Senior Actuary; Model Risk

Position: Senior Actuary (Model Risk)
Location: Greater London

Location: Hertfordshire or London office

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>

Part of Canada Life’s 2nd Line of Defence, the Model Oversight Team supports the Chief Risk Officer in providing Model Risk expertise, challenge, oversight and guidance to the business within the UK Group. The Internal a strategic capability to support our business and is an area where we will invest heavily over the next 2–3 years with several significant extensions expected.

To support this growth, we are recruiting an additional 2nd line team member to provide oversight.

This position will be responsible for providing assurance that Canada Life’s models are robust, well‑governed and fit for purpose. You will have exposure to models across a range of business areas including Pricing, Valuation, Capital & ALM.

Key Accountabilities

• Partial Internal Model (PIM) Oversight
• Inform the CRO’s Opinion of the ongoing appropriateness of the Internal Model
• Support the maintenance of a rolling schedule of PIM review activity to provide appropriate coverage of Solvency II requirements
• Second line oversight of PIM Major and Minor model changes
• Provide Risk Opinions on key Internal Model activity & maintain effective records of review evidence
• Perform second line review of calibrations, standard formula appropriateness assessments and PIM use test
• Ensure work performed is in line with the CLUK Internal Model Governance Policy and Solvency II requirements
• Independent validations of CLUK models
• Perform Independent Validation reviews of CLUK Models, ensuring reviews are preceded by an agreed Terms of Reference
• Identify areas of concern and drive improvement
• Confirm factual accuracy of findings with stakeholders and summarise points into executive‑level reports
• Obtain explicit management responses and agreement of remedial actions; monitor progress on addressing findings, escalating where necessary and challenging evidence of remediation before closing findings
• Perform additional second line activity, as appropriate
• Be a partner to model developers & business teams on model risk best practice and future model use
• Perform other second line risk reviews, in support of the wider delivery of the Risk Team’s annual plan (e.g. Pricing/Business Strategy)
• Input to the wider ORSA process
• Support engagement with PRA
• Attend Canada Life Group model governance bodies
• Support the annual review of Terms of Reference for Model governance bodies (PIM and non‑PIM) & maintain the Internal Model Standards documents that underpin Internal Model Governance Policy

Desired Knowledge / Experience / Skills

• Experience in the life insurance industry
• Strong technical knowledge and understanding of Solvency II capital requirement calibrations, and the overall Solvency II framework
• Knowledge of Internal Model calibrations and the ability to become technically proficient in those areas if not already an expert
• Expertise in modelling, model validations or audits
• Good working knowledge of the “three lines of defence” and the risk oversight role of the second line
• Strong report‑writing skills and ability to convert technical issues into clear, concise reports
• Good communication skills, demonstrating a clear and articulate standard of written and verbal communication in a complex environment, tailored for all levels of management
• Attention to detail and discipline in consistently applying rigour and maintaining audit trails
• Good influencing skills, with experience of engaging with…