leads the operational backbone of an underwriting function, managing the team and systems that enable underwriters to evaluate risk, bind business and meet SLAs. This role combines people leadership, process optimization, data-driven decision-making and regulatory/compliance oversight to ensure consistent, accurate, and efficient underwriting operations across products and distribution channels. The manager partners with underwriting, sales/broker distribution, IT, product and compliance to reduce turnaround times, maintain guideline adherence and improve quality metrics.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Senior Underwriting Analyst or Underwriting Operations Lead
Underwriting Team Supervisor or Quality Assurance Specialist (Insurance)
Policy Administration Analyst or Business Analyst in Insurance

Advancement To:

Director of Underwriting Operations
Head of Underwriting Support / VP, Underwriting Operations
Head of Operations for Commercial/Personal Lines

Lateral Moves:

Product Management (Insurance Products)
Risk Management or Claims Operations
Business Process Improvement / Transformation

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Lead, coach and develop a high‑performing underwriting support team (including case handlers, referral coordinators and QA analysts), setting clear performance objectives, conducting regular 1:1s and running structured calibration exercises to maintain consistency in decision support.
Manage day‑to‑day underwriting operations to ensure timely triage, assignment and resolution of submissions, endorsements and renewals while meeting or exceeding SLA targets for turnaround time and quality.
Design, implement and continuously refine workflow and routing rules in policy administration systems (e.g., Guidewire, Duck Creek or equivalent) to optimize case throughput and reduce manual handoffs.
Own operational KPIs and management information (MI) dashboards (volume, backlog, SLA compliance, referral rates, quality scores), delivering weekly/monthly performance reports and actionable insights to underwriting leadership.
Partner with underwriting leadership to interpret underwriting guidelines, translate rules into operational procedures and ensure consistent application across distribution channels and underwriting teams.
Implement a formal quality assurance program that includes sampling, root cause analysis, remediation plans and feedback loops to underwriters and support staff to reduce errors and underwriting escapes.
Lead cross-functional projects to automate manual tasks (document ingestion, data entry, PDF extraction), working with IT, data engineering and RPA/automation teams to increase efficiency and reduce operating costs.
Act as primary escalation point for complex or high-value submissions; coordinate specialist resources (actuarial, legal, reinsurance, product) to support underwriting decision-making and binding.
Manage capacity planning, workforce management and resource allocation to ensure coverage during peaks, new product launches and seasonal cycles; maintain contingency plans for system outages.
Ensure compliance with internal underwriting standards, regulatory requirements and audit findings by maintaining up-to-date process documentation, training materials and change logs.
Drive continuous process improvement initiatives (Lean, Six Sigma principles) to eliminate waste, rework and backlog while documenting outcomes and tracking ROI.
Oversee onboarding and ongoing training programs for underwriting support staff, underwriters and new distribution partners to ensure adherence to policy workflows and service expectations.
Coordinate with Sales, Broker Relations and Customer Service to align handoffs, clarify submission requirements and improve the customer/broker experience through clear SLAs and communication templates.
Maintain ownership of document management and case file integrity, ensuring required signatures, disclosures and supporting documentation are complete prior to binding.
Facilitate underwriting system upgrades, testing and user acceptance testing (UAT); translate business requirements into test cases and drive defect remediation to production readiness.
Manage vendor relationships for outsourcing partners or third‑party service providers engaged in underwriting support, monitoring performance against SLAs and contract KPIs.
Execute backlog reduction strategies, prioritization frameworks and surge plans to bring aged work within acceptable limits while tracking cycle time improvements.
Support pricing and product teams by providing operational feasibility feedback, capacity impact analysis and anticipated implementation timelines for new product launches or rating changes.
Conduct regular audits of referrals, approvals and delegated authorities to ensure delegated underwriting limits are followed and identify areas for guideline clarification or training.
Prepare and present monthly business reviews and presentations to senior leadership, summarizing operational performance, risk exposures and suggested remediation or investment priorities.
Maintain a risk register and change log for underwriting operations, proactively identifying control gaps and working with Compliance and Internal Audit to resolve issues.
Own the continuous improvement of submission intake forms, e-applications and e-commerce touchpoints to increase straight-through processing rates and reduce manual intervention.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis to inform underwriting strategy and operational improvements.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap by prioritizing operational data needs and collaborating with data engineering to improve data quality.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements and report specifications.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering and product teams to ensure delivery of operational enhancements.
Assist internal and external audit teams by providing documentation, process maps and controls evidence related to underwriting support activities.
Maintain and update standard operating procedures, playbooks and escalation protocols for new hires and cross-functional stakeholders.
Support change management activities for system and process changes including communication rollout, training and post-implementation monitoring.
Participate in continuous education initiatives to keep the team current with evolving regulatory requirements and product guideline changes.
Lead special projects such as binder reissues, large portfolio migrations or remediation programs that impact underwriting workflow and data integrity.
Act as liaison to claims, reinsurance and actuarial teams when underwriting issues surface that could create downstream exposures.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Deep knowledge of underwriting processes and terminology across commercial and/or personal lines, including referrals, endorsements, renewals and binder issuance.
Experience configuring and administering policy administration systems (Guidewire, Duck Creek, Insurity, or similar) with demonstrated ability to map business rules to system logic.
Strong data analysis skills with hands-on experience using SQL to extract, aggregate and analyze operational data.
Advanced Microsoft Excel skills (pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, Power Query) and comfortable building operational models and forecasts.
Experience building and maintaining dashboards and visualizations using Power BI, Tableau or Looker to communicate operational KPIs.
Familiarity with workflow automation tools and RPA platforms (UiPath, Automation Anywhere or equivalent) to drive process automation.
Understanding of SLA frameworks, capacity planning and workforce management tools to manage service levels and staffing.
Working knowledge of regulatory and compliance requirements relevant to underwriting (insurance regulatory frameworks, privacy laws, anti‑money laundering where applicable).
Experience with quality assurance methodologies, root cause analysis techniques and remediation tracking systems.
Project management experience with agile and waterfall methodologies; able to manage cross-functional delivery milestones and stakeholder communications.
Proven ability to manage vendor relationships and evaluate third-party performance against contractual KPIs.
Familiarity with document management systems, OCR/document capture technologies and e-signature platforms.

Soft Skills

Strong people leadership and coaching skills—able to motivate, develop and retain high-performing teams in a fast-paced environment.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills for interacting with underwriters, brokers, senior management and cross-functional partners.
Problem-solving mindset with a track record of diagnosing operational issues, developing root causes and implementing lasting solutions.
Customer-centric orientation with the ability to balance broker/agent expectations against risk and compliance requirements.
High attention to detail and commitment to quality, with the ability to enforce controls without sacrificing service.
Change leadership and stakeholder management—able to influence and drive adoption across multiple business units.
Time management and prioritization skills to handle competing demands, urgent escalations and long-term improvement projects.
Analytical curiosity and data-driven decision-making—comfortable using metrics to set priorities and measure impact.
Resilience and adaptability to manage operational disruptions, technology changes and shifting business priorities.
Diplomacy and negotiation skills for resolving conflict between underwriting appetite, production goals and broker demands.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Insurance, Risk Management, Economics or related field.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor’s degree plus professional insurance designation (CPCU, AIC, AU, ARM) or MBA for senior operational leadership roles.
Certifications in project management (PMP, Scrum Master) or process improvement (Lean/Six Sigma) are a plus.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Risk Management / Insurance
Finance / Economics
Business Administration / Operations Management
Data Analytics / Information Systems

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

5–10 years in underwriting operations, underwriting support, or policy administration with at least 2–4 years in a people leadership role.

Preferred:

Demonstrated experience leading underwriting support teams in property & casualty, life & health or specialty lines.
Experience with enterprise policy administration systems (Guidewire, Duck Creek, Insurity) and familiarity with integration to rating engines and distribution portals.
Proven track record of delivering process automation, SLA improvements and measurable reductions in turnaround time and error rates.
Prior exposure to regulatory audits, compliance remediation and enterprise reporting to senior leadership.