Sr. Actuarial Systems Analyst

Role Summary

This position is part of the Life & Annuity Solutions team, which is responsible for designing, implementing, and managing our life and annuity products. The team is at the forefront of delivering innovative solutions that enhance customer experience and drive business growth.

This role contributes individually, in the design, implementation, and support of life insurance and annuity products. The role uses technical expertise and product knowledge to oversee the design and execution of actuarial components within policy administration, illustration, and ancillary systems for life and annuity products and riders.

A successful candidate brings strong technical and business acumen to product implementation and inforce administration. The role requires the ability to apply product knowledge and sound judgement to complex situations, balance multiple priorities, contribute to cross-functional problem solving, and help ensure product accuracy and system readiness in a dynamic environment.

This role is an opportunity to impact the future of life and annuity solutions, collaborate across teams, and help National Life Group keep its promises.

This position currently offers an onsite work schedule, with the expectation that you will be in the office four (4) days per week during onsite core days.  Our current onsite core days are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  The work schedule type and core days are subject to change with advance notification and manager discretion.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Responsible for the design, implementation, validation, and ongoing support of actuarial components for life insurance and annuity products across policy administration, illustration, and ancillary systems. The role applies product knowledge, technical expertise, and sound judgement to complex product and systems issues and may lead peers on specific initiatives.

Responsibilities include:

• Apply business, product, and systems knowledge to identify, define, and resolve complex product and systems issues related to product implementation and inforce administration. Apply underlying product principles to unfamiliar and complex situations, considering business objectives, downstream impacts and the perspectives of affected functions when developing recommendations.
• Coordinate work across projects and initiatives, including assigning and tracking tasks as appropriate and collaborating with other analysts and project partners to manage testing timelines and deliverables. May assist management with near-term roadmap and resource planning.
• Oversee testing and validation activities for life and annuity products, including the development and maintenance of test strategies, test plans, test tools, testing capabilities, and related documentation used to validate product rates, calculations, values, and systems behavior.
• Develop and provide training and guidance to staff to increase product, systems, and testing knowledge and experience. Contribute to shared training resources and partner with management to align assignments, development opportunities, and project needs.
• Use sound judgement when evaluating opportunities to improve or automate work, considering accuracy, efficiency, maintainability, product understanding, downstream impacts, and the team’s ability to support the resulting process or solution over time.
• Build and strengthen cross-functional partnerships with other business units and teams throughout the organization. Communicate complex calculations, product behavior, problems, tradeoffs, and solutions effectively to technical and nontechnical audiences.
• Serve as a subject matter expert in product setup, policy mechanics, calculations, and systems behavior in at least one primary system, while maintaining strong working knowledge across additional systems used in the sale and administration of life insurance and annuity contracts. Use that expertise to help ensure products are implemented and administered accurately and consistently.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent combination of education and experience. 
• 6 - 10 years of experience in a systems, systems support, product implementation, or related role in the financial services industry.
• Demonstrated understanding of life and/or annuity product mechanics and calculations.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively, build effective relationships and manage multiple priorities in a dynamic environment.
• Strong mathematical, analytical, problem-solving, verbal, and written communication skills.
• Strong proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, including very strong Excel skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, Computer Science, Finance or related field. 
• Experience with a wide range of life insurance and annuity products with a demonstrated understanding of product mechanics and calculations, including development of UL, IUL, whole life cash value and death benefit calculations, definition of life insurance and modified endowment calculations, interest theory, and other related actuarial product benefit calculations. 
• Experience with life insurance and/or annuity policy administration or illustration systems.
• Experience with additional tools such as SQL, Alteryx, or actuarial modeling software is a plus.

AI Proficiency Expectations

At National Life Group, we view AI as an enabler of human potential. We use AI to help us work smarter, serve more clients, and keep our promises, while remaining a relationship-driven business where our people are our greatest strength.

All applicants are expected to:

• Leverage approved AI tools, where appropriate, to improve the efficiency, quality, and impact of their work.
• Stay curious and open to new AI-enabled ways of working.
• Exercise sound judgment by reviewing and validating AI-generated content.
• Maintain accountability for the accuracy, quality, fairness, and integrity of work products by adhering to National Life’s AI guiding principles.
• Use AI responsibly and in accordance with company policies related to confidentiality, data privacy, security, compliance, retention and intellectual property.