Life Actuarial Manager

SUMMARY:
Are you a dynamic actuarial leader who excels at driving strategy, developing innovative life products, and strengthening actuarial capability? This is a high-impact opportunity for a commercially minded Actuary to step into a senior leadership role and shape the pricing direction of a growing life insurance portfolio. If you are passionate about technical excellence, product innovation, and leading high-performing teams, this role is for you.

POSITION INFO:
Join a forward-thinking financial services organisation committed to innovation, growth, and delivering client-centric life insurance solutions. This role offers the chance to take ownership of the life pricing function, build methodologies, uplift modelling capability, and influence key commercial decisions.

As the Life Actuarial Manager, you’ll play a central role in developing competitive pricing strategies, guiding product enhancements, embedding advanced analytics into actuarial models, and ensuring actuarial governance across the life product suite. You will also partner with cross-functional teams to shape product direction and ensure commercial sustainability.

What’s in it for you? Strategic influence, leadership exposure, the opportunity to build and refine pricing frameworks, involvement in next-generation modelling tools, and career growth within a high-performing actuarial environment.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and govern pricing methodologies, models, and actuarial frameworks for life insurance products
• Develop competitive, data-driven pricing strategies using GLMs, predictive models, and advanced analytics
• Review and monitor product performance, profitability, lapse metrics, and cost structures
• Provide strategic insights to Product, Sales, Marketing, CVM, and Executive teams
• Embed new methodologies, automation, data-driven tools, and AI-driven enhancements into pricing processes
• Oversee actuarial governance, peer reviews, and pricing approval processes
• Lead, mentor, and grow a high-performing actuarial pricing team

• Education:
  • BSc Actuarial Science / Actuarial Mathematics / Statistics (NQF 7 min)
  • Fully qualified Fellow Actuary (non-negotiable)
  • Honours Degree preferred (NQF 8)
• Experience:
  • Minimum 5 years actuarial experience in life insurance or related product lines
  • Demonstrated leadership or people management experience
  • Strong experience in life pricing, product development, financial modelling, GLMs, and predictive modelling
  • Exposure to life insurance regulatory frameworks and actuarial governance
• Skills:
  • Advanced technical capability in actuarial modelling, pricing tools, and predictive analytics
  • Deep commercial understanding and strategic decision-making ability
  • Excellent stakeholder engagement and communication skills
  • Proficiency in emerging analytics technologies, automation, and AI-driven modelling tools
• Non-negotiables:
  • Fully qualified Fellow Actuary
  • Strong technical pricing and modelling expertise
  • Proven leadership and team management experience

• Actuarial roles (Life, Short-Term, Health, Pensions, Quantitative)
• Data Scientists / Data Analysts (Python, R, SQL, Machine Learning)
• Risk Analysts (Credit, Market, Model Risk, Operational)
• Pricing Specialists (Insurance, Financial Products)
• Machine Learning & AI Data Scientists (ML Ops, NLP, Predictive Modelling)
• Quantitative Specialists across Banking, Insurance, and FinTech