Senior Manager: PRODUCT AND ACTUARIAL
BUSINESS SUPPORT
Sandton
R1.4 mill pa neg.
Senior Manager: Actuarial Business Support contributes to the
organisational goals by providing actuarial advice, communicating with senior
management and managing stakeholder relationships in line with the strategy
and financial plans of the business. This is done through the management and
development of Actuarial Managers, Specialists and Analysts.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Actuarial and Business Advice
Provide authoritative specialist advice to the leadership team to guide the
implementation of strategy.
Undertake strategic and tactical financial analysis, modelling, and evaluation to
support business leaders in their decision making.
Develop, maintain and implement actuarial models and processes. Models need
to be fit for purpose, and compliant to regulatory requirements and able to
estimate the reality accurately. Models (and any form of estimation) to be clearly
documented with the scope of use, definitions, data, and assumptions made.
Ensure that there are process documents in place to ensure that the models can
be understood by external stakeholders.
Product and Solution Development
Take responsibility for developing and delivering the personal lines and VAPS
product development program.
Pricing Information Systems
Own the development, management and maintenance of pricing systems for
STI. Own the governance of pricing systems to ensure they adhere to group
actuarial and statutory rules.
Insights and Reporting
Establish business-critical strategies to create, present, and communicate high impact
data and analytics insights and recommendations to critical internal and
external stakeholders.
Business Requirements Identification
Elicit the most complex business requirements using a variety of methods such
as top management collaboration, scenario evaluation and impact analysis,
negotiations, interviews, document analysis, workshops, and workflow analysis
to express the objectives and outcomes through defined activity identification.
Improvement / Innovation
Identify shortcomings, initiate, formulate and implement new business practices
within a specific discipline, while developing and delivering projects or a work
stream within the organization's change management program. Stay up to date
with Business developments and develop solutions proactively with Business.
Maintain continuous development/research of actuarial techniques and share
insights with the team. Find an effective way to improve on efficiencies across
the business.
Stakeholder Engagement
Identify and manage stakeholders up to C-suite level, finding out their needs/
issues/concerns and reacting to these by leading and coordinating the
development of stakeholder engagement plans to support the alignment of
objectives and decisions to strategic objectives.
Manage STI CEO and CFO expectations.
Leadership and Direction
Identify and communicate the actions needed to implement the function's
strategy and business plan within the business area or department; explain the
relationship to the broader organization's mission, vision and values and
motivate people to commit to these. Stay engaged and dedicated to achieve the
business goals.
Data Collection & Analysis
Make authoritative recommendations that have a significant impact on the
business over the short and long term. Recommendations could be technical or
professional in nature.
Conduct research using primary data sources and select information needed for
the analysis of key themes and trends.
Recommendations could be technical or professional in nature.
Extract and verify data used for actuarial models. Data/information to be
reconciled against credible data sources (for example financials) to ensure the
data is complete and accurate. Ensure definitions and assumptions are aligned
to the problem statement.
Building Capability
Mentor and coach staff on a technical and professional front. Ensure staff
develop further skills and capabilities to ensure better model development.
Assist staff to increase own capacity to automate processes. Encourage staff to
leverage each others strengths, to improve the teams overall performance.
Operational Compliance
Monitor and review performance and behaviours within area of responsibility to
identify and resolve non-compliance with the organization's policies and relevant
regulatory codes and codes of conduct.
Maintain standards of integrity and professionalism as set out by the Actuarial
Society of South Africa.
Performance Management
Manage and report on the performance of a substantial, diverse team; set
appropriate performance objectives for direct reports or project / account team
members and hold them accountable for achieving these; take appropriate
corrective action where necessary to ensure the achievement of team / personal
objectives. Manage the development of pipelines and succession planning as
well as performance scoring and management. This includes team
administration, the setup of performance contracts and ensure the alignment of
the performance management process to the business objectives.
Budgeting & Costing
Take responsibility for setting and managing area budgets so they align with
organizational strategy.
Performing budgets, forecasting and assumptions setting, in order to ensure
correct parameterisation of the annual business plan aligned to the assumptions
contained in it.
TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES Mathematical Ability
Uses an expert understanding of numerical and mathematical concepts to act as
organizational authority on performing mathematical operations such as report
analysis.
Strong background in mathematics, actuarial science and statistics
Financial literacy
Applies comprehensive financial knowledge / skill, acts with independence and
provides guidance and training to others
Analytical Processes
Applies expertise to act as the organizational authority on supporting research
schedules using appropriate analytical processes and procedures.
Business Data Modelling
Works at an advanced level to conduct activities to collect, analyze, diagram
(model), and report information and data flow, including state changes, to help
make strategic decisions, achieve major goals, and solve complex
problems.Typically works independently and provides guidance.
Compliance
Applies expertise to serve as the organizational authority on achieving full
compliance with applicable rules and regulations in management and/or
operations.
Actuarial Society of South Africa.; South African Short Term Insurance Act and
Regulations.; Prudential Authority Regulations; FSCA Regulatory Requirements.
Coaching and Reviewing
Applies comprehensive knowledge / skill, acts with independence and provides
guidance and training to others
Modelling
Applies expertise to act as the organizational authority on developing financial
Job Description | SM: Product and Actuarial Business Support (Final) November 13, 2020
© Korn Ferry 2020. All rights reserved. Confidential. 5
and economic models for planning and monitoring purposes.
Verbal and Written Communication
Acts with expertise as the organization's authority on using clear and effective
verbal communications skills to express ideas, request actions and formulate
plans or policies. Engaging with senior stakeholders, utilising effective forms of
verbal and written communication.
Planning and Organizing
Uses comprehensive knowledge and skills to work independently while providing
guidance and training to others on effective time management, planning,
organizing, prioritizing and overseeing activities to efficiently meet business
objectives and deadlines.
Problem Solving and Action Planning
Uses comprehensive knowledge and skills to work independently while providing
guidance and training to others on solving problems, developing appropriate
plans or performing necessary actions based on recommendations and
requirements.
Data Collection and Analysis
Acts as the organizational authority and established expert on analyzing data
trends for use in reports to help guide decision making. Acts as the
organisation's link to the HAF and external auditors in the context of data and
the interpretation thereof.
Data Mining and Machine Learning
Works at an advanced level to extract patterns from large amounts of data.
Typically works independently and provides guidance.
Data Control
Applies comprehensive knowledge and skills to work independently while
providing guidance and training to others on acquiring, organizing, protecting
and processing data to fulfil business objectives.
Reporting
Apply comprehensive knowledge and guide and train others to create relevant,
lucid and effective reports.
Negotiation
Uses comprehensive knowledge and skills to negotiate independently while
providing guidance and training to others on how to help the organization by
obtaining consensus between two or more internal or external parties who may
have different interests.

EDUCATION
Bachelors / Honours Degree in Actuarial Science, or similar Qualified or nearly
Qualified Fellow of the Actuarial Society of South Africa (Essential

6 – 8 years’ working experience; 4 – 5 years’ working experience within a nonlife
insurance environment (Essential); 6 – 8 years’ working experience within a
non-life insurance environment (Advantageous); Knowledge of Actuarial
Software in this field; Programming Languages, such as SAS; MicroSoft Office;
Actuarial Professional Guidelines; risk and actuarial control compliance

Managerial Experience
Experience of planning and managing resources to deliver predetermined objectives as specified by more senior managers (Over 3 years to 6 years