Senior Manager, Underwriting Strategy & Operations

Manager, Underwriting Strategy & Operations Who we are: Nirvana is on a mission to harness the power of data to revolutionize commercial insurance and enable a safer world. We are bringing much-needed innovation into the legacy, trillion-dollar commercial insurance industry. We have developed cutting-edge predictive models that use real-time IoT data from billions of connected devices, allowing us to better understand and price risk. Our AI-driven platform fundamentally changes the way an insurance company operates with personalized risk scoring, faster underwriting, modernized claims, and proactive, data-driven insights to help customers prevent accidents. We’ve already proven the scale—serving thousands of fleets and more than doubling our written premiums year over year. Our data moat is growing exponentially with more than 30 billion miles of telematics data, leading to more predictive models and new insights into how we can better understand and reduce risk. Altogether, our loss ratio, efficiency, and customer experience are redefining what can be done in the industry. With $270+ million raised, including our Series D round in December 2025, we’re only accelerating our growth, with strong support from top-tier VCs including Lightspeed, General Catalyst, and Valor. Nirvana’s leadership team has previously helped scale multi-billion-dollar companies from scratch, including Samsara, Rubrik, and Flexport, and includes industry veterans from Hiscox, The Hartford, and RLI.

About the Role

We’re looking for an Senior Manager, Underwriting Strategy & Operations to help shape the future of underwriting at Nirvana. This is a high-impact leadership role where you’ll guide a team of underwriters while helping define how modern, AI-enabled underwriting should operate. In this role, you’ll combine deep commercial insurance expertise with operational leadership. You’ll partner with product, engineering, and data teams to improve underwriting workflows, implement AI-powered tools, and create scalable processes that drive speed, accuracy, and strong loss outcomes. This role reports to the General Manager and manages a team of approximately five underwriters. If you’re excited about transforming traditional underwriting into a faster, more data-driven discipline, this is an opportunity to build something meaningful in a massive industry. What You’ll Do

• Lead and develop a team of underwriters, setting clear goals and supporting their growth in a fast-paced environment
• Drive operational improvements across underwriting workflows using automation, analytics, and AI-powered tools
• Improve underwriting efficiency and decision quality through scalable processes and playbooks
• Partner with Product, Engineering, and Data teams to design and implement next-generation underwriting capabilities
• Evaluate complex commercial risks and guide the team on pricing, coverage decisions, and portfolio management
• Establish underwriting standards and best practices as Nirvana expands its non-fleet insurance offerings
• Monitor portfolio performance and identify opportunities to improve profitability, growth, and customer experience

What You Bring Must-Haves

• Experience in commercial insurance underwriting, ideally in a leadership capacity
• Experience managing or mentoring underwriters and leading a small team
• Background working in a high-growth or technology-driven insurance environment (insurtech or similar)
• Strong operational mindset with a track record of improving underwriting processes or efficiency
• Ability to collaborate cross-functionally with product, engineering, and data teams

Nice-to-Haves

• Direct experience underwriting commercial auto risks
• Experience implementing AI, automation, or advanced analytics in underwriting workflows
• Familiarity with scaling underwriting operations in a startup or high-growth company

Why Join Nirvana

• Transform a legacy industry. Help define what next-generation underwriting looks like in a data-driven insurance company.
• Real ownership. Lead a team and shape underwriting processes that will scale across the business.
• High-impact environment. Work closely with leadership and cross-functional teams to drive meaningful change.
• Accelerated growth. Join a company growing rapidly with strong product momentum and backing from top-tier investors.

Benefits:

• Competitive salary & equity
• Medical, dental & vision insurance
• 401k with company match
• Unlimited PTO
• Work from home friendly

We set our salary ranges using compensation data from companies similar to our stage and size. For this role, the estimated salary range for this position is $ 113,000- $135,000. The actual base salary will vary depending on multiple factors unique to each candidate, including location, job-related knowledge, transferable skills, work experience and our assessment of your level during the interview process. Nirvana offers equity for all full-time employees, which is not included in the range listed above and will have an impact on your overall compensation. Nirvana offers a wide range of best-in-class, comprehensive benefits including 100% employer paid healthcare plans, an up to 4% 401k match program, paid time off, parental leave, wellness reimbursement, work-from-home stipend and more.Nirvana is committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce. If you’re interested in this role, but do not meet 100% of the qualifications listed above, we encourage you to apply. We'd like to consider you for this position and roles that may be a fit in the future. Nirvana is an Equal Opportunity Employer and considers applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, orientation, national origin, age, disability, genetics or any other basis forbidden under federal, state, or local law. Nirvana considers all qualified applicants in accordance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance. Apply tot his job Apply To this Job