Finance Risk & Controls Oversight Lead - Actuarial in Edinburgh

Job Type: Permanent

Location: Edinburgh / London / Birmingham, with normally a minimum of 2 days a week working in the office and the rest working at home. We believe that benefits both you and our business, helping ensure that you can balance a successful career with your life outside of work while maximising the value of face-to-face stakeholder engagement.

Flexible working: All of our roles are open to part-time, job-share and other types of flexibility. We will discuss what is important to you and balancing this with business requirements during the recruitment process.

Closing Date: Friday 6th January

Salary and benefits: £55,000 - £80,000 plus an indicative bonus range of 16%-32%, private medical cover, 38 days annual leave, excellent pension, 12x salary life assurance, career breaks, income protection, 3x volunteering days and much more.

Who are we? We want to be the best place that any of our 6,600 colleagues have ever worked. We’re Phoenix Group, we’re a long-term savings and retirement business. We offer a range of products across our market-leading brands, Standard Life, SunLife, Phoenix Life and ReAssure. Around 1 in 5 people in the UK has a pension with us. We’re a FTSE 100 organisation that is tackling key issues such as transitioning our portfolio to net zero by 2050, and we’re not done yet.

The Role: You’ll join our Line 1 Finance Risk & Governance team, embedded within Phoenix Group’s Finance function, providing risk‑focused oversight of actuarial processes. As Finance Risk & Controls Lead for Actuarial Processes, you will play a pivotal role in shaping and strengthening the risk and control framework that underpins key actuarial activities in Phoenix Finance. Your remit covers business‑critical areas such as capital management, liquidity, assumption setting, Solvency II, internal model governance, and other complex finance and actuarial activities that directly influence balance sheet strength and the management of risk across the Finance function. This role offers significant autonomy and ownership. You’ll provide end‑to‑end Line 1 oversight of financial and non‑financial risks across your assigned processes, acting as a trusted second pair of eyes over how risk is identified, assessed, and controlled. Working closely with Heads of Function and senior actuarial and finance leaders, you’ll bring constructive challenge and independent insight — ensuring controls are proportionate, effective, and aligned to risk appetite. Success in this role requires an actuary who enjoys working at the intersection of technical detail and strategic oversight. You’ll apply actuarial expertise within a risk and governance context, influence senior stakeholders through clear, credible communication, and help steer Finance toward stronger long‑term risk outcomes. This is an excellent opportunity to broaden your actuarial impact beyond routine actuarial delivery, build visibility with senior leadership, and play a tangible role in how Phoenix manages capital, models, and risk across the Finance function.

What We’re Looking For: Qualified (or nearly qualified) actuary with a strong technical foundation in actuarial processes and the ability to apply technical knowledge within a risk and control environment. Experience in risk management, assurance, audit, or controls oversight within an actuarial or finance function, ideally in a life insurance or financial services environment. A solid understanding of financial and operational risks inherent in actuarial work, including model risk, capital adequacy, liquidity risk, and governance risk. The ability to work autonomously and strategically, assess control effectiveness, and identify pragmatic improvements across complex, end‑to‑end processes involving multiple actuarial and finance teams. Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the confidence to challenge constructively and build trusted relationships at all levels of seniority. A curious, analytical mindset — able to diagnose issues, question assumptions, and identify pragmatic, proportionate solutions.

We want to hire the whole version of you. We are committed to ensuring that everyone feels accepted and welcome applicants from all backgrounds. If your experience looks different from what we’ve advertised and you believe that you can bring value to the role, we’d love to hear from you. If you require any adjustments to the recruitment process, please let us know so we can help you to be at your best. Please note that we reserve the right to remove adverts earlier than the advertised closing date. We encourage you to apply at the earliest opportunity.