Director, Actuary

firsthand supports individuals living with SMI (serious mental illness). Our holistic approach includes a team of peer recovery specialists, benefits specialists and clinicians, which focuses on meeting each individual where they are and walking with them side by side as a trusted guide, partner, and first call on their journey to wellness.

firsthand's team members use their lived experience to build trust with these individuals and support them in obtaining socio-economic assistance and in reconnecting to primary and behavioral care. Support like this creates substantial savings for managed care organizations (Medicaid providers) and taxpayers by decreasing inappropriate healthcare utilization. This enables us to build solutions that scale and, as a result, change the way our society supports those most impacted by SMI.

We are cultivating a team of deeply passionate problem-solvers to tackle significant and complex healthcare challenges with us. This is more than a job—it's a calling. Every day, you will engage in work that resonates with purpose, gain wisdom from motivated colleagues, and thrive in an environment that celebrates continuous learning, creativity, and fun.

The Director, Actuary will play a key role in understanding the member populations served by firsthand and managing the financial risks associated with value-based care constructs. As the Company’s first actuary, you will build the initial frameworks, systems, and data models to create a best-in-class, value-based organization. While the Director, Actuary will bring technical expertise with a strong handling of large quantities of data, the role will similarly require working collaboratively with strategic and operational leaders across the organization to guide future program and service development in order to deliver the highest impact to individuals most in need of firsthand’s support and services.

This is a unique opportunity to spearhead the development of an actuarial department for an interdisciplinary service model serving individuals with serious mental illness. The Director, Actuary must be comfortable with a fast-based, unstructured environment and have a willingness to change direction as new information and insight becomes available. This role is a remote position, and the Director, Actuary will report directly to the Senior Vice President of Finance.

As the Company’s first Actuary, you will:

• Analyze large quantities of healthcare claims and data to assess patterns and risks across multiple indicators, including medical costs, utilization patterns by modality, and intra-year trends across comparable populations.
• Develop financial projections and forecasts (including creating/utilizing medical claim expense reserve and incurred but not reported analyses) in addition to retrospective analyses, across multiple member groups supported.
• Work closely with Business Development and Customer Success, including informing contract structures and terms, monitoring and projecting performance for existing and future risk-sharing arrangements, and estimating required capitation funding and prospective operations / risk targets.
• Develop clear viewpoints on recommended or required courses of action informed by your analyses.
• Work closely with leaders across the organization, including Finance/Accounting, Clinical, Operations, Strategy, Legal, and Data.
• Serve as the bridge between the Company’s operational performance against contractual targets and internal goals and financial reconciliation.
• Shape the future of firsthand’s Finance, Accounting, and Actuary teams by developing and implementing best-in-class systems and processes.
• Stay up-to-date with changes in laws, regulations, and industry standards that impact our organization in addition to assessing and providing recommendations in how to mitigate risks and leverage opportunities.

You will be a good fit if you have a:

• Fun time with large amounts of data (often unstructured), including healthcare claims, financial statements, and publicly available sources of demographic and healthcare data.
• Self-starting and intellectually curious mindset in order to break down challenging, complex problems into questions that can be explored and answered.
• Ability to work collaboratively with all levels of employees, management, and outside parties (including consultants, advisors, and customers).
• Ability to summarize and visualize claims, statistical, and financial data into meaningful insights for the relevant audience (e.g., management, market leaders).
• Willingness to try on new hats and seek new knowledge in areas adjacent to your actuarial expertise - we are a small, fast-paced team!

The required experience you bring to this role includes:

• Bachelor’s degree (or higher) in Actuarial Science, Math, Economics or a related field
• A strong familiarity with SQL / Snowflake, Microsoft Excel, and other statistical and data analysis software
• 7+ years of actuarial experience
• ASA and/or FSA designation

Bonus points for:

• 3+ years at a managed care organization or risk-based healthcare service provider
• Based in Eastern or Central timezone 

Benefits 

For full-time employees, our compensation package includes base, equity (or special incentive program for clinical roles) and performance bonus potential. Our benefits include physical and mental health, dental, vision, 401(k) with a match, 16 weeks parental leave for either parent, flexible vacation, and a supportive and inclusive culture.

Unfortunately, we are not able to offer sponsorship at this time.

Vaccination Policy

Employment with firsthand is contingent upon attesting to medical clearance requirements, which include, but may not be limited to: evidence of vaccination for/immunity to COVID-19, Hepatitis B, Influenza, MMR, Chickenpox, Tetanus and Diphtheria. All employees of firsthand are required to receive these vaccinations on a cadence/frequency as advised by the CDC, whereas not otherwise prohibited by state law.

New hires may submit for consideration a request to be exempted from these requirements (based on a valid religious or medical reason) via forms provided by firsthand. Such requests will be subject to review and approval by the Company, and exemptions will be granted only if the Company can provide a reasonable accommodation in relation to the requested exemption. Note that approvals for reasonable accommodations are reviewed and approved on a case-by-case basis and availability of a reasonable accommodation is not guaranteed.