Senior Commercial Insurance Program Director
Recruiting Partner: Warren Mead
Richmond, Virginia | Sales | Fully Remote | $130,000 to $200,000 | Job ID: 181065
Job Summary
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Senior Program Director – Commercial Insurance Programs
Salary: $170,000–$210,000 base, depending on experience
Location: Remote – United States
We are seeking an accomplished commercial insurance leader to join a growing insurance advisory firm that helps MGAs, MGUs, program administrators, startups, and carriers design and develop insurance programs from the ground up. This is an opportunity for an experienced insurance professional who enjoys solving complex problems, developing people, and helping clients turn an initial idea or challenge into a thoughtful, executable insurance program.
The ideal candidate brings deep commercial P&C insurance expertise, strong people leadership skills, and the curiosity to look beyond the obvious answer. Rather than immediately prescribing a solution, you naturally step back, ask the right foundational questions, understand the client's broader objectives, and determine what problem actually needs to be solved. If you have spent your career in underwriting, program development, or program leadership and enjoy mentoring others while tackling complex insurance challenges, this could be an exceptional opportunity.
What You’ll Do
As a Senior Program Director, you will lead client engagements across the insurance program lifecycle while also developing and mentoring a team of experienced insurance professionals.
You will work directly with MGAs, program administrators, carriers, and other insurance organizations to understand their business objectives, evaluate opportunities and challenges, and determine the best path forward. Engagements may involve new program development, underwriting strategy, product design, market analysis, operational requirements, carrier readiness, or improving existing programs.
Key responsibilities include:
- Lead complex commercial insurance program engagements from initial discovery and problem definition through strategy and execution.
- Work directly with clients to understand their business model, target market, distribution strategy, underwriting objectives, operational capabilities, and long-term goals.
- Ask broad, strategic questions that uncover the underlying business problem before recommending a solution.
- Guide the development of new insurance programs, including underwriting strategy, program structure, product requirements, distribution considerations, and go-to-market planning.
- Partner with underwriting, product development, compliance, actuarial, operations, and other subject-matter experts to develop comprehensive client solutions.
- Provide experienced insurance perspective and strategic guidance to MGA, MGU, carrier, and program leadership teams.
- Lead, mentor, and develop team members while providing clear direction, feedback, and support across multiple client engagements.
- Review work product and ensure recommendations reflect both strong technical insurance expertise and the client's broader business objectives.
- Anticipate potential program challenges and help clients evaluate alternatives, tradeoffs, and downstream implications.
- Build trusted relationships with senior client stakeholders and serve as a strategic advisor throughout the engagement.
- Manage competing priorities across multiple client projects while partnering with dedicated project management resources to maintain timelines and deliverables.
- Contribute to the continued development of internal methodologies, processes, and best practices as the organization grows.
What We’re Looking For
This is first and foremost an insurance leadership position, not a traditional project management role.
The strongest candidates will bring:
- Approximately 15–20+ years of commercial P&C insurance experience, with significant depth in underwriting, program business, program development, product development, or a related discipline.
- Extensive understanding of how commercial insurance programs are structured, developed, evaluated, and brought to market.
- Experience working with MGAs, MGUs, program administrators, carriers, wholesalers, or specialty insurance organizations.
- Proven people-management experience with a history of mentoring, developing, and leading experienced professionals.
- Strong consultative skills and the ability to guide clients through ambiguous or complicated business challenges.
- A broad, curious problem-solving mindset with the discipline to understand the full situation before moving to a solution.
- Ability to connect underwriting, product, compliance, actuarial, operations, distribution, and commercial considerations when evaluating an insurance program.
- Strong executive communication and client-management skills.
- Ability to challenge assumptions constructively and help clients think differently about their business.
- Comfort operating in a growing, entrepreneurial organization where leaders are expected to be both strategic and hands-on.
Particularly Valuable Experience
Experience in one or more of the following areas would be especially relevant:
Commercial or specialty underwriting; delegated authority or program business; MGA/MGU leadership; new program development; underwriting guidelines and risk selection; insurance product development; carrier relationships; program placement; regulatory and compliance considerations; distribution strategy; portfolio management; or insurance consulting/advisory work.
Formal project management expertise is helpful but is not the primary requirement. The organization has project-management resources to support execution. The priority is finding an experienced insurance leader who understands the business deeply, can lead people effectively, and knows how to ask the questions that lead to better solutions.
Why This Opportunity
This is an opportunity to join a growing team of highly experienced insurance professionals working directly with organizations that are creating and evolving commercial insurance programs.
You will have the opportunity to apply years of industry experience in a different way—helping clients think through new opportunities, mentoring other insurance professionals, and participating in programs from early-stage strategy through execution.
For someone who has developed deep insurance expertise and now wants to use that experience across a variety of businesses, products, and challenges, this role offers an opportunity to have a meaningful impact on both clients and the continued growth of the organization.
JOB ID: 181065
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Warren Mead
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At Goodwin Recruiting, our clients seek qualified candidates, and that is what we deliver. A person’s age, gender, race, color, marital or family status, national origin, disability, religion, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity has no bearing on whether they are able to do the job. We evaluate the knowledge, skills, and abilities that meet the requirements of the position and aim to open doors and change lives. We work hard to identify a broad slate of candidates for each of our clients, with many hiring success stories to share.
