Senior Actuary (Longevity & Catastrophe)

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.

Job Purpose

We now need a Qualified Actuary to support the transformation and the future growth of the Longevity and Catastrophe team, so it can be a trusted and commercial partner that influences the business to make good financial decisions, by delivering excellent support, expertise and high quality Management Information.

This role will be within the Longevity and Catastrophe team, based primarily in Potters Bar, north of London, to support the analysis of longevity risk, mainly in the context of modelling the capital requirements relating to this risk, but also to assist the wider work of the team in understanding and modelling mortality/longevity outcomes more broadly.

Key Accountabilities

Annuitant mortality is our single biggest risk as a business. This role exists to help understand how to optimise our management of this risk and to understand what the latest research (both actuarial and external) in this fast changing field suggests about how longevity will develop in future.

Longevity risk analysis:
Supporting the ongoing development and maintenance of the longevity risk model for Solvency II purposes, and wider applications within the business

• Carrying out the annual recalibration of the longevity risk model
• Completing the annual line one validation of the model
• Drafting, presenting and explaining the calibration and validation reports to governing committees and receiving approval for the proposed calibration
• Contributing to the full suite of model documentation, reviewing and developing this on an ongoing basis
• Supporting the upkeep and improvement of the various spreadsheets, models and processes contained in the longevity risk model
• Proposing longevity risk model changes and developments as necessary and support their implementations

Managing the governance framework around the model
• Ensuring compliance of the longevity risk model with CLL internal model governance (change control, documentation standards etc.), and maintenance of the various logs (expert judgements, limitations etc.)
• Collating evidence of use of the longevity model, engaging with users and incorporating feedback into model development plans
• Contributing to internal governance groups including the Internal Model Experts Group
• Coordinating longevity expert judgement panels and user groups
• Overseeing on-going longevity trigger monitoring
• Addressing challenges raised by independent validation / internal governance groups and take the lead of responding to these

Provide support to other stakeholders (internal and external)
• Providing support to corporate actuarial in the production of capital reporting
• Supporting CLL and wider group risk teams (CLG, GWL) in longevity related analysis (e.g. ORSA/risk appetitive/reverse stress testing)
• Dealing with external stakeholders, e.g. consultants, independent validators and regulatory bodies

Deepening the company’s understanding of annuitant mortality
• Supporting research into longevity topics from both actuarial and wider sources (e.g. medical, epidemiological, social, etc.)
• Assisting in the production of clear reports on these issues to senior management and shaping thinking on these topics within the company
• Supporting other work streams within the wider Longevity & Catastrophe team as may be required (e.g. assist in developing longevity assumptions, conducting experience analysis)

General responsibilities
• Ensuring familiarity with risk management programs, as they impact this role, and follow appropriate risk management procedures to control, monitor and report on business activities
• Ensuring compliance with Company policies, regulatory, professional & legal requirements
• Ensuring continuous review and improvement of the relevant processes
• Fostering good risk culture and awareness within the wider team
• Managing, motivating and developing junior colleagues (this role has 2 direct reports)

Desired Knowledge / Experience / Skills

• Qualified Actuary with technical longevity knowledge and experience or a demonstrable interest to work in this field together with the ability to pick up new technical material quickly
• Strong written communication tailored for a wide range of audiences
• Effective communication with senior stakeholders
• Good project and workflow management
• Understanding and ability to implement/maintain an actuarial control framework and meet governance requirements
• Knowledge of Solvency II internal model requirements
• Ability to develop a network within CLL and with those working in the longevity field elsewhere

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.