SHARNA’ HINES
Chicago
Summary
Insurance and technology operations leader with 10+ years of experience across AI-enabled workflows, SaaS platforms, and commercial insurance. Proven track record in project delivery, Agile/SDLC, process improvement, underwriting operations, and cross-functional leadership. Licensed in Property & Casualty and Life & Health. Known for building human-in-the-loop (HITL) processes, creating SOP++ frameworks, and aligning automation with business and compliance goals.
Overview
11
11
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Founding Insurance Operations Lead
Kay.ai
01.2025 - Current
- Lead end-to-end delivery of AI-driven quoting/underwriting workflows; translate business rules into automation logic and field-level data mappings across multiple carriers.
- Build and maintain prompt engineering frameworks, extraction templates, and QA checks to raise accuracy and reduce manual rework.
- Manage HITL Specialists: create SOPs, training, and feedback loops; drive SLA adherence and continuous improvement using Agile ceremonies.
- Partner with Product & Engineering to design, test, and deploy features; perform acceptance testing, error annotation, and deployment readiness reviews.
- Stand up audit-ready documentation (SOP++, runbooks, change logs) to support compliance and operational resiliency.
CEO & Founder
Hines Legacy Services
01.2016 - Current
- Built an independent agency (Life & Health, P&C); implemented CRM/LMS processes that improved retention by ~25% and accelerated new-broker ramp.
- Established carrier/client relationships; created sales and compliance training for advisors.
Senior Operations Specialist & Underwriting (AI Process Improvement)
Joyn Insurance
03.2022 - 10.2024
- Managed multiline underwriting ops (Property, GL, Excess) with portfolio ownership and binding authority; achieved an 87% renewal rate (~$2.61M retained premiums).
- Conducted 250+ risk assessments/year; implemented scoring and evaluation checklists that improved underwriting accuracy by ~20%.
- Designed and delivered training programs (internal + partner teams) that increased product understanding by 35% and compliance by 25%.
- Digitized onboarding with DocuSign & workflow automation—cut turnaround from 7 days to 24–48 hours and improved documentation accuracy by ~90%.
- Drove user testing & QA via JIRA; triaged defects, coordinated fixes, and validated enhancements prior to release.
- Partnered with Product/Eng to refine AI-supported workflows, align system rules with underwriting guidelines, and stabilize data quality.
Associate Broker
AmWINS Group, Inc.
01.2021 - 03.2022
- Marketed/negotiated E&S commercial lines; achieved 90% client retention and up to 20% client savings through carrier negotiations.
- Performed market analysis to identify production gaps and support pricing/placement strategy; onboarded associates on workflow and compliance.
Sales Representative
State Farm
06.2014 - 05.2016
- Licensed producer (P&C, Life & Health); exceeded sales targets; resolved complex underwriting/claims issues while maintaining top CSAT.
Education
Doctor of Education - Interdisciplinary Leadership (Org. Leadership)
Roosevelt University
Chicago, IL08-2027
MBA - Training & Development
Roosevelt University
Chicago, IL01.2021
BS - Biology
Illinois State University
Bloomington, IL01.2016
Skills
- JIRA
- Confluence
- MS Project
- Excel
- Power BI
- Salesforce
- DocuSign
- Notion
- Google Workspace
- JSON Mapping
- SaaS/PaaS
- Cloud Environments
- DevOps Collaboration
- LMS Platforms
- Motivational attitude
- Operational efficiency
- Experience preparing sales projections
- Distribution management
- Scheduling coordination
- Production planning
- People management proficiency
- Demand forecasting
- Acknowledgment of customer needs
- Strong team building skills
- Procedure implementation
Accomplishments
- AI Workflow Delivery: Increased automation accuracy (~70%) and reduced manual quoting time (~60%) by implementing structured extraction logic, QA gates, and feedback loops.
- Operational Resiliency: Built SOP++ and audit-ready documentation for multi-carrier integrations, reducing SLA breaches and speeding releases.
- Global Team Leadership: Managed offshore HITL/QA resources; established metrics dashboards and cadence that improved KPI performance by ~60%.
Certification
- Property & Casualty (Active)
- Life & Health (Active)
- Lean Six Sigma (In Progress)
- Agile/Scrum Fundamentals (In Progress)
Timeline
Founding Insurance Operations Lead
Kay.ai
01.2025 - Current
Senior Operations Specialist & Underwriting (AI Process Improvement)
Joyn Insurance
03.2022 - 10.2024
Associate Broker
AmWINS Group, Inc.
01.2021 - 03.2022
CEO & Founder
Hines Legacy Services
01.2016 - Current
Sales Representative
State Farm
06.2014 - 05.2016
BS - Biology
Illinois State University
Doctor of Education - Interdisciplinary Leadership (Org. Leadership)
Roosevelt University
MBA - Training & Development
Roosevelt University
CORE COMPETENCIES
- Project Management
- Agile / SDLC
- AI & Automation
- Process Improvement
- Underwriting Ops
- Data Quality & QA
- Cloud/SaaS Operations
- Vendor/SLA Management
- Risk Management
- SOP Development
- JIRA
- Confluence
- MS Project
- Salesforce
- Excel
- Team Leadership