What it’s like to be a Northbridge Director, Research & Development, Corporate Underwriting

As a Director, Research & Development, Corporate Underwriting, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the future growth of our business. You will provide dedicated research capacity and strategic leadership for Corporate Underwriting by identifying market opportunities, assessing emerging trends, and advancing innovative solutions that support profitable growth. In this role, you will lead the development and maintenance of an innovation pipeline, evaluate strategic opportunities through market, underwriting, operational, and financial analysis, and provide recommendations that influence key business decisions.

Working closely with Line Directors and senior leaders, you will lead cross-functional initiative teams to advance prioritized opportunities from concept through execution and transition into business ownership. You will also bring strong commercial underwriting expertise and market insight to assess emerging risks, evaluate new market segments, and support strategic growth initiatives. As a trusted advisor, you will collaborate across underwriting, operations, claims, risk services, actuarial, reinsurance, technology, analytics, training, and distribution teams to drive alignment, remove barriers, and accelerate results.

As a people leader, you will coach and develop team members, including the Project Manager, while fostering a high-performance culture focused on accountability, collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement. We want your talent!

If you are excellent at:

Strategic thinking and opportunity assessment

Leading and developing high-performing teams

Influencing and building alignment across diverse stakeholder groups

Facilitating discussions and driving consensus

Translating research and market insights into actionable business recommendations

Leading initiatives through influence in a matrixed environment

Managing ambiguity and advancing early-stage opportunities

Collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement

Building strong partnerships across business functions





Driving execution and maintaining momentum on strategic priorities

And you have

Post-secondary education and/or equivalent professional experience

CIP and/or FCIP designation preferred

Advanced commercial underwriting experience with expertise in risk assessment, pricing, profitability, and growth strategies

Minimum 10 years of commercial property and casualty insurance experience, including mid-market to large business

Minimum 5 years of leadership experience

Advanced expertise in commercial underwriting, pricing principles, profitability drivers, portfolio management, and risk assessment

Strong knowledge of policy contracts, underwriting guidelines, and regulatory requirements

Experience assessing strategic growth opportunities and developing business cases

Experience leading strategic initiatives and influencing outcomes across cross-functional teams

Strong understanding of insurance functions including Claims, Risk Management, Premium Accounting, and related disciplines An established industry network with the ability to leverage broker, partner, and market insights

Experience evaluating portfolio performance and identifying profitable growth opportunities

Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office applications

Strong project governance, prioritization, reporting, and resource management capabilities

We really mean it when we say we put you first. Here are a few ways how:

Hybrid work! We have a flexible hybrid model that allows you to work from home up to 2 days per week, with added flexibility for when you really need it.

We offer competitive salaries and support your financial health through our employee share purchase plan, pension plans, RRSP, discounts on staff insurance, and more!





We help you prioritize your well-being from day one through flexible health benefits, early leave days, wellness programs, rewards, and recognition programs.

We are invested in helping you grow in your career through education assistance to complete your CIP, FCIP, CRM or other courses desired, internal mobility, Leadership training and mentoring programs.

NBFC cares about the community and supports the causes you believe in with donation matching and team volunteer days.

We’re committed to pay transparency and fairness.

The base salary range for this position is $150,000 – $170,000, which reflects the expected base pay for the position. The actual base salary offered may vary depending on your experience, skills, and alignment with the role. We also want to be transparent about the family you join.

Who we are

We’re Northbridge Insurance. We’re proud to work with Canada’s most trusted commercial broker networks. We have a reputation for being one of Canada’s leading commercial insurance providers. By continually striving to challenge the status quo, and by focusing on helping our customers, we’ve been able to build our reputation as one of Canada’s largest commercial insurance providers.

At Northbridge Financial we embrace and celebrate you and are committed to creating an inclusive workplace for all! No matter who you are or what makes you unique, we welcome you. Please let us know how we can assist or accommodate you during the selection process.

Northbridge Financial Corporation is a leading commercial property and casualty insurance company that’s been helping protect Canadian businesses for more than 90years. We’re 100% Canadian!

We offer a wide range of creative solutions to our customers through our Northbridge Insurance, TruShield Insurance and Federated Insurance brands where we strive to create a fair and friendly culture. By continually striving to challenge the status quo, and by focusing on helping our customers, we’ve been able to build our reputation as one of Canada’s largest commercial insurance providers.

📌 Director, Research & Development, Corporate Underwriting (Toronto)
🏢 Northbridge Financial
📍 Toronto