Location

London or Edinburgh, with expectation of 50% office attendance

Role Purpose

The Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) is a non-Ministerial Department that provides actuarial advice to governments and public sector organisations in the UK and around the world. Our mission is to support effective decision-making and robust reporting within Government as the first-choice provider of actuarial and specialist analysis, advice, and assurance. The work is varied, interesting, and has purpose, for example working in the best interests of the taxpayer.

You will be a key member of GAD’s Insurance and Investment team, working to provide advice to our clients on projects that require reserving, pricing and / or capital expertise. Whilst the initiatives we are asked to assist with are varied, typical areas of work include:

• Reserving – Estimating the amount of money that is required in order to meet the expected value of claims that will arise from commitments which have already been made. In a commercial context, this amount of money will be set aside to create a formal reserve for future claim payments. In a government context, reserves are typically not held and claims are instead met from future income.
• Pricing – Constructing models to support commercial and non-commercial pricing exercises, and then communicating the key uncertainties that could affect the price. This will often involve working with clients and third parties to incorporate their specialist knowledge, for example subject matter experts, underwriters and brokers.
• Capital – Considering the range of possible outcomes for particular liabilities and risk types and applying capital modelling concepts to the public sector environment to help support decision makers.

This advice is provided by teams of actuaries, trainee actuaries, and actuarial analysts. You will be expected to report to a more senior actuary and be responsible for managing trainee actuaries and analysts to complete the work.

You will be responsible for producing advice to Government Departments across a portfolio of projects. This will require high quality engagement with colleagues and clients, starting from the scoping of new analysis through to the communication of the advice. You will aim to deliver advice on time, within budget, and to a high quality. As part of your role, we expect you to help grow and develop both your own skills, and those of junior colleagues to help meet the evolving nature of our work.

Whilst this role requires specialist reserving, pricing and / or capital experience, GAD consultants regularly work in a more diverse range of areas than a typical actuarial consultancy, often with additional challenges such as limited historical data or novel areas of risk. As a consultant, you will support senior managers overseeing delivery of actuarial advice to external clients through building client relationships, managing project delivery, providing review and challenge to project methodologies, and preparing written advice. We contribute to policy matters; therefore, confident communication skills are required as you interact with policy makers, the operational staff that help deliver effective public policy and staff from other departments and organisations.

Key Responsibilities

1. To provide general insurance related actuarial advice to public sector risk-pooling arrangements such as the schemes operated by NHS Resolution and the Risk Protection Arrangement for academies – including reserving, capital and pricing advice. This will involve working with colleagues to deliver high-quality advice often within demanding timescales.
2. To work with colleagues using general insurance expertise to support on other important projects carried out by the Insurance and Investment team, such as climate-related financial disclosures, disaster risk financing and contingent liability management.
3. To maintain and build on existing client relationships and to develop new relationships.
4. To partner with clients and take forward initiatives for the development of new business.
5. To work with colleagues to ensure all work is appropriately scoped and delivered in an efficient and timely manner with a focus on providing value for money for our clients. This includes:
• Specifying work, monitoring output and providing feedback
• Responsibility for ensuring work managers are fully informed of all substantive work requests;
• Effective project management;
• Motivating and team building;
• Partnering with clients;
• Operational duties – scheduling work, leave management, exercising financial control as required; and
• Business development and client engagement activities
6. To provide a consistently high level of service and for work to be undertaken within professional requirements. This includes
• Providing/supporting appropriate quality advice (oral or written) to agreed time-scales and within budget;
• Complying with peer review procedures;
• Adapting to changing client needs and balancing conflicting priorities; and
• Complying with all professional actuarial and GAD guidance.
7. Agile working within other GAD teams from time to time during key periods.
8. To ensure effective and agile co-operation with other client teams within the Insurance and Investment division.
9. To maintain an up-to-date knowledge of role-relevant actuarial and other matters (including meeting all CPD requirements).
This job description is a broad reflection of the current duties. It is not exhaustive and changes will be made based on GAD’s needs in conjunction with you.

Key Dimensions

You will be expected to contribute to a range of work across a number of clients, agreeing budgets, priorities and deliverables. This will require communication with a range of stakeholders and will involve active liaison with colleagues to ensure consistency of approach where appropriate.

You will be expected to proactively develop more junior members of the team and manage their work. You may in addition to this have formal line management responsibilities.

You will also be expected to support GAD’s efforts to develop client engagement and its partnering approach to project delivery. This will require strong client relationship skills and the ability to identify additional areas in which GAD can provide support.