Head of Product Development & Pricing

• Support and participate in the execution of the Life product strategy in an agile manner.
• Understand the business needs and related gaps to inform the design of product solutions.
• Understand the overall competitive landscape and commercial and economic environment through market research in order to help inform product design.
• Partner with various business stakeholders (including Sales and Distribution and the CEO of the company Life group) to design innovative products that consider the end-to-end customer journey and policy lifecycle.
• Collaborate with support teams and risk areas in the product design process. This includes Customer Experience, Sales and Distribution, Claims, Legal and Compliance, Risk, and IT.
• Present product features and actuarial results to project teams, management, and other stakeholders such as marketing and distribution.
• Apply pricing practices and develop modelling to set appropriate rates, understand profitability, and analyze sensitivities.
• Perform feasibility analyses and pricing projects for products, including deriving assumptions, constructing pricing models, performing in-depth risk, and pricing analysis, producing product approval presentation, and support product filing and implementation.
• Analyse product profitability and recommend product design changes where necessary.
• Continually review, identify, and promote best practices and opportunities for improvement to the products.
• Assume overall responsibility for each product project.

• Oversee the development of actuarial or statistical models to aid decision-making and for short- and long-term financial projections.
• Analyse data to identify trends and key insights.
• Develop and report on key performance and experience monitoring metrics.
• Identify key trends and engage with business to understand the impact of these trends. Identify possible courses of action to take advantage of the trends identified.
• Produce regular and ad-hoc reports and presentations as required.
• Compile reports and presentations for the Exco, Board and Actuarial Committee.

• Understand and ensure adherence to regulatory requirements and internal governance and control policies and procedures.
• Prepare or review product specifications and actuarial reports.

• Support the group Life business as a member of the divisional exco team.
• Oversee the application of ORSA methodology and SAM processes and procedures.
• Timeously respond to actuarial queries from the regulators (FSB/SARB/SARS)
• Plan and budget actuarial matters and maintain a timetable of submission (financial projections).
• Inform management of actuarial specific regulatory issues (solvency and capital requirements) for the Group.
• Ensure that a summary of returns and any actuarial issues are maintained to report to management (EXCO/BOARD/AUDIT etc).
• Prepare and present actuarial matters to the Board and act as an advisor to the Board and its sub-committees.
• Monitor experience (reserving and pricing).
• Prepare actuarial specific areas in all the Group regulatory returns.

• Monthly, Quarterly, Annual.
• ORSA and SAM reporting.

• Manage, supervise and training of staff.
• Manage relationships within the company and stakeholders e.g. Statutory Actuary.
• Lead and motivate a team to achieve targets.
• Monthly reporting of the Key Performance indications for the actuarial reporting function.
• Monthly report to FM on status of accounts and returns for EXCO submission.
• Effective reporting and assessment of problem areas.

• Ensure that all work is performed in terms of required standard and regulation.
• Ensure that companys position is translated into standards by assessing gaps in methodology, assumptions and overall products and aligns to the standards and norms of the company).
• Ensure that all company policies and procedures are adhered to.
• Ensure timely submission of various periodical reports, highlights of the previous months reports.

• NQF Level 7: Bachelors degree Actuarial Science.
• Qualified Actuary.
• Member of Actuarial Society /Institute of Actuaries.

• Minimum 8 years experience in an insurance regulatory environment.
• Minimum 5 years experience within actuarial environment, with specific experience related to life insurance pricing and product.
• Proven experience in pricing and product management and strategy development.
• Strong knowledge of actuarial principles, methodologies, and relevant software tools (such as Excel, SAS, R, or Python).

• Objectivity.
• Attention to detail.
• Knowledge/Information Management.
• Financial acumen.
• Interpersonal awareness / empathy.
• Judgement and Decision-making.
• Leading and supervising.
• Managing performance (goal/target setting).
• Motivating People (includes Creating and Selling the Vision).
• Analytical thinking.

• Will be agreed based on qualifications, applicable experience, and previous earnings.

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