Global Head Specialty Reinsurance - Hybrid

About the Role 

As Head Specialty Reinsurance you are accountable for the underwriting performance, portfolio resilience and the profitable growth of Swiss Re’s global Specialty reinsurance portfolio. You carry a global P&L responsibility and lead the Specialty business across Agriculture, Aviation, Cyber, Engineering & Nuclear, and Marine & Energy, with end-to-end ownership of underwriting strategy, portfolio results and risk governance. The role includes a direct reporting line for the Head Specialty Claims. 

In this senior underwriting leadership role you set direction, hold the pen on underwriting decisions that matter, and translate Swiss Re’s strategy into disciplined execution across regions and lines. You operate as a trusted partner to the P&C Re Executive team, shaping priorities, steering capital and representing Swiss Re externally with clients, brokers and industry bodies. 

Key responsibilities 

Portfolio leadership, risk governance and performance 

• Owns, steers and profitably grows the global Specialty portfolio across the cycle, with clear accountability for new and in-force businesses. 

• Holds the ultimate UW pen and therefore accountability for risk appetite definition, underwriting standards and their consistent application across lines and regions. 

• Ensures robust underwriting control frameworks, including clear authorities, escalation paths, referral discipline and adherence to risk policies. 

• Guides complex, material or precedent-setting underwriting decisions, balancing commercial ambition with disciplined risk judgement and long-term portfolio resilience. 

• Actively monitors portfolio performance, emerging risk signals and accumulation exposures, intervenes decisively where underwriting action is required to protect capital and earnings. 

Strategy, market and client leadership 

• Defines and owns the global Specialty strategy, translating market, client and portfolio insights into clear priorities and actions. 

• Builds and maintains senior relationships with key clients, broker partners and market influencers, representing Swiss Re’s Specialty leadership externally. 

• Anticipates regulatory, geopolitical, competitive and macroeconomic developments and proactively steers portfolio and product responses. 

People and organizational leadership 

• Leads, coaches and develops a global community of Specialty underwriting leaders and experts, building strong succession, accountability and performance ownership. 

• Fosters a high-performing, collaborative underwriting culture balancing trade-off decisions between portfolio priorities within Specialty and across the broader P&C Re landscape  

• Attracts, retains and develops industry leading Specialty underwriting talent, ensuring the capabilities needed for emerging risks and modern underwriting practices. 

Transformation, data and execution 

• Drives operational excellence and rigor in execution, ensures high adoption of tools and adherence to processes. 

• Champions the use of data, analytics and tools as core enablers of underwriting quality, speed and client impact. 

• Sponsors change initiatives that improve efficiency and scalable insights from standardized business approaches to digital solutions. 

About You 

You are a senior underwriting leader with the credibility, judgement and presence to lead at enterprise level. You combine Specialty expertise with a strong commercial mindset and a clear sense of accountability for outcomes. You are prepared to spend a significant amount of your time and energy on Business Unit and enterprise-wide topics and initiatives.  

We are looking for candidates who bring: 

• Extensive senior executive leadership experience with proven track record across underwriting, portfolio management and senior client/broker leadership management. 

• Proven ability to lead leaders and manage large, diverse teams across geographies. 

• Deep understanding of underwriting governance, risk appetite and portfolio steering, with recognized or progressing senior underwriting authority. 

• Strong strategic judgement, commercial acumen and confidence operating with C-suite clients and senior internal stakeholders. 

• Highly developed nontechnical skills including decision-making, negotiation, stakeholder management and comfort navigating ambiguity. 

• A strong belief in data and technology as performance enablers, with experience driving adoption and change. 

• Fluency in English; additional languages desired. 

Our company operates a hybrid working model. Expectations around location and presence will align with business and leadership responsibilities. 

The estimated base salary range for this position in New York, NY is $300,000 to $500,000.  The specific salary offered for this, or any given role will take into account a number of factors including but not limited to job location, scope of role, qualifications, complexity/specialization/scarcity of talent, experience, education, and employer budget.  At Swiss Re, we take a "total compensation approach" when making compensation decisions. This means that we consider all components of compensation in their totality (such as base pay, short-and long-term incentives, and benefits offered), in setting individual compensation.