Role: VP of Risk, R&D

Location: Palo Alto, CA

Reports To: Chief Risk Officer

Hippo is modernizing home insurance by putting customers at the center of everything we do.  We strive to provide them with nothing less than the best policies, best value and best customer service in the industry. And this is just the beginning. Hippo’s true ambition lies in helping prevent people from having problems with their homes to begin with.  Because, at the end of the day, the best home insurance policy is the one you never have to use. This approach is clearly resonating with people. Hippo has grown 25% a month over the past year, has a customer satisfaction score more than double the industry average and insures more than $50B in property value. 

We’re looking for the very best talent in the world to help us continue to find new ways of fundamentally redefining the role insurance plays in people’s lives. 

About You 

As our VP of Risk, you will play an integral role in managing the company's portfolio of risks, overseeing the placement of insurance risk to capital providers, and leading our capital modeling efforts. You will measure, design, and coordinate solutions that work with Hippo’s portfolio - including distribution and underwriting expertise to align them with appropriate and unique capital opportunities including traditional and non traditional reinsurance placements and managing our internal captive solution.  You will oversee management of the portfolio of risks and work very closely with pricing, underwriting, and finance teams to measure and optimize the portfolio and integrate capital structures and costs, including designing operational objectives, risk expense allocations and work plans in support of insurance management and risk evaluation and analysis.

You have a history of (re)insurance experience including a strong technical acumen in capital and catastrophe risk modeling, an understanding of the insurance based capital solutions and the ability to develop strategic relationships with brokers and reinsurers. You have the analytical horsepower to guide the modeling of risk relating to exposures in order to take Hippo’s risk and portfolio management to the next level.

Responsibilities

• Researches, understands, and advises the organization on evolving risks, and effective risk mitigation programs and how to best deploy our capital,  and keep senior management advised of developments and problems in real time.
• Communicate underwriting and other internal experts findings via executive presentations to reinsures and other capital partners including:
• Oversight of the collection and reconciliation of exposure data; including designing improvements in data collection and definition
• Preparation of reports to management on operational effectiveness, cost-of-risks, and broker/insurer value
• Preparation of program marketing presentation for underwriting insurance contract renewal meetings, reflecting Hippo’s story and risk profile
• Participate in department planning,  lead or participate in department projects and initiatives/new business. 
• Compiles and prepares risk program data for cost of risk and other benchmarking studies.
• Lead the preparation of the external submissions for the reinsurance market, including overseeing the placement timeline and structuring proposals; negotiate and place multiple reinsurance placements per year across worldwide geographies; and monitor progress of those placements. Other reinsurance responsibilities include:
• Lead the implementation of risk based capital models and share results with senior management.  Utilize capital model results to allocate capital to fuel growth with increased capacity. 
• Liaise with Underwriting, Claims, Actuarial, Finance, Accounting and Legal on matters related to risk, reinsurance, and capital.
• Confer with actuarial staff on underlying analytics and capital models
• Involvement in special projects, due diligence, and development of new reinsurance programs with underwriting finance and capital modeling.
• Coordinate and oversee counter-party risk, ensure all reinsurers meet security standards.
• Manage junior level associates throughout the placement process. 
• Develop junior level associates and analyze resource needs.

Qualifications

• A minimum of 10-15 years of work experience in catastrophe reinsurance and/or Insurance Linked Securities (ILS) markets 
• Demonstrated experience in qualitative and quantitative analysis with strong modeling including comprehensive understanding of catastrophe risk modeling such as AIR/RMS
• Advanced knowledge of actuarial principles and practices, including reinsurance, reserving and ratemaking, financial reporting, underwriting and marketing guidelines and claims practices. An actuarial credential is not required.
• Ability to influence all levels of Hippo internally and externally (investors), through informal and formal communication such as presentations
• Ability to independently lead reinsurance transactions on a national scale
• Ability to collaborate cross functionally to create successful outcomes
• Proven self-starter with a strong work ethic and an ability to solve problems independently
• Strong client focus and organizational skills
• Ability to interact effectively as a member of a team and work collaboratively
• Excellent verbal, written and interpersonal communication skills
• Demonstrated attention to detail and accuracy

Compensation and Perks

• Fun offices located in downtown Palo Alto, less than a 5 minute walk from Caltrain
• Stocked kitchen and BBQ Friday’s
• Onsite gym
• Flexible, uncapped PTO (with manager approval)
• Full time salary based on experience and equity in a fast-growing startup
• Full paid benefits for you and your family including medical, dental, vision, ltd, std, EAP, and flexible spending accounts 

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.