Senior Actuary, Assumption Development, R&D in London

We are a global life reinsurer operating in Europe, Asia, Australia and North America, and are part of Pacific Life, a mutual insurance group. Fuelled by our pursuit of excellence and a quest to innovate, we’re proud to do things differently. Our people are not afraid to disrupt and challenge industry thinking and provide the best protection, savings and retirement reinsurance products and services possible.

Role Overview

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced qualified actuary with experience in assumption setting or experience analysis to join the R&D team. This is an exciting time to join as we expand into new markets and strengthen our presence in existing ones across Europe and North America. In this role, you'll work across both Longevity and Protection markets, giving you diverse exposure and the opportunity to make a real impact. You'll contribute to developing the actuarial bases that set our best estimate assumptions — guiding work from initial data analysis through model fitting, validation, and final approval. Previous experience with actuarial techniques like Generalised Linear Models and Survival models would be an advantage.

You will work closely with other teams including:

• R&D teams across multiple geographies, including Medical Analytics and Strategic Analytics, our internal teams of experts providing insights into emerging medical advances and of data scientists and engineers respectively.
• Savings and Retirement and Protection teams inside the Reinsurance Division to support on Pricing and Product developments and to ensure that the assumptions developed meet their needs.

How You’ll Help Move Us Forward

• Contribute to the development of market-leading assumptions by sourcing data, building models, and leading the application of innovative approaches to assumption setting.
• Provide robust challenge to assumptions and approaches adopted by Pricing, including influencing key decisions where appropriate.
• Build effective working relationships with stakeholders across the company, acting as a trusted advisor to support alignment and adopting of technical recommendations.
• Support and lead actuarial research initiatives, including contributing to internal analysis, thought-leadership work, and engagement with academic partners.
• Provide guidance and mentoring within the R&D team, coaching junior team members and supporting their development.

Skills & Experience

• Qualified Fellow of the Institute or Faculty of Actuaries or Society of Actuaries or other similar organisation, with 3+ years of post-qualified experience.
• Strong analytical skills and problem-solving abilities.
• Uses structured reasoning to solve problems, and leads more complex decisions by identifying options and evaluating trade-offs.
• Applies judgement to deliver in new or evolving areas, with increasing independence.
• An understanding of one or more of the markets we operate in (Longevity or Protection reinsurance).
• Familiarity of experience studies, trend modelling, and pricing within the life insurance industry (including reinsurers, insurers and consultancy).
• Competent in using programming languages (e.g. SQL, R or Tyche).
• Knowledge of actuarial techniques such as Generalized Linear Models and Survival Models, with the ability to apply these in practice and guide others.
• Places a high value on innovation and continuous improvement, actively contributing ideas and implementing improvements.
• Ability to collaborate with strong team-working and interpersonal skills.
• Experience in presenting to varied audiences on technical topics to gain approval, including influencing senior stakeholders and effectively managing stakeholder relationships to drive alignment and support delivery.
• Ability to work independently and lead workstreams or projects.
• Organised and deadline focussed.

We know strong candidates may not meet every point listed above. If this role feels like a good fit for your experience and strengths, we’d encourage you to apply.

Working For Pacific Life Re

Every person in our global team is valued for the unique qualities they bring to our business and we seek to build their expertise and support their individual ambitions at every step. Of course, we take our work seriously and we know our team can operate under great pressure. We work hard and thrive on achievement, but we also know how to have fun and relax too. We regularly host a range of team building days to strengthen our team's connection with each other and reflect on their successes. Providing employees with a healthy work-life balance is very important to our culture. We have a wide range of employee benefits and we host regular social activities and well being initiatives. We are also committed to supporting our employee's involvement in their communities, by actively fundraising, hosting charity events and overseeing volunteering opportunities.

Benefits (Only for Permanent and Fixed Term Employees)

• 25 days of annual leave with option to buy/sell more days.
• Adoption and fertility leave.
• Generous enhanced parental leave.
• Comprehensive private insurance coverage for employee and dependents.
• Group Life Insurance coverage of 9x basic annual salary and Group Income Protection up to 75% of basic annual salary.
• Optical benefits.
• 15% combined employee/employer contributions.
• Subsidized gym membership.
• Access to Employee Assistance Program.
• Cycle to Work and Electric Car Salary Sacrifice Scheme.
• Time off for volunteering.
• Charitable matching of employee donations.

You Can Be Who You Are

We are committed to a culture of diversity and inclusion that embraces the authenticity of all employees, partners and communities. We support all employees to thrive and achieve their fullest potential. As part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion, we will provide reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process to ensure equal access to applicants with disabilities. Please contact us about your needs so that we can discuss these with you to make sure that suitable adjustments are made, where possible.