Carrier Partnerships Lead

Carrier Partnerships Lead

Harper is an AI-native commercial insurance company in San Francisco. We're not bolting AI onto insurance — we're rebuilding the entire business as software, on a simple bet: turning expert human judgment into compute is one of the largest transitions left to make, and a trillion-dollar industry still run 90% by hand is the place to prove it. We've grown ~100x in the last year and we move at that speed — on-site, in person, long days, very high standards. Almost no one joins Harper for insurance; they join to build the company that replaces how it works.

The role

One appointment can open an industry. One weak escalation path can leave hundreds of accounts stuck behind the same underwriting desk. Harper's AI is generating more qualified demand than most brokerages see in a decade, and demand only matters if there are carriers, wholesalers, MGAs, and programs willing and able to take it. You own those relationships at the portfolio level: access, appointments, capacity, economics, senior relationships, and the escalation channels that get a stuck account moving.

This is a relationship job, done on foot. You are the face of Harper to each carrier, and you stomp the ground with them day in and day out. You send carriers their urgency list — what we need quoted this week, what's stuck, what's about to be lost. You track outstanding binds and upcoming renewals across every market and make sure the carrier sees them before they become a problem. You know who controls appetite, capacity, and operations at each partner, and they know you. What you do not do is place accounts: the licensed account team selects the market, negotiates terms, and makes the recommendation on each one. You build the doors they walk through and the phone number they call when a door sticks.

Why now: Harper is expanding its insurance reach across offices and lines, and the constraint is shifting from demand to market access. Carrier trust, appointments, and capacity get more important as the machine gets better at producing submissions, not less.

What you'll do

• Build and keep the market map. Know Harper's carriers, wholesalers, MGAs, programs, appointments, constraints, and real production path by line, class, and state — and keep relationship history, agreements, appetite changes, contacts, and commitments current.

• Open the right doors. Win appointments, preferred access, new programs, and senior relationships where Harper has credible demand, and take each effort to a real decision instead of leaving it open.

• Be the face of Harper to each carrier. Own the relationship with the people who control appetite, capacity, operations, and distribution strategy. Show up, in person and on the phone, until they think of Harper first.

• Run the urgency list. Send each carrier what needs attention now — pending quotes, outstanding binds, upcoming renewals, stuck submissions — and track it until it's cleared.

• Turn demand into a carrier case. Show carriers the volume, risk mix, submission quality, conversion, and operating capability that justify deeper access, then negotiate the commissions, fees, service expectations, data exchange, and escalation paths Harper can support.

• Manage portfolio performance. Track what Harper sends, what markets quote, what binds, where service breaks, and which relationships deserve more investment. Carrier reviews tie relationship effort to sent, quoted, bound, response, and service outcomes.

• Create clean escalation paths. Make sure account-level teams know exactly who to call and how to move a stuck issue, without taking over their ownership of the account.

Who you are

• You've built carrier, wholesaler, MGA, or distribution partnerships in commercial insurance, and you've personally opened and developed senior insurance relationships.

• You know how appointments, programs, commissions, capacity, and distribution economics actually work.

• You understand the difference between a signed agreement and a relationship that produces, and you measure yourself on the second.

• You can turn operating data into a credible carrier-development case and negotiate from it.

• You're commercially aggressive without making promises the operation can't keep.

• You treat AI as leverage — it builds the urgency list, pulls the production data, and preps the carrier review — and you spend the time it saves in front of the carrier.

• You can work closely with account teams, underwriters, and market partners while keeping portfolio relationship ownership clearly yours.

The reality — read this before you apply

This job is on-site in San Francisco, Monday through Friday, long days, with travel to carriers, wholesalers, and industry events when the relationship calls for it. Much of the week is unglamorous: chasing an outstanding bind, re-sending an urgency list, tracking a renewal nobody else is watching, and doing it again tomorrow with a different carrier. Relationships here are built on showing up consistently and producing, not on dinners. You will have a production scoreboard, and it will be visible.

If you want to be a relationship manager without a scoreboard, if you measure success by meetings, logos, or signed agreements that don't change placement outcomes, if you want to own individual account negotiation instead of the carrier portfolio, or if you expect the underwriting or brokerage teams to maintain your relationship records for you, this seat will frustrate you. This is not a consumer acquisition or demand-generation role, and it does not come with a remote or hybrid default. If the intensity reads as a cost you'd rather avoid, this isn't the seat. If it reads as the point, keep going.

Compensation & logistics

• Salary: 150,000–220,000 base, plus variable tied to carrier outcomes, plus equity.

• Equity: Yes.

• Location: On-site, San Francisco. Based there or willing to relocate.

• Schedule: Monday–Friday, long days. Exact coverage window is set by office.

Benefits

• Health, dental, and vision insurance

• Meals provided — breakfast, lunch, and dinner

• Snacks, drinks, and coffee stocked daily

• Commuter benefits

• Free gym membership

Process

1. Team call — 30 minutes on Zoom. You meet the team, we meet you.

2. Office session — about two hours in person. You meet more of the team and work a real problem with us.

3. Super day — how you actually operate, in real time. We decide after this.

The process moves as fast as you do.

To apply

Send your resume and one carrier-partnership case: a carrier, wholesaler, or program relationship you personally opened or changed, the commercial reason it mattered, what you negotiated, and the production result.