Job Title: Senior Product Manager, Underwriting
Location: Austin, TX / Dallas, TX / Morristown, NJ / San Jose, CA
Reporting to: VP of Product, Insurance & Operations
About Hippo:
Hippo was built on a promise: make homeownership effortless. Nearly a decade later, that mission still drives us. We use technology and data to help our customers stay ahead of problems and protect what matters most.
Today, that same tech-native approach powers our work beyond homeowners. Hippo operates as a diversified carrier platform, partnering with MGAs to deliver tailored program solutions that help them grow and deliver better customer experiences. Behind that work is a team that values ownership, curiosity, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
If you're energized by building what's next, we'd love to meet you.
About You:
We are looking for a seasoned Senior Product Manager with a proven track record of owning complex, high-stakes technical platforms in risk-intensive industries to own Hippo's Underwriting Platform charter. This is a strategic, high-impact role at the intersection of risk, technology, AI and business growth — responsible for the end-to-end UW platform including our rules engine, risk and underwriting models, and AI-powered workflows.
We are looking for someone who sets aspirational goals and has the agency to deliver them — someone who can think broadly about the future of underwriting technology while executing with precision in the near term.
What You’ll Do:
Strategy & Vision
- Define and own the multi-year product strategy and vision for Hippo's Underwriting Platform — spanning the rules engine, risk and UW models, and AI/agentic workflows.
- Identify opportunities to modernize and scale UW infrastructure in ways that directly improve loss ratio, underwriting accuracy and efficiency, and speed-to-market for new risk appetite changes.
- Influence and shape company-level prioritization decisions for the UW platform, building alignment across product, engineering, and business leadership without direct authority.
- Stay ahead of emerging trends in insurtech, AI, and risk modeling — translating them into a roadmap that positions Hippo competitively.
Execution & Delivery
- Own the end-to-end product lifecycle for the UW platform: discovery, prioritization, requirements, delivery, and post-launch performance.
- Lead cross-functional execution of major platform initiatives, partnering with Engineering, Data Science, Actuarial, and Underwriting to deliver on time and with quality.
- Translate complex business and risk requirements into crisp, actionable PRDs, user stories, and acceptance criteria.
- Drive measurable outcomes — own the metrics that matter, including loss ratio impact, underwriter efficiency, model accuracy, and automation rates.
Business & Stakeholder Partnership
- Serve as the primary bridge between the Underwriting and Actuarial business teams and the Engineering organization — deeply understanding business needs and enabling tech to meet them.
- Build strong partnerships with business stakeholders, earning trust through consistent delivery, clear communication, and a genuine understanding of underwriting and risk.
- Communicate strategy, tradeoffs, and outcomes to leadership with narratives grounded in data and business impact.
Platform & AI Enablement
- Drive the evolution of Hippo's rules engine — enabling faster, safer, and more auditable changes to underwriting logic.
- Partner with Data Science to integrate risk models into the underwriting workflow, shortening the feedback loop between model development and production deployment.
Must Haves:
- 7+ years of experience in product management, including full ownership of the product backlog and leading the end-to-end software development lifecycle in collaboration with a team of at least four engineers, delivering impactful and user-focused solutions.
- Experience working with or building risk platforms, rules engines, ML models and/or decision automation systems. You understand how these systems work and what it takes to evolve them safely.
- Proven track record of bridging the gap between business and engineering — translating ambiguous business problems into clear technical requirements, and helping engineering teams understand the 'why' behind the work.
- Demonstrated track record of directly improving risk and efficiency metrics — loss ratio, case handling time, automation rates etc. — at meaningful scale.
- Ability to set a compelling vision and strategy for a technical domain while simultaneously driving rigorous near-term execution. You are equally comfortable in a strategy conversation and a sprint planning session.
- Strong stakeholder management skills — ability to earn trust across business, technical, and executive audiences, and to navigate competing priorities with clarity and conviction.
- Data-driven decision making with strong analytical skills. Comfortable defining success metrics, analyzing results, and iterating with discipline.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Able to distill complex topics into clear narratives for diverse audiences.
- Product management experience in insurance, financial services, or an adjacent industry.
Nice to Haves:
- Experience with AI and agentic workflow platforms — understanding of how to scope, evaluate, and deploy AI in production underwriting or operational contexts.
Benefits and Perks
Hippo treats its team members with the same level of dedication and care as we do our customers, which is why we’re fortunate to provide all of our Hippos with:
- Healthy Hippos Benefits - Multiple medical plans to choose from and 100% employer covered dental & vision plans for our team members and their families. We also offer a 401(k)-retirement plan, short & long-term disability, employer-paid life insurance, Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) for health and dependent care, and an Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
- Equity - This position is eligible for equity compensation
- Training and Career Growth - Training and internal career growth opportunities
- Flexible Time Off - You know when and how you should recharge
- Little Hippos Program - We offer 12 weeks of parental leave for primary and secondary caregivers
- Hippo Habitat - Snacks and drinks available and catered lunches for onsite employees
The Morristown, NJ and San Francisco Bay Area base pay range for this role is $124,000 – $186,000. Exact compensation may vary based on several job-related factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to: skill set, experience, education/training, location, business needs and market demands.
Hippo is an equal opportunity employer, and we are committed to building a team culture that celebrates diversity and inclusion.
Hippo’s applicants are considered solely based on their qualifications, without regard to an applicant’s disability or need for accommodation. Any Hippo applicant who requires reasonable accommodations during the application process should contact the Hippo’s People Team to make the need for an accommodation known.
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