Commercial Underwriter (remote First)

Zensurance is a scale-up InsurTech company that is re-imagining the commercial insurance market. At Zensurance, we want to empower small businesses across Canada to thrive by offering an honest, simplified, and modern approach to insurance. Our main recipe is a combination of modern technology and insurance industry expertise powered by our talented team members. 

Being a technology-forward company, we utilize various tools and platforms to create fun, engaging and meaningful work experiences for our employees, as a remote-first company.

We are boldly going where no insurance broker has gone before!

Our underwriting team is key to growing our book of business sustainably while providing support and subject matter expertise to our broking team.

Our underwriting team focuses on automating excessive administrative and data entry tasks to allow our underwriters to focus on building strong relationships with their brokers and insurance partners. Utilizing data and insights, you will be responsible for maintaining and growing our underwriting authority by binding policies through our internal facilities.

Reporting to the Team lead, Underwriting, you will contribute to building and evaluating submissions/applications for new and existing policies for our clients. This role embodies the organization's values of creating positive outcomes with a passion and persistence for the delivery of exceptional customer experience with each interaction that helps Zensurance achieve our goals.

Responsibilities:

• Own referral underwriting of multiple lines of business, including commercial property, general liability and specialty lines.
• Work closely with the broking team to provide quotes, guidance and place risks within our in-house facilities.
• Partner with the Insurance Analytics team to review Zensurance’s binding authority programs.
• Have access to program data in real-time to understand current performance and make data-driven recommendations in terms of expanding authority.
• Negotiate with partner insurers on terms and conditions that fall outside our authority.
• Proactively identify cause-and-effect relationships and explore alternative solutions to support sound decision-making.
• Maintain data integrity to support the underwriting processes and help the team's objectives.
• Adhere to underwriting standards and good practices to minimize risk.
• Ensure full understanding of in-house program underwriting requirements, including endorsements and limits.
• Assist in auditing in-house policies for adherence to our underwriting guidelines.
• Own referral underwriting of multiple lines of business, including professional lines and medical malpractice.
• Assist with wording comparisons across different insurance companies.
• Partner with Senior Underwriters, Underwriting Specialists and the Director of Underwriting in the process of evaluating new program opportunities, creating the desired underwriting guidelines, and comparing current coverage offerings in the market.
• Keep up to date with industry trends to deliver excellence in underwriting and continuously build expertise.
• Where appropriate, escalate difficult or complex items and customer complaints or inquiries to Senior Underwriters or the Director of Underwriting.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Requirements:

• University degree or college diploma in a recognized technical, vocational or academic program or equivalent work experience.
• Minimum 3 years of commercial underwriting experience.
• Working towards or completion of CIP/ CAIB/ CRM courses would be considered an asset.
• In-depth knowledge of Commercial wording and pricing.
• Advanced MS Office Suite, including Word, PowerPoint and Excel.
• Proficiency with Google Workspace, Zoom and Slack, or similar office tools.
• Proficiency with Adobe and Salesforce.
• Exceptional problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Able to communicate effectively with stakeholders, both verbally and written.
• Able to collaborate with team members and take the lead in group settings.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality and exercise discretion.