Actuarial Solution Architect in Slough

Canada Life UK looks after the retirement, investment and protection needs of individuals, families and companies. We help to build better futures for our customers, our intermediaries and our employees by operating as a modern, agile and welcoming organisation. Part of our parent company Great-West Lifeco, Canada Life UK has operated in the United Kingdom since 1903. We have hundreds of respected and supported employees committed to doing the right thing for our customers and colleagues. Canada Life UK is transforming to create a more customer-focused business by providing our customers with expertise on financial and tax planning, offering home finance and annuities propositions, and providing collective fund solutions to third party customers.

The role holder is a leadership role within the Modelling & Production (M&P) function, within Finance, responsible for the end-to-end (E2E) design and architecture of actuarial, reinsurance and valuation solutions across the remit of M&P function. This role ensures that all model and system changes are designed holistically across methodology, models, systems, data, processes and reporting, delivering solutions that are robust, scalable, efficient and aligned with both business strategy and regulatory requirements. The role holder acts as a critical bridge between business stakeholders and technical delivery teams, working closely with Finance, Risk, AFO, IT, Development team, Investments, BPA and others:

• Understand and challenge business requirements
• Translate requirements into clear, structured solution designs
• Ensure effective and accurate implementation across actuarial systems

The Actuarial Solution Architect provides strategic direction on actuarial architecture, drives consistency across modelling platforms, and ensures that solutions enable effective decision-making, operational efficiency, and regulatory compliance (e.g. Solvency II, IFRS17, USGAAP). The role combines actuarial expertise, architectural thinking, and strong communication skills, supporting both innovation and governance across the actuarial ecosystem.

What will you be doing:

1. End-to-End Solution Design
   • Lead the design of actuarial solutions from an end-to-end perspective, covering methodology, modelling platforms, data, aggregation, reporting and controls.
   • Ensure all changes are internally consistent across the actuarial value chain.
   • Define target state architectures aligned to strategic objectives. Identify dependencies, risks and optimisation opportunities across system.
2. Requirements Gathering & Stakeholder Engagement
   • Engage directly with stakeholders (Finance, Risk, IT, Investments, Product) to understand business requirements. Challenge and refine requirements to ensure clarity, feasibility and value.
   • Translate complex needs into structured, well-defined solution designs.
   • Facilitate alignment across multiple stakeholders with differing priorities.
3. Translation to Implementation
   • Produce detailed design documentation and specifications for delivery teams
   • Work closely with development and production teams to ensure:
   • Clear understanding of requirements
   • Feasible implementation approaches
   • Alignment with architecture standards
   • Provide ongoing guidance during implementation to ensure design intent is realized
4. Architecture & Standards
   • Define and maintain actuarial architecture principles and standards. Drive consistency across:
   • Model design
   • Data structures and flows
   • System integrations
   • Reporting frameworks
   • Promote best practices in automation, modular design and scalability
5. Governance, Risk & Regulatory Compliance
   • Support model change governance processes, including:
   • Design documentation
   • Change justification
   • Evidence for approvals
   • Ensure solutions meet risk management standards and control requirements
   • Contribute to regulatory engagement (e.g. PRA submissions)
   • Ensure appropriate auditability, traceability and documentation
6. Continuous Improvement and Innovation
   • Identify opportunities to simplify, modernise and optimise actuarial systems
   • Lead or contribute to transformation initiatives and tooling improvements
   • Maintain awareness of industry trends, tools and regulatory developments
   • Encourage innovation while maintaining robust control frameworks
7. Leadership & Collaboration
   • Provide technical leadership and guidance to actuarial and delivery teams
   • Foster strong collaboration across actuarial, IT and data functions
   • Support development of team capability in architecture and design thinking

What Experience will you have for the position:

• Technical expertise
  • Strong knowledge of Solvency II / Internal Models with a proven track record of contributing to change, innovation and optimisation of model components.
  • Strong project management skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities and deliver high quality outputs under tight time pressure.
  • Strong commercial outlook and the ability to balance model rigour with pragmatic solutions that meet business needs.
  • Deep understanding of actuarial systems and modelling platforms
  • Proven experience in solution architecture or end-to-end design
  • Strong knowledge of:
  • Data flows and dependencies
  • Model integration
  • Reporting frameworks
  • Ability to design across business, modelling and technical layers
• Communication and influencing
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills
  • Ability to translate complex technical concepts into business language
  • Strong experience engaging with senior stakeholders
  • Ability to facilitate discussions across technical and non-technical audiences
  • Skilled in influencing outcomes without direct authority
• Stakeholder management and relationship building
  • Strong interpersonal and networking skills, with the ability to build and maintain effective relationships with a wide range of stakeholders across Finance, Risk, Investments, Product and other areas.
  • Experience of working collaboratively with second and third line functions (e.g. Risk, Compliance, Internal Audit, Independent Model Validation) to address findings, improve methodologies and enhance the control environment.
  • Ability to act with integrity and role model company values, building trust and credibility as a subject matter expert.
• Initiative and delivery
  • Proven track record of delivery under tight time pressure, including the ability to prioritise effectively and manage competing demands.
  • Self motivated, well organised and pragmatic, able to work independently, take ownership of issues and drive them through to resolution.
  • Able to identify opportunities to enhance the Internal Model and its use in decision making, and to recommend and implement improvements in response to regulatory, market and business developments.
• Developing self and others
  • Experience of supporting, guiding or supervising less experienced team members within the department, including review, feedback and on the job coaching.
  • Commitment to maintaining up to date knowledge of actuarial, market and regulatory developments relevant to Internal Models and capital management, and to sharing this knowledge within the team.

Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree in Finance / Maths (or equivalent experience)
• Fellow of Institute of Actuaries (or equivalent)

Benefits of working at Canada Life

We believe in recognising and rewarding our people, so we offer a competitive salary and benefits package that's regularly reviewed. As a Canada Life UK colleague, you'll receive a competitive salary and comprehensive reward package including a generous pension and bonus scheme, along with income protection, private medical insurance and life assurance. We have a fantastic number of other benefits and support services as well as regular personal and professional development.

How we work at Canada Life

Our culture is unique and incredibly important to us. We care about doing the right thing for our people, customers and community and helping others to build better futures. Our blueprint behaviours shape and influence how we work, and are central to the relationships we have with others. Every day we are encouraged to be more curious, own the outcome, face into things together and find a way forward.

We want colleagues to have rewarding careers with us so we invest in the development of our people, technology and workplaces. That's why we offer a range of training, flexible working and opportunities to grow and develop.

Diversity and inclusion

Building an inclusive workplace with a diverse workforce where everyone can feel they belong and achieve their potential regardless of gender, ethnicity or any other characteristic is a key commitment for us. We are proud of the progress we're making in DEI, and we continue for it to be a significant focus.

At Canada Life we believe in the power of great people from different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives coming together to build better futures. Emerging talent is crucial to our growth and creating an environment that continues to inspire us all.

We appreciate that everyone has different work and life responsibilities. We're happy to discuss flexible working arrangements, including part time, for any of our roles should this be a requirement for you.