Actuarial Product Specialist

Momentum Corporate, Cape Town, South Africa
February 2023 – Present

  • Contributed to the investment product development and pricing for the pension fund market, specialising in with-profit funds, LDI strategies, and structured products. Drove innovation in product design to meet evolving market needs.
  • Regularly presented strategic recommendations and risk insights to management and governance forums, bridging the gap between technical modelling and executive decision-making.
  • Developed robust models and analytical frameworks to support the product development process, enabling informed risk assessments and data-driven decision-making within the uncertain investment environment.
  • Acted as Subject Matter Expert for with-profits modelling, including reserving for embedded options, cross-subsidy analysis, behavioural modelling, and portfolio backtesting. Migrated models from Excel/VBA to Python/Julia to enhance analytical rigour.
  • Operationalised monthly reporting processes by automating workflows using Python and PostgreSQL. Significantly reduced manual effort and improved auditability and risk control standards.
  • Acted as peer reviewer and model validator, ensuring the accuracy of internal models and driving the continuous improvement of identified shortcomings.
  • Collaborated with distribution, legal, and marketing teams to evaluate business opportunities, produce compliant marketing literature, and resolve complex client queries.
  • Responsible for comprehensive product management activities including SARB reporting, fund fact-sheet review, back-tested bonus preparation, and ad-hoc product investigations.

Actuarial Analyst

Santam Reinsurance, Cape Town, South Africa
February 2022 – January 2023

  • Led the reinsurance pricing development team as agile Product Owner, managing the project backlog and translating existing pricing models into actionable IT requirements.
  • Developed a reinsurance portfolio optimisation tool using ReMetrica and Python to support capital allocation.
  • Engaged closely with diverse teams and management to secure buy-in for pricing initiatives. Presented project progress and strategic insights to executive management.
  • Guided BAs and developers in debugging actuarial calculations, ensuring that pricing outputs were accurate and aligned with business logic.
  • Improved existing pricing models using VBA, RMS RiskLink, and MS Access to enhance pricing accuracy and speed.
  • Provided ad-hoc support for data analytics, risk management, and reserving tasks.