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About the Role
The Senior Lead Financial Risk Actuary provides strategic advice, independent challenge, and Line 2 oversight across the Group’s balance sheets. This role shapes decisions supporting the Group’s long-term financial strategy, financial resilience, and risk appetite by leading oversight of complex financial risk matters.
Responsibilities
- Lead Line 2 oversight of the Group’s balance sheets and long-term financial strategy, providing senior advice, guidance, and independent challenge to the business.
- Set the direction for proportionate, risk-based oversight activities, ensuring Line 2 focus is targeted at the most material balance sheet risks, decisions, and transactions.
- Provide clear, judgement-led opinions on material business decisions, balancing strategic objectives, commercial opportunities, financial resilience, and risk appetite.
- Influence and constructively challenge executive-level decisions, drawing on deep technical expertise, senior relationships, external market insight, and understanding of the Group’s strategic priorities.
- Provide technical and people leadership across the team, helping to build capability, focus resources on the highest-value activity, and support a culture of high performance, development, and continuous improvement.
- Work independently with minimal oversight, producing high-quality Executive-level reports, opinions, and materials that distill complex issues into clear, decision-ready insights.
Requirements
- Qualified actuary with significant experience in a life insurer, regulator, consultancy, or reinsurer, including experience operating at senior leadership level.
- Excellent understanding of life insurance products, particularly PRT and annuities, alongside Solvency UK, IFRS 17, UK GAAP, business planning, and balance sheet management.
- Extensive technical expertise across balance sheet modelling, solvency and liquidity analysis, asset-liability management, hedging, Matching Adjustment, and climate-related financial risks.
- Proven ability to lead financial risk oversight, including shaping effective risk frameworks, setting risk appetite, and providing independent challenge on complex strategic issues.
- Strong commercial judgement, with the ability to help the business navigate trade-offs between financial resilience, risk appetite, commercial outcomes, and long-term value.
- Proven ability to influence senior stakeholders, bring teams together, and lead enterprise-wide change in a large, complex organisation.
- Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain complex financial concepts clearly, concisely, and in a way that supports executive and Board-level decision-making.
Skills
- Financial Risk
- Actuarial
- Balance Sheet Management
- Solvency UK
- IFRS 17
- UK GAAP
- Asset-Liability Management
- Hedging
- Matching Adjustment
- Climate-related Financial Risks
- Risk Frameworks
- Risk Appetite
- Stakeholder Influence
- Communication
Location
- London
- Birmingham
- Edinburgh
Work Type
- Hybrid
- Part-time
- Job-share
Experience Level
- Senior leadership level
Education Level
- Qualified actuary
Salary/Compensations
- Up to £150,000
- Indicative bonus range of 30% to 60%
Benefits
- Private medical cover
- 38 days annual leave
- Excellent pension
- 12x salary life assurance
- Career breaks
- Income protection
- 3x volunteering days
About the Company
- Standard Life is a retirement specialist focused entirely on retirement savings and income.
- We champion the belief that everyone’s journey to and through retirement can be better.
- For more than 200 years, we’ve been helping our customers plan and prepare for their financial futures.
- Life today is increasingly complicated, uncertain and unpredictable.
- People move through different careers, face unexpected moments and navigate important choices.
- We offer our colleagues flexibility, trust and benefits that work for whatever life brings.
- In return we expect curiosity, connection, accountability and high standards.
- We make room for what matters - so you can bring your best, every day.
Equal Opportunity
- We are committed to ensuring that everyone feels accepted and welcome applicants from all backgrounds.
- If your experience looks different from what we’ve advertised and you believe that you can bring value to the role, we’d love to hear from you.
- If you require any adjustments to the recruitment process, please let us know so we can help you to be at your best.