VP, Investments – Specialty Finance

As a team member in Finance at Nationwide, a Fortune 100 company with nearly $70 billion in annual sales, the opportunities are endless! Let Nationwide help create your career journey! At Nationwide®, “on your side” goes beyond just words. Our customers are at the center of everything we do and we’re looking for associates who are passionate about delivering extraordinary care.

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Job Description Summary

Do you have the desire to grow a business and play a critical role in shaping business outcomes? Our Investment and Risk professionals play a key role in using analysis to create insights that enable Nationwide to provide risk solutions to individual and corporate customers and drive business results. Nationwide Specialty Finance employs a research-driven, team-oriented, and results-focused approach to create and manage a wide array of innovative specialty finance insurance solutions like fund financing, structured credit, collateral protection, and residual value. Specialty Finance solutions cover all of the risks – and opportunities - that an insurer takes on the asset side of the balance sheet, while using an insurance contract that generally helps customers to access financial markets more efficiently.

As the VP, Investments leader for Specialty Finance, you will lead the development and management of innovative specialty finance insurance solutions, such as fund financing, structured credit, collateral protection, and residual value products. You’ll leverage your investment expertise and strategic vision to oversee underwriting practices, portfolio management, and a team of seasoned professionals. Your role requires you to collaborate closely with internal teams and external partners, especially Ryan Specialty, to ensure robust underwriting guidelines and effective risk management. In this position, you are responsible for establishing underwriting strategies, maintaining quality control, and setting portfolio targets that align with Nationwide’s overall risk exposure. You’ll build strong relationships across departments—including Technology, Operations, Actuarial, Finance, Office of Investments and Compliance—to support sound decision-making. You will also design performance and risk measurement tools, identify new product opportunities, and mentor talent to drive business results and growth.

Job Description

Key Responsibilities: 

Provide profit-oriented, risk-appropriate underwriting leadership for Specialty Finance, maintaining awareness of market trends and developments to inform strategic direction and product innovation.

Establish and maintain comprehensive underwriting strategies, guidelines, referral protocols, quality control, monitoring processes, and effective communications.

Define the framework for setting target portfolios of Specialty Finance products, ensuring alignment with Nationwide’s overall risk exposure.

Navigates complex challenges, makes data-driven decisions, and builds trusted partnerships at all levels of the company.

Foster strong collaboration across supporting functions—including Technology, Operations, Actuarial, Finance, Reserving, Reinsurance, Audit, Compliance, Legal, Risk Management, and Claims—to enhance decision-making in underwriting.

Partner with risk professionals to develop and implement methodologies for evaluating risk and return, integrating asset-oriented and product-focused perspectives into underwriting guidelines, and ensuring alignment with Ryan Specialty.

Oversee Specialty Finance leads, guiding the design, implementation, and monitoring of operating manuals, and incorporating feedback from internal and external stakeholders.

Develop and implement performance and risk measurement tools and reporting systems in partnership with Specialty Finance asset leads and reporting teams.

Build and maintain relationships with internal and external partners to identify and evaluate new product opportunities.

Recruit, mentor, and develop talent, providing consistent feedback and fostering professional growth.

May perform other responsibilities as assigned. 

Reporting Relationships: Reports to SVP, Enterprise CRO. Leads a team of Investment, Actuarial and Risk professionals.

Typical Skills and Experiences:

Education: Bachelor’s Degree; MBA, MS or MA in business administration, economics, finance, or CFA preferred.

Experience:  At least 10 years of related investment experience.

Knowledge, Abilities and Skills: Proven to have a deep expertise in institutional asset management, especially in structured products and private markets, with a demonstrated ability to evaluate complex investments. Strong analytical, problem-solving, and negotiating skills are essential, along with proficiency in asset underwriting and return on capital analysis. Effective communication, leadership, and collaboration are key, as is the ability to think critically and creatively, work independently, and manage multiple tasks under pressure. Professionalism, reliability, and the capacity to coordinate across diverse groups complete the profile.

Other criteria, including leadership skills, competencies and experiences may take precedence.

Staffing exceptions to the above must be approved by the hiring manager’s leader and HR Business Partner.

Values: Regularly and consistently demonstrates Nationwide Values.

Job Conditions:

Overtime Eligibility: Not Eligible (Exempt)

Working Conditions: Columbus preferred but remote may be considered. Some travel may be required.

ADA: The above statements cover what are generally believed to be principal and essential functions of this job. Specific circumstances may allow or require some people assigned to the job to perform a somewhat different combination of duties. 

We currently anticipate accepting applications until 02/02/2026. However, we encourage early submissions, as the posting may close sooner if a strong candidate slate is identified before the deadline.

Benefits

We have an array of benefits to fit your needs, including: medical/dental/vision, life insurance, short and long term disability coverage, paid time off with newly hired associates receiving a minimum of 18 days paid time off each full calendar year pro-rated quarterly based on hire date, nine paid holidays, 8 hours of Lifetime paid time off, 8 hours of Unity Day paid time off, 401(k) with company match, company-paid pension plan, business casual attire, and more.