Why Join Guardian Life?

At Guardian Life, we're more than an insurance company—we're a purpose-driven organization committed to inspiring well-being for our customers, colleagues, and communities. As a leader in life insurance and financial services, Guardian Life offers a collaborative, innovative environment where your expertise can truly make a difference. Join our high-performing team and lead the future of life underwriting in a digital-first world. We live by our core values: We do the right thing, We believe people count, We courageously shape our future together, and We go above and beyond for the people we serve. With flexible remote work, professional growth opportunities, and a supportive culture, Guardian Life is the ideal place to advance your career as an Underwriting Manager.

Role Description

Do you want to lead a high-performing life underwriting team and help shape our digital-first future? As an Underwriting Manager at Guardian Life, you will oversee day-to-day case adjudication and quality standards while accelerating adoption of automated underwriting, data-driven insights, and fluidless programs. This remote position, based in the United States, reports to our Life Underwriting Lead and involves less than 10% travel. You'll guide underwriters to deliver fast, accurate, and ethical decisions that enhance the customer experience and align with our mission to inspire well-being.

You are a leader who excels at balancing operational discipline with innovation. You inspire underwriters to embrace analytics and modern tools, coach for judgment and consistency on complex cases, and collaborate across product, distribution, and technology teams to improve turnaround time, mortality outcomes, and customer satisfaction.

Detailed Responsibilities

• Provide expert judgment and oversight on highly complex and escalated cases, ensuring consistency with underwriting guidelines and mortality objectives; manage facultative referrals when appropriate.
• Oversee complex case adjudication during peak volumes, ensuring accuracy and consistency while promoting the use of analytics and modern underwriting platforms.
• Lead and develop a team of underwriters, set daily priorities, and ensure service-level adherence, consistency, and quality.
• Own rules maintenance and monitoring for automated underwriting; partner with tech teams to refine decisioning pathways.
• Own and advance underwriting monitoring programs (RHO, PIA), ensuring robust governance, accurate risk assessment, and continuous improvement informed by analytics and emerging technologies.
• Leverage analytics dashboards to track mortality, placement, cycle time, and referral rates; implement targeted improvements.
• Pilot and validate new underwriting technologies and vendor solutions; document business cases and measure outcomes.
• Coach, develop, and upskill underwriters in analytical thinking, digital tools, and customer-centric practices.
• Collaborate with reinsurers, vendors, and cross-functional teams to drive innovation in life underwriting processes.
• Champion ethical decision-making, regulatory compliance, and sustainable underwriting practices.

Required Skills

Guardian Life seeks an Underwriting Manager with a blend of technical expertise and leadership prowess. Key skills include:

• Life underwriting expertise for complex, high-value cases
• Automated underwriting platforms (e.g., RHO, PIA)
• Analytics and data visualization tools
• Electronic Health Record (EHR) data analysis
• GenAI-enabled underwriting tools
• Stakeholder management and communication
• Team leadership and coaching
• Regulatory compliance and ethical decision-making
• Quality control and risk assessment

Education & Experience

• Minimum 5 years of life underwriting experience, with demonstrated ability to lead teams and manage complex case decisions.
• Extensive authority to adjudicate high-value cases and provide guidance on escalations.
• Working knowledge of wearable data, behavioral economics, and emerging technologies in underwriting.
• Bachelor's degree in a related field preferred; relevant certifications (e.g., FLMI, CLU) a plus.

Compensation Overview

Salary Range: $86,210.00 - $141,635.00 (USD, yearly). The salary range reflected above is a good faith estimate of base pay for this remote position in the United States. The final salary will be determined based on education, experience, knowledge, and abilities of the successful candidate. In addition to competitive base pay, this role may be eligible for annual, sales, or other incentive compensation, comprehensive benefits, and performance bonuses.

Benefits

At Guardian Life, we prioritize your well-being with contemporary, flexible, and inclusive benefits. Full-time employees enjoy:

• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) with company match and financial wellness programs
• Paid time off, parental leave, and flexible work arrangements
• Professional development, leadership training, and tuition reimbursement
• Philanthropic opportunities and employee resource groups
• Wellness programs, including mental health support and fitness reimbursements
• Explore more at www.guardianlife.com/careers/corporate/benefits

Join Guardian Life as an Underwriting Manager and lead transformative change in life insurance underwriting. Apply today to be part of our mission to inspire well-being!