Quant Strategist in London

Pension Insurance Corporation (“PIC”) provides secure retirement incomes through comprehensive risk management and excellence in asset and liability management, as well as exceptional customer service. Our purpose is to pay the pensions of our current and future policyholders. We achieve our purpose by setting Company-wide strategic objectives and driving a healthy culture based on our PIC Values of Resilient, Adaptable, and Loyal.

PIC is recruiting for a Quant Strategist to join its ALM Securities & Derivatives function. This function sits at the core of PIC’s business, creating value by optimising the relationship between assets and liabilities in line with the firm’s risk appetite. The Quant Strategist team specifically works closely with the wider Investment department to address business challenges through a combination of quantitative and actuarial insight. The team works in partnership with the broader ALM Securities & Derivatives function to shape and advance the analytical frameworks, hedging capabilities, and portfolio-optimisation tools that underpin investment decisions and strengthen balance-sheet management.

This particular role will support the enhancement of PIC’s ALM quantitative toolkit, developing systems and datasets that enable efficient modelling and analysis. It will also focus on translating robust data and models into practical, user-friendly analytics, collaborating with the investment team to deliver clearer insights and support faster, more informed decisions, enhancing the overall investment process.

Your specific accountabilities will be:

• Maintain and enhance the ALM Quant Platform, ensuring existing models, libraries, and analytics remain accurate, robust, and well-documented.
• Design and deliver new model features or analytical capabilities, aligned to business requirements, regulatory needs, or investment initiatives.
• Develop and implement model components to be handed over to Technology for production deployment, ensuring clean code, technical specifications, and appropriate testing artefacts.
• Support BAU production processes, including running ALM analytics, debugging issues, and providing explanations of results to internal stakeholders.
• Analyse and approximate Solvency II balance-sheet impacts under different market or portfolio scenarios, supporting risk management and investment decision-making.
• Collaborate with ALM, Investment, Actuarial and Risk teams to refine modelling assumptions, validate outputs, and ensure consistency across analytical frameworks.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of modelling standards, including coding practices, version control discipline, and model governance documentation.
• Undertake research to enhance modelling methodologies, introducing innovations or efficiency improvements that strengthen PIC’s ALM capability.
• Develop technical understanding and platform expertise, with the expectation to progress towards subject-matter expertise in key ALM modules.

Requirements

Experience:

• Professional qualifications (e.g., CFA, FIA, CQF, PhD) are advantageous but not essential.
• Experience contributing to model development, calibration, or platform enhancement within an investment, actuarial, ALM, or risk environment.
• Exposure to Solvency II balance-sheet concepts and ability to approximate the impact of market scenarios or investment strategies on Own Funds.
• Experience providing BAU model support, troubleshooting issues, and helping stakeholders interpret ALM metrics in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong academic record in a quantitative discipline (mathematics, physics, engineering, actuarial science, financial engineering).

Knowledge:

• Strong understanding of ALM concepts, liability-driven investment (LDI) principles, and the interaction between assets, liabilities and balance-sheet metrics under Solvency II.
• Working knowledge of financial instruments commonly used within UK DB pension and annuity businesses (e.g., fixed income, swaps, inflation products, credit instruments).
• Solid understanding of Solvency II balance-sheet construction, Matching Adjustment portfolios, and the drivers of Own Funds under a range of market conditions.
• Familiarity with quantitative modelling approaches used in ALM frameworks (e.g., scenario generation, term-structure modelling, cash-flow projections).
• Awareness of good model governance, model validation standards, and the control environment expected within regulated institutions.

Skills:

• Strong numerical and analytical capability with proven experience building, enhancing, or maintaining quantitative models.
• Programming experience (Python, MATLAB, or similar) with the ability to write clear, maintainable, and well-tested code, and willingness to upskill as required.
• Proficiency with SQL or similar tools to work with large financial datasets, undertake data validation, and integrate analytical outputs.
• Comfortable working with internal APIs and modelling frameworks, and capable of integrating model outputs with downstream production systems.
• Ability to translate analytical results into practical insights that support decision-making across investment, ALM, and risk functions.

Benefits

In addition to a competitive base salary and the opportunity to participate in our annual, performance-related bonus plan, upon joining us here at Pension Insurance Corporation, you will get access to some great benefits, including private medical insurance, 28 days' annual leave (excluding bank holidays), a generous pension scheme and much more.