Guardian Life
Guardian Life
Guardian Life is an insurance and financial services company that helps individuals, families, employers, and institutions prepare for changing needs. Its offerings include life, disability, dental, vision, accident, critical illness, and hospital indemnity insurance, along with group benefits, absence management, paid leave, and benefits technology for workplaces. Guardian Life also provides investment services, annuities, and retirement planning through financial professionals. Established in 1860, the company serves more than 12 million people and brings together expertise across insurance, employee benefits, financial services, and technology. Its work is also shaped by a focus on social responsibility, equity, inclusion, well-being, and financial health.

Manager, Life Underwriting — Remote, United States

Lead complex life underwriting decisions, appeals, quality oversight, and facultative referrals while managing an underwriting team. Drive analytics, digital-tool adoption, and improvements to mortality and placement outcomes.

Description

  • Apply expert judgment to highly complex and escalated underwriting cases
  • Maintain alignment with underwriting guidelines and mortality objectives
  • Manage facultative referrals when appropriate
  • Oversee complex case adjudication during peak-volume periods
  • Lead and develop underwriters, set daily priorities, and maintain service-level adherence, consistency, and quality
  • Use analytics dashboards to monitor mortality, placement, cycle time, and referral rates
  • Implement focused improvements to underwriting practices
  • Pilot and assess new underwriting technologies and vendor solutions
  • Prepare business cases and evaluate their outcomes
  • Coach and develop underwriters in analytical reasoning, digital tools, and customer-focused practices
  • Negotiate appeals and decide on formal requests to change previous underwriting decisions
  • Work with field and home-office teams to gather information, resolve issues, and communicate decisions

Requirements

  • Extensive life underwriting expertise, including authority to adjudicate complex, high-value cases and advise on escalated decisions
  • At least five years of life underwriting experience
  • Proven ability to lead teams and oversee complex case decisions
  • Working knowledge of automated underwriting platforms and programs, including Random Holdouts (RHO) and Post-Issue Audits (PIA)
  • Experience overseeing quality control
  • Strong communication and stakeholder-management skills
  • Ability to collaborate effectively with reinsurers and vendors
  • Ability to build a collaborative team culture and coach underwriters in digital fluency and adoption of new tools and workflows
  • Commitment to ethical judgment, regulatory compliance, and sustainable practices
  • Experience with advanced analytics and data-visualization tools preferred
  • Familiarity with Electronic Health Record (EHR) data, GenAI-enabled tools, and behavioral economics concepts preferred
  • Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without current or future employer sponsorship

Benefits

  • Opportunities to build new skills
  • Leadership development opportunities
  • Opportunities to support philanthropic initiatives
  • Flexible, inclusive benefits and resources in a contemporary, supportive workplace
  • Benefits available to eligible full-time employees

Related Jobs