Vice President, L&A Transaction Risk

Summary

Join Fortitude Re, a leading provider of legacy reinsurance solutions, as their Vice President, Life & Annuity Transaction Risk. This key leadership role involves overseeing new life insurance and annuity reinsurance transactions, requiring a strong financial and technical background in actuarial pricing. You will lead the development and implementation of a comprehensive transactional risk management framework, serve as a trusted advisor to senior leadership, and collaborate with various internal and external stakeholders. The position demands advanced leadership skills, including effective communication and influence. A minimum of 15 years of experience and FSA designation are required. Fortitude Re offers a competitive salary, annual bonus, and a generous benefits package.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or advanced degree in Actuarial Science, Data Science, Mathematics, Financial Engineering, or another analytical field of study
• Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA) with a minimum 15 years of experience and progressively increasing responsibility
• Significant knowledge of life insurance, annuities, and retirement products, including common benefit riders and secondary guarantees
• Diverse experience in pricing and managing life insurance and annuity products
• Applied insurance ALM experience, including understanding of diverse assets commonly used in insurance investment strategies and their associated risks
• Understanding of regulatory capital requirements and economic capital principles
• Experience with development, use, and risk management of complex actuarial models in commercial actuarial software packages (e.g. AXIS, ALFA, etc)
• Experience with programming languages and other software commonly used in actuarial practice, such as… Microsoft Office (e.g. Excel, Word, and PowerPoint), Programming / database languages (e.g. Python, C++, VBA, SQL, R, or SAS)
• Demonstrated success working and collaborating cross-functionally across various departments and levels of the organization
• Proven leadership experience with the ability to effectively manage and develop a team
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to engage leadership

Responsibilities

• Lead the development, implementation, and maintenance of a comprehensive transactional risk management framework
• Serve as a trusted advisor to the SVP - ERM L&A Risk Officer, CRO, and other executive leadership on transactional risk-related matters in transaction working group and executive committee forums
• Represent the SVP - ERM L&A Risk Officer as needed in committee meetings, client discussions, or other forums where transaction risk management strategies are discussed, and decisions are made
• Monitor industry experience, risk management practices, and actuarial standards of practice, regularly advising the ERM and BU teams on trends and best practices
• Monitor compliance with the company’s transaction governance and pricing standards; serve as a key advisor to BUs on compliance requirements
• Periodically review transaction governance, updating standards, procedures, and guidelines as necessary to maintain a strong framework
• Produce presentation slides or other materials to support transaction approval requirements by internal committees, the CEO, or the Board
• Develop training materials and practice guides to regularly inform stakeholders on governance requirements
• Perform risk assessments for all reinsurance transactions (acceptance and retrocession), acquisitions, divestitures, and other high-impact transactions
• Evaluate the diligence plans supporting new transactions, including assumption underwriting, pricing, asset allocation and ALM strategy, operational, reputational, and compliance-related risks
• Partner with business unit SMEs during the transaction underwriting and pricing process to ensure a thorough evaluation of all risks is performed
• Review and approve the appraisal model testing plan in accordance with the company’s model governance standards. Conduct independent testing, model validation, or other due diligence as needed to quantify risks or to confirm the appropriateness of pricing results
• Review contracts to ensure terms and conditions support the company’s operational and risk management objectives
• Identify and recommend risk mitigation opportunities and strategies to minimize exposure in all phases of transactions
• Write and/or peer review ERM memorandums to document transaction risks, functional due diligence, or other items as required for internal and regulatory approvals
• Develop and/or review key performance indicators (KPIs), key risk indicators (KRIs), or other metrics that measure pricing outcomes and risks, benchmark them, and ensure effective mitigation
• Recommend pricing sensitivity and scenario stress tests to quantify tail risks and/or the potential range of transaction return outcomes
• Provide transaction risk reporting and guidance to internal committees, ERM leadership, and relevant stakeholders
• Ensure that the risk appetite for all transactional activities aligns with the broader corporate risk management strategy and defined risk limits
• Inform other members of the ERM team about new transactions to facilitate effective integration after transaction execution
• Collaborate with internal departments such as actuarial, investments, legal, finance, and operations to ensure alignment on transactional risk management approach
• Serve as a trusted advisor to BUs on risk and governance matters during all phases of a transaction
• Represent ERM in discussions and negotiations with external parties to address risk concerns in transactions
• Stay abreast of evolving insurance regulatory requirements, particularly in the US and Bermuda. Ensure that transactions and underlying deal assumptions comply with relevant regulations
• Support development and review of filings or other materials submitted as part of the regulatory approval process
• Lead a team of 2-3 transaction risk professionals, providing strategic direction, mentorship, and career development opportunities
• Foster a culture of risk awareness and proactive risk management across the organization

Preferred Qualifications

• Applied experience with both US Statutory and Economic Balance Sheet principles (e.g. the BMA solvency framework or IFRS / Solvency II)
• Experience with reinsurance structuring solutions and collateralization

Benefits

• Annual bonus based on company and individual performance
• Generous benefits package
• $205,000 — $250,000 USD