Title:  Internal Model Operations Specialist

Location: London

Canada Life UK looks after the retirement, investment and protection needs of individuals, families and companies. We help to build better futures for our customers, our intermediaries and our employees by operating as a modern, agile and welcoming organisation.

Part of our parent company Great-West Lifeco, Canada Life UK has operated in the United Kingdom since 1903. We have hundreds of respected and supported employees committed to doing the right thing for our customers and colleagues.

Canada Life UK is transforming to create a more customer-focused business by providing our customers with expertise on financial and tax planning, offering home finance and annuities propositions, and providing collective fund solutions to third party customers.

Job Purpose

As an Internal Model Operations Team Specialist at Canada Life you will be responsible for actuarial and statistical analysis related to interest rate, inflation and credit risks calibrating our internal model, developing and reporting on our risk management framework. You will be working with our ALM, hedging and investment, pricing and capital teams to develop Canada Life’s risk strategy and with our reporting teams in the operation of our internal model. You will ensure that we are managing risk in line with Canada Life’s risk appetite, complying with our statutory responsibilities and meeting the needs of our policyholders and regulators. This is a great opportunity for an individual with life insurance and capital modelling experience to add value to our internal model team, across a number of risk areas and in a growing team, at an exciting time for the business.

Key Accountabilities
•    Develop, maintain and run Internal Model components (including credit risk, equity release mortgage risk, interest rate risk inflation risk, aggregation) 
•    Ensure the internal model methodology complies with regulatory requirements and reflects the risk profile of the business. 
•    Ensure the methodology is up-to-date and reflects the emerging best industry practice by participating in industry survey and gaining insight into emerging best practice for market risk modelling. 
•    Work with the financial reporting team to effectively run the internal model capital reporting process by maintaining a well-controlled and efficient quarterly reporting process for risk capital, establishing a robust analysis of change process to explain the movement in capital results.
•    Communicate complex modelling decisions to team members and stakeholders through the business in an appropriate manner to support governance sign-off of annual recalibration and model updates.
•    Being the main conduit between internal capital model and the business to ensure the risks is well managed and adequately allowed for in business decision making.
•    Support the development of risk management framework on SII, IFRS17 and LICAT bases. 
•    Support regular MI and bespoke analysis for ALM, hedging, pricing and investment activities by providing capital and risk related insight (such as market and credit risk MI).
•    Own, maintain and develop specialist valuation models for limited price indexation and credit products including equity release mortgages.
•    Work with the internal model implementation team to define, build test and implement software solutions to modelling problems.

Desired Knowledge / Experience / Skills

Technical Expertise 
•    Strong capital modelling experience in market and/or credit risk space within life insurance industry.
•    Experience with some or all of the following would be an advantage:
o    Proxy modelling
o    Modelling of credit risk / MA under stress
o    Principle-Component-Analysis 
o    Black-Scholes option pricing
o    Limited price indexation and valuation
o    Economic scenario generators, copulas and risk aggregation techniques
o    Process for Internal Model Calibration and Validation
o    Python and VBA coding and advanced MS Excel skills.
 

 Communication
•    Strong communication skills, demonstrating a clear and articulate standard of written and verbal communication in a complex environment, tailored for all levels of management.
•    Ability to adapt messages to the audience, without prompting or significant coaching, in a format that is easily understood by non-technical colleagues
•    Ability to develop and maintain strong relationships across the actuarial function and the wider business, acting with integrity and role modelling the company values at all times. 
•    An individual confident in expressing their own ideas and in actively listening to the ideas of others.

Taking Initiative
•    Pro-actively own and run monitoring and reporting processes within the team.
•    Strong problem-solving skills and attention to detail with demonstrable ability in spotting issues, interdependencies and challenges to ensure work is produced to an accurate, commercial and informed standard.
•    Self-motivated, well-organised, pragmatic and able to perform tasks independently.
•    Pro-active management of stakeholders and commitment to service of our customers internal and external.

Developing Self and Others
•    An inquisitive individual with an interest in financial modelling who is committed to their own ongoing professional and personal development.
•    An individual who is coachable and keen to coach others in the team. 

Benefits of working at Canada Life

We believe in recognising and rewarding our people, so we offer a competitive salary and benefits package that’s regularly reviewed. As a Canada Life UK colleague, you’ll receive a competitive salary and comprehensive reward package including a generous pension and bonus scheme, along with, income protection, private medical insurance and life assurance.  We have a fantastic number of other benefits and support services as well as regular personal and professional development.

How we work at Canada Life

Our culture is unique and incredibly important to us.  We care about doing the right thing for our people, customers and community and helping others to build better futures.  Our blueprint behaviours shape and influence how we work, and are central to the relationships we have with others.  Every day we are encouraged to be more curious, own the outcome, face into things together and find a way forward. 

We want colleagues to have rewarding careers with us so we invest in the development of our people, technology and workplaces. That’s why we offer a range of training, flexible working and opportunities to grow and develop.

Diversity and inclusion

Building an inclusive workplace with a diverse workforce where everyone can feel they belong and achieve their potential regardless of gender, ethnicity or any other characteristic is a key commitment for us.  We are proud of the progress we’re making in DEI, and we continue for it to be a significant focus. 

“At Canada Life we believe in the power of great people from different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives coming together to build better futures. Emerging talent is crucial to our growth and creating an environment that continues to inspire us all.”  Nick Harding, Chief People Officer, Canada Life UK

We appreciate that everyone has different work and life responsibilities. We’re happy to discuss flexible working arrangements, including part time, for any of our roles should this be a requirement for you.