Sr. Vice President, Product Leader

At Selective, we don't just insure uniquely, we employ uniqueness.

Selective is a midsized U.S. domestic property and casualty insurance company with a history of strong, consistent financial performance for nearly 100 years. Selective's unique position as both a leading insurance group and an employer of choice is recognized in a wide variety of awards and honors, including listing in Forbes Best Midsize Employers in 2025 and certification as a Great Place to Work in 2025 for the sixth consecutive year.

Employees are empowered and encouraged to Be Uniquely You by being their true, unique selves and contributing their diverse talents, experiences, and perspectives to our shared success. Together, we are a high-performing team working to serve our customers responsibly by helping to mitigate loss, keep them safe, and restore their lives and businesses after an insured loss occurs.

The Sr. Vice President, Product Leader for Commercial Lines, is a newly created role for the organization. The ideal candidate will be a product champion and senior organizational leader responsible for driving business value and outcomes, building and evangelizing a product mindset, overseeing the end-to-end delivery of strategic imperatives, and fostering growth, profitability, and risk reduction across the product organization. Employing expert strategic and executional matery, this individual directs the development of Commercial Lines' organizational strategy, crafts and communicates a compelling vision, prioritizes and allocates investments, and oversees the development of actionable plans to ensure the ongoing delivery of measurable value, profitability, and results in alignment with key objectives. The SVP, Product Leader, leads user advocacy, directing the creation of robust customer journeys and overseeing engagement with internal and external customers to cultivate and ensure that needs and experiences are integrated as a cornerstone in shaping and evolving products. An inspirational and empowering executive leader, this individual applies comprehensive product knowledge, advanced leadership skills, and expert interpersonal aptitude in managing, coaching, and developing high-performing product leaders. As an executive leader, this role is a peer to the heads of distribution and underwriting. As a trusted business partner, the SVP, Product Leader collaborates with company leadership to ensure strategic continuity in prioritizing and delivering organizational imperatives, measuring outcomes, providing balanced support across portfolios, demonstrating impactful business value, and enabling continuous organizational improvement. All job duties and responsibilities must be carried out in compliance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.

This position will be located in our future Short Hills, N.J. location. Until the new Short Hills headquarters is operational, the successful candidate will be offered the ability to work in our Branchville, N.J. location during the interim.

• Develops Commercial Lines product organizational strategy, objectives, and key results, and an inspirational, actionable vision providing a foundation for product portfolio development and delivery. Directs creation of portfolio epics and translation to a value-based, iterative roadmap communicating business and customer outcomes on a relevant timeline.
• Owns end-to-end value delivery and outcomes at the product organizational level, collaborating with other executives, portfolio, IT, and business leaders and stakeholders to ensure alignment between company goals, strategic organizational goals, and product portfolio plans. Accountable for results across organizational growth, profitability, and risk reduction.
• Acts as executive customer advocate and proxy at the organizational level, directing creation of robust customer journeys and engagement with internal and external customers to ensure needs, feedback, and outcomes are appropriately reflected in product portfolio deliverables.
• Directs market and competitive research efforts and application of relevant findings in product organizational strategy and development of product portfolio initiatives. Maintains and imparts an innovative approach to industry trends and regulatory developments and proactively adjusts strategy to establish market leadership.
• Directs the collection, refinement, analysis, and application of data for informed decision making across the product organization. Employs and imparts an economic perspective, assessing costs, benefits, and business value in determining organizational priorities.
• Leads and directs the development and enrichment of a product mindset, ensuring understanding and alignment with strategies across the organization. Inspires and promotes innovation and models navigation of ambiguity and embracing change. Leads a team of product portfolio leaders within an agile program by providing clear direction, fostering collaboration, empowering decision-making, and removing obstacles to ensure success. Imparts a product mindset and ensures effective leadership, coaching, and development across all levels of the portfolio team.
• Owns, manages, and regularly prioritizes initiatives across the product organization. Directs creation and refinement of portfolio epics in collaboration with portfolio, product, IT, and business leaders.
• Directs demonstration of business value and outcomes for executive leadership, business partners, and stakeholders; ensures communication of organizational priorities in agile ceremonies, planning, and continuous improvement activities.
• Proactively manages and removes impediments with organizational dependencies, collaborating with executive, portfolio, IT, and business leaders, aligning strategic prioritization, and communicating impacts as appropriate.
• Directs measurement and tracking and communicates business, growth, profitability, and risk reduction outcomes at the product organizational level.

Knowledge and Requirements

• Extensive knowledge of the P&C insurance industry, including product lines and domains, with a strong aptitude for continued learning.
• Proven ability to shape and execute business strategies while articulating a compelling vision.
• Demonstrated success in delivering positive financial outcomes, driving growth, and mitigating risk.
• Exceptional skill in partnering with senior executives and managing high-level stakeholders; champions diverse perspectives and inclusive decision-making.
• Expertise in customer and user engagement, leveraging advanced methodologies.
• Experience conducting market and competitive research, related methodologies, and application in organizational strategies for optimizing market position.
• Expert skills in leading, coaching, and empowering senior leaders and multi-level management teams to achieve peak performance.
• Expert problem-solving capability, intellectual curiosity, and development-focused mindset.
• Advanced capability in data collection, analysis, and application to inform effective organizational decisions.
• Proven ability to navigate ambiguity and complexity and operate seamlessly across strategic and tactical levels.
• In-depth knowledge of product and software development lifecycles, agile methodologies, and associated tools.
• Expert knowledge of and practical experience working with regulated products.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to deliver impactful presentations to senior executives.

Experience and Education

• Bachelor's degree or related experience, MBA preferred.
• 5-7+ years of experience leading product management teams.

The following experience is strongly preferred:

• 10-15+ years of experience in product management or related roles.
• 10+ years of insurance and/or product segment experience.

Selective Insurance offers a total rewards package that includes a competitive base salary, incentive plan eligibility at all levels, and a wide array of benefits designed to help you and your family stay healthy, achieve your financial goals, and balance the demands of your work and personal life. These benefits include comprehensive health care plans, retirement savings plan with company match, discounted Employee Stock Purchase Program, tuition assistance and reimbursement programs, and 20 days of paid time off. Additional details about our total rewards package can be found by visiting our benefits page.

The actual base salary is based on geographic location, and the range is representative of salaries for this role throughout Selective's footprint. Additional considerations include relevant education, qualifications, experience, skills, performance, and business needs.

Selective is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. That means we respect and value every individual's unique opinions, beliefs, abilities, and perspectives. We are committed to promoting a welcoming culture that celebrates diverse talent, individual identity, different points of view and experiences - and empowers employees to contribute new ideas that support our continued and growing success. Building a highly engaged team is one of our core strategic imperatives, which we believe is enhanced by diversity, equity, and inclusion. We expect and encourage all employees and all of our business partners to embrace, practice, and monitor the attitudes, values, and goals of acceptance; address biases; and foster diversity of viewpoints and opinions.

For Massachusetts Applicants

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.