Lead Specialist: Actuarial at Liberty Group South Africa

Purpose

• This management role is an exciting opportunity to form part of a dynamic team reporting into the Head of Actuarial Valuations - Liberty Corporate. This team is focused on delivering key input and insights into the products written by Liberty Corporate and their financial performance. The role will have a focus on investment products (including unitised products, annuities, and the umbrella offering). It requires a combination of technical and management expertise, experience in actuarial valuation and related processes, and a willingness to liaise and work with other teams, including the product development, Prophet modelling and the other actuarial valuations teams. This role positions the incumbent to further his or her career by gaining specialist and sought-after skills and experience, as well as the opportunity to interact with key individuals in the Group.

Minimum Experience

• 5 - 8 years experience in a similar environment, of which 2 - 3 years at specialist level

Requirements

• The successful candidate must have strong technical experience in Actuarial Science techniques, calculations, and principles.
• Experience in financial analysis and interpretation, and knowledge of the relevant legislation, regulations and professional guidance of the Actuarial Society, would be beneficial.
• Knowledge of Prophet and SQL would be an advantage.

Minimum Qualifications

• Qualified actuary with at least 5 years' work experience in a Life Insurance Actuarial environment.

Responsibilities

• Own the life actuarial valuations in respect of the investment products sold by Liberty Corporate, including both unit-linked and annuity products. This will include performing financial and statutory reserving, experience investigations, assumption setting, sensitivity testing, and analyses of surplus.
• Present insights to senior management and drive conversations across the business to enable delivery of the business strategy.
• Partner with various stakeholders within Liberty Corporate to develop solutions that add business value, with a key focus on the umbrella business.
• Own the Liberty Corporate experience investigations and assumption setting framework, with support from and analyses performed by the various product owners.
• Streamline and strengthen the various processes run, including the actuarial valuation and assumption-setting frameworks. A particular focus on bedding down the processes built for IFRS17 is required in the near-term.
• Assist in enhancing the level of governance and control within Actuarial – Corporate.
• Manage a small team, with accountability to drive and deliver the required business outcomes through the team

Process

• Determine resource allocation priorities and deployment necessary to support the effective integration of processes.
• Advise on the alignment and application of area specific practices and integrated processes across functional areas to ensure value chain integrity.
• Keep abreast of changes and new legislation and developments within industries that may affect area of specialisation.
• Coordinate research and make recommendations to products based on market needs, product performance and competitor analysis; increasing profitability.
• Accountable for contributing to strategy enablement and implementation and delivery optimisation across an internal value chain, through best practice development and implementation.
• Draw on own technical and/or professional knowledge and experience to proactively develop alternatives and identify optimal best practice solutions for tactical problems.
• Plan to deliver work outputs related to a service or operational area, Manages interdependent functional activities, and directs best-practice priorities, standards and procedures to ensure efficiency within area of specialisation.

Customer

• Provide authoritative, specialist expertise and advice to internal/external customers, that builds strong relationships and creates a favourable impression aligned to Treating the Customer Fairly (TCF) principles.

Finance

• Implement and monitor financial controls, management of costs and corporate governance throughout the area of specialisation.

Learning and Growth

• Contribute positively to human capability improvement, related to knowledge optimisation and associated with area of specialisation.

Governance

• Develop and/or align governance and compliance policies for own practice and/or tactical area to identify and manage risk exposure liability related to the area of specialisation.

Technical Competencies

• Research and Information Gathering (Proficient)
• Statistical and Mathematical Analysis (Proficient)
• Quantitative Skills (Proficient)
• Modelling (Proficient)

Behavioural Competencies

• People Management and Empowerment (Proficient)
• Relationship Management and Networking (Proficient)
• Problem Solving and Analysis (Proficient)
• Professional/Technical learning (Proficient)