Director, Actuary - Reinsurance Pricing

At American Equity we offer leading annuity products that help empower our clients to fulfill their needs and wants in retirement. Our success comes from hiring high-energy individuals who embody the beliefs that drive our unique culture. We currently fund over half a million retirements nationwide, and have been headquartered in West Des Moines, Iowa, for over twenty-five years with satellite offices in Charlotte, NC and New York, NY.

GENERAL PURPOSE OF THE JOB

Reporting to the Chief Product Officer, this actuary provides pricing support and analysis for development of scalable pricing frameworks and assumption methodologies that support long-term growth and profitability. The actuary will be responsible for enhancing rate setting and reinsurance pricing, particularly for flow annuity products, while helping shape pricing execution across the organization. The role offers strong visibility and the opportunity to influence key actuarial decisions in a dynamic, growth-oriented environment.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Performs technical analysis for new and existing reinsurance products. Perform and communicate complex actuarial analyses related to annuity pricing and modeling. Lead rate setting and reinsurance pricing for flow annuity products, ensuring competitiveness and profitability. Support ad hoc pricing for M&A and strategic growth initiatives. Build pricing models using MG ALFA that will require significant creativity and custom coding to assess a variety of unique products and product features. Develop framework to assess the risk and profitability of new and existing annuity product concepts. Perform initial economic feasibility analysis. Develop assumptions for products. Explore and understand reserve and capital impacts. Price/value embedded derivatives and assess hedging implications and costs. Utilize strong actuarial & risk management knowledge including stochastic modeling and understanding of hedging and embedded derivatives to capture all potential risks and costs in pricing analysis. Ensure documentation and execution of actuarial analysis, align with the SOA Code of Professional Conduct and Actuarial Standards of Practice. Prepare and present actuarial exhibits and summaries to senior leadership, key stakeholders, consultants, reinsurers, and regulators. Aid in new product initiatives outside of traditional annuity distribution channels, such as offerings for target date funds, structured settlements among others. Provide mentorship and technical guidance to junior actuarial staff. Participate in & contribute to product ideation process. Participate & contribute to discussions regarding potential future product concepts. Apply deep technical understanding of pricing, hedging, solvency standards and financial reporting to: provide educated and thorough feedback on product concepts, and generate original product concepts factor in enterprise objectives and constraints. Develop & employ creative and innovative solutions to challenges that arise in the development, design, pricing, and implementation of new product concepts. Utilize strong actuarial & risk management knowledge and understanding of hedging and embedded derivatives to apply in development and assessment of new concepts. Accountable to work with ALM, valuation, finance, tax, hedging, legal, and various other partners as part of the new product development and implementation process to ensure pricing analysis accounts for all key elements involved in product concept. Partner with hedging team to ensure hedging costs are incorporated into pricing and risk analysis. Responsible for governance required within pricing and modeling work, ensuring pricing and modeling meets internal Product Development Process governance and other governance and documentation requirements. Responsible for development and management of actuarial staff. Perform other related work as assigned.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

Direct Reports:

TBC CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, PROFESSIONAL DESIGNATIONS

FSA (Preferred) or

ASA MAAA CFA

a plus

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES

Candidate must have strong understanding of and be able to participate in highly technical discussions surrounding annuity pricing concepts, including profitability mechanics, sources of risk, and solvency & accounting requirements. Candidate must have strong understanding of risk-neutral pricing & hedging concepts. Candidate must be able to independently identify potential challenges surrounding new product concepts and explore potential solutions. Candidate must have strong verbal and written communication skills to present and discuss results of analysis. Candidate must have experience building annuity pricing frameworks using industry standard annuity pricing software, or have strong software coding background to be applied to learning standard annuity pricing software.

Applications will include:

Coding new products & features. Summarizing modeling results. Developing new metrics and methods for summarizing results to capture and communicate relevant risks of various designs. Proficient in the use of Microsoft Office Suite including Word, Excel for analysis, Visio, Microsoft Project and Outlook. Minimal to no travel is required in this position. An understanding of Bermuda regulatory framework and reinsurance is a plus but not required.

EDUCATION AND/OR EXPERIENCE

B.S. in Actuarial, Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, or other quantitative fields. FSA/ASA with 7+ years of progressive experience in annuity pricing. Experience with rate setting and reinsurance pricing for annuity products is considered an asset. Experience with retail annuity and PRT products in US, UK and APAC regions is considered an asset. Proficient in the use of excel for analysis. Experience with Stochastic Modeling, or Deterministic Approximations there of (MG-ALFA or AXIS a plus). Experience with hedging and arbitrage free, risk-neutral pricing/valuation concepts. Excellent ability to recognize and turn ideas into market-ready solutions by understanding customer needs and strategic business value. Demonstrated ability to communicate and align stakeholders. Location considerations are onsite in Des Moines, IA, Houston, TX or New York, NY. #LI-SG1 At American Equity, o ur core values— E mpowered, P assion, I ntegrity, and C aring—are more than words. They guide how we support one another and how we serve our clients every day. To learn more about American Equity, our culture, and our values, visit the Careers site. Iowa Best Companies to Work for 2025 | Top Workplaces For more information about how your information is processed, please click on the Privacy tab at the bottom of the page and then click on the Applicant Privacy Policy.