Insurance Quant Jobs in Arizona (NOW HIRING)

Job Summary:
Vela Insurance Services is a provider of specialized insurance solutions in the Excess and Surplus Lines market. The AVP, Advanced Analytics & AI Strategy is responsible for leading AI-driven intelligence initiatives across underwriting, claims, and operations to enhance portfolio decision-making and drive optimal returns.
Responsibilities:
• Lead the team in the design, deployment, and continuous improvement of intelligence solutions that deliver measurable outcomes across underwriting, claims, and operations.
• Develop and execute the analytics roadmap, including structured and unstructured data integration, variable selection, and alignment with Vela’s strategic priorities.
• Partner with the Senior Leadership Team to support portfolio oversight and optimize risk‑adjusted returns through analytics‑driven insights.
• Oversee the integration of intelligence into core underwriting and claims workflows, ensuring full leverage of Kalepa, Helix, and enterprise data assets.
• Champion adoption of data‑driven decision‑making through effective change management and stakeholder engagement.
• Partner with Underwriting to design, validate, and refine risk factors embedded within underwriting intelligence platforms to improve portfolio performance.
• Enhance risk scoring, pricing precision, portfolio targeting, and underwriting dashboards to support disciplined and profitable risk selection at both the risk and portfolio level.
• Partner with the CCO to advance claim analytics focused on handling efficiency, reserving accuracy, and claim settlement outcomes.
• Deliver insights on claim trends, early warning indicators, fraud detection, and leakage to inform underwriting, claims, and portfolio strategy.
• Advance portfolio management capabilities to support capital objectives, including the refinement of AI‑enabled, rules‑based engines.
• Enable dynamic portfolio management through continuous, forward-looking adjustment of risk selection, pricing, appetite and capacity based on risk insights and market conditions.
• Establish dynamic underwriting audits at the individual risk and portfolio level.
• Provide senior leadership with clear, timely insights to support portfolio optimization and strategic decision‑making.
• Lead advanced analytics and machine learning initiatives, including model development, monitoring, recalibration, and continuous improvement.
• Build scalable intelligence capabilities that embed feedback loops into execution in partnership with EsTech, BTS, and DNA teams at Berkley.
• Drive operational efficiency by identifying process gaps, optimizing workflows, and implementing automation and intelligence solutions.
• Identify, prioritize, and develop AI use cases, including actionable prompts and intelligence tools that improve speed, quality, and consistency of execution.
• Partner with enterprise technology and data teams to ensure data quality, accessibility, architectural alignment, and adherence to enterprise standards.
Qualifications:
Required:
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Data Science, Statistics, Actuarial Science, Computer Science, Engineering, or related quantitative field
• 7–10+ years of experience applying data science, advanced analytics, or AI/ML in an insurance environment, with demonstrated impact on underwriting, claims, pricing adequacy, and portfolio performance
• Proven leadership experience building or managing analytics, data science, or operational ‑ efficiency teams.
• Expertise in SQL, Python, machine learning frameworks, and modern data platforms (e.g., Databricks, cloud ‑ based analytics environments).
• Demonstrated ability to translate business needs into analytical solutions and communicate complex concepts to non ‑ technical stakeholders.
• Track record of driving change management, influencing cross ‑ functional teams, and implementing new technologies or processes.
• Strong problem ‑ solving, critical ‑ thinking, and strategic ‑ planning skills, with the ability to operate both hands ‑ on and at an enterprise ‑ strategy level.
Preferred:
• Strong understanding of underwriting, claims, risk modeling, or actuarial concepts preferred.
• Experience with dashboarding and reporting tools such as Power BI.
Company:
Vela Insurance Services, a Berkley Company, is a leading insurance provider that specializes in excess and surplus lines business in Vela’s three market segments: Construction, Specialty Casualty, and Professional Liability. Founded in 1996, the company is headquartered in Chicago, USA, with a team of 51-200 employees. The company is currently Growth Stage.