A winner of Best Places to Work in Insurance seven years in a row, Virtus is looking for innovative individuals to join our fast-paced, rapidly growing team headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas. Virtus is a next generation insurance consulting firm that focuses on middle market clients in a variety of lines of coverage. With locations in Kansas City, Memphis, Chicago, Ft. Collins, St. Louis, Dallas, and Austin, our team has a national scope and with a sophisticated client base that thrives on new ideas and our consultative approach. We're shaking up a tired insurance industry and creating something better: an experience that empowers our people to evolve, take smart risks, and face the future boldly.

The Technical Resources Director and National Practice Leader is a seasoned P&C professional with a broad and developed technical background in both the property and casualty disciplines, including familiarity with and knowledge of the following: underwriting, program design, limit review and benchmarking, loss forecasting and loss stratification, general principles of risk management, experience modification review, classification review, catastrophe modeling, flood zone issues, coverage placement and carrier relations, comparative policy wording analysis, contractual requirement review, loss responsive and captive feasibility analysis, collateral negotiation, claims advocacy skills and general risk control practices/principles.

In addition, this role will serve as an effective and organized leader with the ability to establish, execute, and communicate a vision, strategy, and budget for the division's technical resources. This role is responsible for directing and influencing other team members to assist sales & service teams. Must also be able to effectively participate in sales presentations and internal education efforts with a strong ability to translate the complex to simple for our clients and team members.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities:

•Manage property analytics, casualty analytics, and claims and risk control teams, to determine job assignments, new business assignments, develop annual goals, and manage overall performance for team within Commercial Lines and upgrade/ replace as necessary using the Virtus Career Paths developed as guideline for any staffing change/ decision.

•Act as a player coach whenever necessary to deliver required technical support to Virtus colleagues and clients.

•Participate and contribute ideas and solutions for both new and existing clients in order to improve the effectiveness of new business and retention/stewardship meetings and improve the quality and impact of existing client programs.

•Provide regular client communications and build rapport with largest accounts within the commercial book.

•Periodically draft client facing papers on timely topics for distribution to clients and prospects (at least four per year) and coordinate the drafting of case studies that illustrate the results of our sales and service model.

•Support building and maintaining strong relationships with insurance carriers for a competitive advantage over other competitors in the market.

•Work with internal partners and external customers to create improved products and services.

•Act as liaison between clients, Virtus, and carriers to manage the risk process activities.

•Oversee and coordinate carrier risk control/loss control activities and assume oversight responsibility for holding carriers accountable for achieving pre-determined risk management goals.

•Ensure that organizational decisions support company values. Build trust by acting as a role model for integrity, respect, and professionalism.

•Participate in talent acquisition efforts and ensure the quality of all hires withing the P&C division. 

•Mentor and coach team members. Continually develop ways to improve the level of knowledge and skills of all staff within the unit. Direct employee training and personal development to improve effectiveness.

•Promote and enhance the overall reputation of Virtus with internal and external stakeholders, prospects, and carriers.

•Audit and/or review audits of accounts to ensure compliance with Virtus standards. 

Required Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

•P&C technical knowledge required: 

•Review loss trends on casualty lines to develop mitigation plans, and to forecast future premium expectations to drive carrier negotiations. 

•Review property insurance program structure, and vendor contracts relative to insurance requirements (structure, coverage, limits, deductibles, retentions, classifications, et al), and recommend improvements, analyze data, and negotiate policy terms and conditions. 

•Analyze financial, loss, and exposure data to develop insights and findings that contribute to favorable negotiation of policy terms and conditions. 

•Apply knowledge and creativity in the development, structure, and placement of layered and quota shared programs including experience with concurrent terms and conditions. 

•Utilize benchmarking as a tool for helping clients and prospects optimize the design and structure of their insurance programs and to validate our recommendations. 

•Assist and advise producers and practice leaders as needed, and support producers with proposal development. Allocate and assign personnel with appropriate talent & background for client and prospect appointments. 

•Ability to communicate effectively in terms consistent with various selling models with special emphasis on articulating the financial impact of solutions from a client's perspective.

•Ability to drive positive results from the markets.

•Understand and interpret the variables and assumptions that drive the results of program modeling and apply that knowledge to determine limits and pricing of coverages. 

•Understand carrier property loss control reports and utilize the data in favorable negotiations with underwriters.

•Ability to interpret loss forecasting results and offer recommendations on action plans.

•Ability to develop proactive risk mitigation plans utilizing a combination of claim review, loss control recommendations, and analytics to demonstrate financial impact.

•Demonstrated ability to evaluate loss trends and loss drivers and execute plans to mitigate client costs.

The Experience You Will Bring

•15 years plus of insurance brokerage, underwriting/ technical experience, risk management, claims, risk control, or legal in the segment, i.e. commercial lines property or commercial lines casualty.

•A bachelor’s degree in business or related field required, MBA or Juris Doctorate a plus. 

•Practice leadership experience and/or experience managing a team to execute a vertical and or division strategy, or at a minimum, a demonstrated ability to grow into a leadership position.

•Experience in developing and sustaining relationships at C-Suite Level, along with working in a team environment that is constantly evolving.

•Proven strong written, oral and presentation and communication skills, with a commitment to impeccable client service are required; ability to adjust easily to working well with a variety of workstyles.

•Track record of being self-motivated and working independently while motivating a team and prioritizing tasks.

•Strategic planning experience and responsibility for managing a budget.

•Experience with Applied EPIC and Salesforce preferred. Must have familiarity and good working knowledge of various Microsoft software applications (Excel), Agency Management Systems, and the ability to learn new software systems.

•Active Property & Casualty license. 

•CPCU, ARM and/or other professional and insurance designations.

•General business acumen and financial agility. 

•Advanced analytical, critical thinking and problem-solving skills. 

•Keen ability to persuade and negotiate with internal and external stakeholders. Inspires Confidence in others. 

•Outstanding organizational skills and attention to detail.

•Great, positive attitude and the proven ability to work under pressure.

Travel:

20% , dependent on client and team needs. Willingness to travel throughout Virtus' national footprint. 

Role Location: Can be onsite, hybrid or remote, however, preferably near a Virtus office location.

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Why Virtus?

Virtus has a strong culture anchored by our Core Values: Better Tomorrow, Fearless Pursuit and One Virtus. This creates an environment of teamwork, excellence, and continuous improvement. Employees and their families enjoy great benefits including health/401(k)/dental/vision and unlimited PTO, among other progressive perks. 

Virtus is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative environment with the best employees– so we welcome applications from everyone, to celebrate a diverse mix of experiences, backgrounds, and identities. Please get in touch if you’d like to discuss any reasonable adjustments to your application, in order that we can accommodate and support you in the recruitment process. If you want to work for a company where who you are is valued and respected, we’d love to hear from you.

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