Regional Head of Product Development - North America

This job is with Allianz Commercial, an inclusive employer and a member of myGwork – the largest global platform for the LGBTQ+ business community.

Your Team

The Chief Technical Office is responsible for working with technical functions including Pricing, Product Management, Underwriting Integrity, Reinsurance, Portfolio and Accumulation Steering including Catastrophe Management, and Risk Consulting to ensure we are building Technical Excellence across our North America region, and in alignment with the overall global approach.

The Impact You Will Have:

Reporting to the Chief Technical Officer - North America, the Regional Head of Product Development - North America will centralize product development resources currently embedded within individual lines of business. Today, these resources operate with a high degree of autonomy within their respective lines of business (LoBs), which supports deep line-specific expertise but limits our ability to drive consistency, coordinate on cross-cutting topics, and present a unified product development function. This role would address that gap by establishing a single point of leadership and accountability across all product development activity, while maintaining high autonomy with LoBs leading the day-to-day. Additionally, this structure will support career development and upskilling of the individuals within this area. The role is envisioned as a strategically oriented, coordination and governance leader rather than a deep technical wording expert.

Some of your specific responsibilities could include:

• Cross-LoB coordination: Acting as the central point for product development topics spanning multiple lines, including emerging risks from a product perspective, blended products, and shared wording standards, addressing regulatory requirements and changes.
• Governance and wording authorities: Owning the framework for wording authorities and referrals, ensuring consistent application across all LoBs, working with the Regional and Global line Heads, and providing a clear escalation path for underwriters.
• Ensuring consistent application and providing a clear escalation path for underwriters. Establishing and maintaining referral thresholds and approval protocols.
• Overseeing coordination of ongoing oversight of State Regulatory requirements with respect to forms or rates, including rate/form filing exceptions with respect to commercial deregulation, manuscript forms, competitive rate rules or statutes and surplus lines company options.
• Standards and tools ownership: Coordinating with the LoBs to understand existing tools and drive improvement and/or consistency where applicable. Acting as subject matter expert to build, implement, and maintain wording tools across the LoBs as applicable. Ownership of external/third party contracts and services (e.g. ISO) used across the organization as applicable to product.
• Emerging risk and product strategy: Providing a holistic, cross-functional lens on emerging risk topics as they surface. Continuing to monitor and assess product/form impacts and coordinating an appropriate response.
• Team structure and development: Bringing cohesion and structure to the centralized team, supporting prioritization across LoBs while preserving the existing expertise within each line. Mentoring and developing product development professionals.
• Stakeholder and Relationship Management: Proactively driving involvement of functional areas (Legal, Actuarial, Claims, Operations) in the product development process. Maintaining strong relationships with LoB leadership, brokers, and key internal stakeholders.

What You'll Bring to the Role

• A minimum of 11 years of experience in product development or underwriting across multiple lines of business, with a strong understanding of product portfolios and cross-LoB dependencies;
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams and build consensus across multiple stakeholders in a matrix organization;
• Strong understanding of North American insurance markets, regulatory landscape, and competitor product offerings across multiple lines;
• Strong understanding of legal and regulatory frameworks applicable to product development, including forms, rates, and filing requirements;
• Ability to establish and oversee wording authority frameworks, referral protocols, and standardized product development processes across multiple LoBs;
• Ability to identify and coordinate on cross-cutting product topics including emerging risks, blended products, and shared wording standards across lines of business;
• Ability to evaluate and govern the quality and consistency of contract wordings across all LoBs, without necessarily drafting them directly;
• Understanding of state regulatory requirements with respect to forms, rates, and filings, with ability to oversee compliance across multiple lines;
• Ability to effectively absorb information from various sources, then analyze, study or examine data in detail, and draw appropriate conclusions;
• Ability to build cohesion across a distributed team, set priorities, and develop talent within a centralized function;
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills with an ability to communicate with a variety of people across the organization;
• Ability to persuade and motivate others to act, without executive authority;
• The ability to ensure ethical AI practices and stay updated with emerging AI technologies will be key to maintaining a competitive advantage;
• Degree in Economics, Business or Law (Masters/JD preferred).

External applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States without the need for current or future employment-based sponsorship. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment visas at this time, nor can we guarantee future sponsorship.

The annualized base pay range for this role is $180,000 - $250,000 (Chicago and Alpharetta), $190,000 - $210,000 (Alpharetta), $210,000 - $275,000 (New York) and $163,000 - $210,000, including a 35% target bonus (Toronto). The annual base salary range represents a nationwide market range. The actual salary for this position may be above and will be determined by a number of factors, including the scope, complexity and location of the role, the skills, education, training, credentials and experience of the candidate. The base pay is just one component of the AzC total compensation package.

As part of our comprehensive compensation and highly rated benefits programs, employees are also eligible for annual performance-based cash incentive awards.

What's in it for you?

We are committed to nurturing an inclusive environment where everyone feels they belong. We offer a hybrid working model, which recognizes the value of striking a balance between in-person collaboration and remote working. Please feel free to discuss flexible working arrangements with us.

We believe in rewarding performance with a great compensation and benefits package (details vary by location), including a generous bonus scheme and pension.

From career development and digital learning programs to international career mobility, we offer lifelong learning for our employees worldwide and an environment where innovation, delivery and empowerment are fostered.

From our support for flexible working, health and wellbeing (including private healthcare and generous parental leave benefits), to helping people return from career breaks with experience that nothing else can teach. We've got your back.

With opportunities to be engaged in shaping a future that is safe, inclusive and sustainable, we care for the tomorrows of our people, our industry and our clients.

Allianz Commercial is the center of expertise of Allianz Group, insuring mid-sized businesses, large enterprises, and special risks. Our customers include top consumer brands, financial institutions, industry leaders, the global aviation and shipping industries, as well as family-owned and medium-enterprises. We also cover unique risks such as offshore wind farms, infrastructure projects and film productions. Our clients trust us to provide a wide range of traditional and alternative risk transfer solutions, outstanding risk consulting and multinational services, and seamless claims handling. Allianz Commercial helps customers to prepare for what's ahead.

At Allianz, we stand for unity: we believe that a united world is a more prosperous world, and we are dedicated to consistently advocating for equal opportunities for all. And the foundation for this is our inclusive workplace, where people and performance both matter, and nurtures a culture grounded in integrity, fairness, inclusion and trust. We therefore welcome applications regardless of race, ethnicity or cultural background, age, gender, nationality, religion, social class, disability or sexual orientation, or any other characteristics protected under applicable local laws and regulations.

People with disabilities: We want to give all our candidates the best opportunity to succeed. If you need any adjustments to be made during the application and selection process, please email agcsglobalcareers@allianz.com

Recruitment Agencies: Allianz Commercial has an in-house recruitment team, which focuses on sourcing great candidates directly. Allianz Commercial does not accept unsolicited resumes from agency or search firm. Fees will not be paid in the event a candidate submitted by a recruiter without an agreement in place is hired. When we do use agencies, we have a PSL in place, so please do not contact managers directly. Failure to comply could/may result in the disqualification of the candidates and/or the termination of our contract and/or fees not being paid.