Surety Team Lead - The Buckner Company

Position Title: Surety Team Lead

Classification: Exempt

Reports To: Director of Operations

Hours: Full Time (40 hours/week)

Location: Salt Lake City

Compensation: $70,000 to $85,000 DOE with benefits

Position Summary

This is a hybrid role that serves as a front-line manager for a team of direct reports and also has the primary responsibility to service a book of business. Time split between servicing your book and managing your team should be around 70/30 with the ~70% being spent on your book. This may not be possible on any given day or week, but in the aggregate, this is the target. Team leader has the ultimate responsibility for the onboarding, training and development of all direct reports. The team leader is not necessarily expected to complete the training and developmental work on their own, but to manage the process and ensure it is done in a timely manner.

Salary Range: $70000.00 - $85000.00 per year

Annual Base Salary Based on Experience

Paid Time Off (PTO)

Health Insurance

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

Mon-Fri Schedule

Disability Insurance

Life Insurance

Career Growth Opportunities

Evenings Off

Responsibilities

Service and manage a Surety book of business:

• Able to handle day to day needs of multiple clients and/or client advisors (including email and phone conversations) independently.
• Able to process bid bonds, performance/payment bonds, and license bonds without assistance.
• Able to process Agent of Record Letters, renewals, riders, consents of surety, and invoicing without assistance.
• Able to follow for payment from clients (non-pays)
• Able to maintain proper documentation and workflow in Epic (agency management system).
• Have a working relationship with Surety Underwriters including ability to discuss and solve issues.
• Ability to determine the differences in financial statement presentations.
• Able to review Construction Contracts for pertinent information.
• Knowledge of the different types of bond coverages/obligations and experience with placing bonds.
• Able to communicate with the bond team and work in tandem on larger, more difficult requests.
• Proficient in Excel, Word & Adobe Acrobat
• Good time management and organizational skills.

Training and Development:

• Ensure that every new hire has a training plan
• Training plan for new hires with no experience should encompass the first 4 weeks of employment and should be completed before the employees start date
• Training plan for new hires with experience should be tailored to meet the needs of the team and the skills of the new hire
• Execute on training plan and modify as needed during the training period
• Meet with each direct report at least semi-annually to discuss training, development and performance
• Ensure every direct report has an actionable training or development plan that is appropriate to their knowledge, skill set and tenure

Management:

• Establish and maintain rapport with direct reports
• Have an ownership stake in the morale of your team and work to reduce employee turnover
• Collaborate with other team leads to streamline and improve workflows, increase efficiency or to share/gain beneficial knowledge and insights
• Recognize and reward direct reports for exception work, service or results
• Handle employee performance issues as needed (warnings, write ups, PIPs, etc.)
• Support your direct reports as they seek to increase their industry knowledge via CE, designations, licensing or certifications
• Ensure direct reports perform in accordance with company standards
• Professionalism
• Workflow compliance
• Provide actionable feedback to your direct reports on a regular basis

Administrative:

• Attend and participate in team leader meetings
• Attend in-office carrier meetings as often as possible
• Manage workloads of direct reports, rebalance as needed
• Ensure team is appropriately staffed
• Have final say on new hires that will report to you
• Manage PTO requests
• Load share with other team when excess capacity exists
• Request new openings from HR once the need has been established
• Seek to improve the Buckner culture and work environment by the example you set, the people you hire and the behaviors you support

Qualifications:

Education and Experience:

• 4-year college degree preferred, High School Degree or GED
• 5+ years in the insurance industry required
• Agent Property/Casualty License
• Power of Attorney for all Sureties
• Completed surety schooling with either William Angell Surety School or other

Required Job Skills:

• Excellent communication skills, including listening, speaking and writing
• Exceptional interpersonal skills: professional, personable, and able to interact effectively with others and to respond appropriately in stressful situations and under deadlines.
• Ability to work well with others in a team environment
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Computer literacy for correspondence, data entry, e-mail, Internet, spreadsheets and accessing data from company systems.
• Dependability and promptness
• Good organizational and time-management skills

Physical:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to communicate verbally and to listen for instructions and information. The employee is also required to sit for long periods of time often in front of a computer monitor and operate a computer keyboard. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required include close vision, distance vision, color vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.