Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Actuarial Manager

🎯 Role Definition

The Actuarial Manager is responsible for overseeing the development, validation and governance of actuarial models and analysis, guiding actuarial assumptions, ensuring regulatory compliance, and delivering actionable insights to senior management. This role involves leading project‑teams, managing actuarial workflows, collaborating cross‑functionally (pricing, product development, finance, risk), and continuously improving actuarial frameworks and data capabilities to support the organisation’s growth and risk strategy.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Senior Actuarial Analyst or Actuarial Associate
Pricing Actuary or Valuation Actuary
Data Scientist / Risk Analyst with actuarial exposure

Advancement To:

Head of Actuarial or Chief Actuary
Director of Risk & Capital Management
Partner or Director in Actuarial Consulting

Lateral Moves:

Enterprise Risk Manager
Head of Product Strategy (Insurance)
Analytics Lead – InsurTech / Financial Services

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Lead the timely delivery of pricing, reserving, valuation and capital modelling projects, ensuring accuracy in key assumptions, methodology and results.
Oversee assumption‑setting processes (mortality, morbidity, persistency, expense, interest) and ensure they reflect experience studies, emerging trends and business strategy.
Direct the development and maintenance of actuarial models (proprietary and vendor‑based) for product pricing, risk assessment, profitability measurement and new business initiatives.
Manage actuarial model governance including version control, change management, model validation, documentation, audit trails and regulatory compliance.
Provide high‑level actuarial insight to the Executive Team, Board, Finance, Risk and Product Development teams through reports, presentations and scenario modelling.
Drive automation, data‑pipeline improvement and analytics infrastructure for actuarial workflows, collaborating with data/IT teams to integrate advanced tools and data sources.
Supervise, mentor and develop a team of actuarial analysts and specialists: allocate resources, review work, coach for technical skill development and manage performance.
Collaborate closely with finance, underwriting, claims, reinsurance, product and IT functions to align actuarial inputs with business objectives, regulatory demands and financial reporting standards.
Perform experience investigations, back‑testing and trend analyses (claims, lapses, persistency, expenses) to support assumption updates and business decisions.
Lead pricing strategy for new and existing products: assess profitability, define rate change proposals, support regulatory filing and monitor competitive positioning.
Coordinate statutory, regulatory and internal actuarial reporting (e.g., IFRS 17, Solvency II, internal capital models) and ensure disclosures meet standards and deadlines.
Oversee capital modelling and enterprise risk management activity: quantify risks, run stress/scenario testing, support reinsurance strategy and capital allocation.
Identify process improvement opportunities within the actuarial function: drive efficiency, standardisation, and best practice adoption across methodology, modelling and reporting.
Manage team and business unit budgets, project timelines, deliverables and operational risk for the actuarial department.
Ensure compliance with actuarial professional standards, regulatory frameworks and internal control environment: provide guidance on audit, governance and risk matters.
Engage in strategic business planning: contribute actuarial insights into annual planning, forecasting, scenario analysis and business case development.
Support M&A, strategic partnerships or major product initiatives by providing actuarial modelling, due‑diligence input, scenario analysis and risk assessment.
Stay abreast of industry developments (insurtech, analytics, climate risk) and incorporate emerging techniques into the actuarial framework to maintain competitive edge.
Build strong stakeholder relationships: influence, negotiate and communicate effectively with senior leadership, regulators, business partners and data/IT teams.
Handle special projects and ad‑hoc analytics requests: deliver custom modelling, data extracts, dashboards and insight to support senior decision‑making and operational needs.

Secondary Functions

Support ad‑hoc data requests and exploratory analyses to inform actuarial strategy and business intelligence initiatives.
Contribute to the organisation’s actuarial function roadmap, technology strategy and analytic transformation agenda.
Collaborate with business units (finance, product, risk) to translate data and modelling requirements into operational workflows and solutions.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Expertise in actuarial science: probability, statistics, financial mathematics, modelling techniques and risk theory.
Proficient modelling skills: experience in pricing, reserving, capital/ERM models and scenario/stress testing.
Strong knowledge of regulatory and financial reporting frameworks (e.g., IFRS 17, Solvency II, local GAAP).
Experience with actuarial modelling software (e.g., Prophet, AXIS), statistical tools (R, Python, SAS), and database/SQL skills.
Advanced Excel/VBA skills and ability to design, implement and validate complex spreadsheets, macros and dashboards.
Data management and analytics capability: ability to source, clean, integrate and analyse large datasets to support modelling and insight.
Model governance, documentation, version control and audit‑ready processes.
Strong financial acumen: understanding investment, capital, product risk, reinsurance and business strategy.
Project and resource management: ability to control budgets, timelines, deliverables and departmental performance.
Reporting and presentation skills: ability to create executive‑level dashboards, insights, and clearly communicate technical content to non‑technical stakeholders.

Soft Skills

Excellent communication and stakeholder‑management skills: able to influence, negotiate and build trust across senior levels.
Analytical and critical‑thinking: capable of assessing complex issues, weighing alternatives and proposing sound solutions.
Leadership and people development: able to motivate, coach and guide a team, delegate effectively and foster talent.
Strategic mindset: able to align actuarial work with business goals and drive long‑term value.
Organisational and time‑management skills: manage multiple high‑priority projects and shifting deadlines.
Adaptability and resilience: comfortable in dynamic environments with changing regulation, modelling platforms and business priorities.
Business partnership orientation: understand commercial imperatives and translate technical modelling output into actionable business decisions.
Ethical integrity and professional judgment: ensure work meets high standards of accuracy, compliance and professionalism.
Innovation and continuous learning: stay current with industry developments, adopt new technologies and improve modelling practices.
Problem‑solving and decision‑making: able to navigate ambiguity, lead through complexity and deliver clarity and results.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:
Bachelor’s degree in Actuarial Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Economics or related quantitative field.

Preferred Education:
Master’s degree in Actuarial Science, Financial Mathematics or MBA, and almost‑qualified or qualified status (e.g., ASA/ACAS, FIA, FCAS) in a recognised actuarial body.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Actuarial Science, Mathematics, Statistics
Finance, Economics, Risk Management
Data Science, Computer Science, Applied Mathematics

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:
5–8 years actuarial experience, including substantive exposure to pricing, reserving, valuation or risk modelling.

Preferred:
7+ years actuarial experience with 2+ years in a leadership or supervisory capacity, with proven ability to manage teams, drive strategic initiatives and deliver business‑impact modelling solutions.