AVP, Senior Product Manager - Commercial Underwriting

You have a clear vision of where your career can go. And we have the leadership to help you get there. At CNA, we strive to create a culture in which people know they matter and are part of something important, ensuring the abilities of all employees are used to their fullest potential. 

The Sr. Product Manager is a strategic leader within the Business Relationship Management and Innovation organization, partnering with business leaders to identify and execute strategies that leverage technology to improve satisfaction and outcomes. They are responsible for creating, maintaining, and communicating the product vision and roadmap for one or more large, complex Underwriting focused solutions—often spanning multiple functions. This role drives strategic objectives that impact both short-term performance and long-term success, translating high-level goals into incremental roadmaps for product owners and development teams. Ensuring alignment with the product vision, stakeholder expectations, and enterprise priorities is a core responsibility.

In addition to managing ongoing initiatives, the Sr. Product Manager evaluates new business needs, assesses value and priority, and collaborates with Technology partners to identify solutions and delivery options. They play a key role in developing business cases to secure funding and work closely with executive stakeholders, solution architects, product owners, and delivery teams to ensure successful execution. This is also a people leadership role, responsible for guiding and developing a team while fostering cross-functional collaboration.

JOB DESCRIPTION:

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

Performs a combination of duties in accordance with departmental guidelines:

• Owns, and has final authority for, the business strategy, content and priorities for one or more highly complex products or solutions, operating with broad latitude in a multifaceted environment

• Partners with senior business leaders to identify and prioritize high value business needs, and documents requirements for solutioning, and helps develop a business case for funding, if required

• Collaborates with Business Owner / Initiative Owners and key stakeholders to decompose Initiatives into Agile Release Train (ART)-level work efforts

• Develops and owns the Agile Program Vision, Backlog and Program Increment (PI) Roadmap, continuously communicating to the Portfolio and Team levels

• Develops Benefit Hypotheses and acceptance criteria in collaboration with multiple stakeholders with disparate priorities

• Works with Portfolio Management, where applicable, actively engaging in Portfolio-level meetings and providing insights into budget parameters

• Partners with system architects to prioritize architecture work aligned with the architectural runway and business priorities

• Owns internal and external stakeholder preparedness to receive and utilize the value of the product or solution/changes, including distribution channel, service partner and marketing and sales enablement, where needed

• Owns the business strategy behind the product or solution lifecycle, along with legal and compliance adherence, to increase value while mitigating risks

• Participates in release management and solution validation

• Provides strategic insights into work activities to help development teams in sizing

• Creates a collaborative culture across business and technology teams.  Having deep business knowledge, effectively represents business area strategy, plans and challenges to the Technology function. Having essential technology knowledge, represents a technology point of view in business area leadership meetings and educates and informs the business leaders of technology solution options, capabilities and emerging technologies.

• In collaboration with business area and technology leaders, including Enterprise Architecture, is proactive in identifying and recommending high impact innovative technology solutions. 

• Aligns with the extended Product Management team in support of the overall Product Management discipline

• Manages a team of Product Management / Product Owner resources

• Travel is approximately 15–20%, and maybe flexible based on location

May perform additional duties as assigned.

Reporting Relationship: Typically VP or above

Skills, Knowledge & Abilities

• Strategic & Agile Leadership: Embodies a Lean-Agile mindset with a strong track record of coaching and inspiring teams. Demonstrates strategic thinking, even with limited information, and develops roadmaps aligned with business goals.

• Business & Technical Acumen: Deep understanding of business operations, strategic direction, and domain-specific solutions. Leverages technology capabilities to drive value and effectively represents both business and technology perspectives.

• Stakeholder Engagement & Communication: Builds credibility across all levels of the organization, facilitates complex discussions, and communicates technical topics in simplified terms. Skilled in negotiation, conflict resolution, and relationship management.

• Execution & Adaptability: Manages shifting priorities in fast-paced environments, prepares solution contexts, and leads through change while maintaining stakeholder alignment.

• Program & People Management: Strong leadership, project management, and organizational skills, with a focus on integrity, professionalism, and team development.

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree, with Master's preferred, in a related discipline or equivalent work experience

• Typically a minimum of twelve years of related work experience. Preferably as a Product Manager or equivalent role for complex insurance solutions within the Commercial Underwriting domain, preferably with experience influencing senior leadership levels

• Experience with underwriting concepts and tools , including risk assessment, pricing strategies, low-touch underwriting processes, underwriting workbench platforms, and global coverage considerations.

• Experienced in Agile, Waterfall, and Design Thinking methodologies, with a successful track record at the program level and familiarity with “Project to Product” transformation, including prioritization and funding strategies.

• Applicable certifications preferred - SAFe PO/PM, CSPO or PSPO

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In certain jurisdictions, CNA is legally required to include a reasonable estimate of the compensation for this role. In District of Columbia, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Washington, the national base pay range for this job level is $152,000 to $242,000 annually. Salary determinations are based on various factors, including but not limited to, relevant work experience, skills, certifications and location. CNA offers a comprehensive and competitive benefits package to help our employees – and their family members – achieve their physical, financial, emotional and social wellbeing goals.  For a detailed look at CNA’s benefits, please visit cnabenefits.com.

CNA is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities in the recruitment process. To request an accommodation, please contact leaveadministration@cna.com