Experience Analysis and Analytics Head

Old Mutual is seeking a seasoned professional to lead their Experience Analysis and Analytics function within the Group Risk division. This pivotal role involves steering teams responsible for unravelling complex data to inform crucial business decisions, ultimately shaping the future of their protection solutions across Africa. The organisation is committed to unlocking the continent's potential and seeks a leader who can harness the power of data to drive sustainable growth and effective risk management.

About the Role

This is a senior leadership position where you will be instrumental in defining and executing the analytical strategy for the Group Risk business. You will oversee the Experience Analytics and Business Insights teams, ensuring their work directly supports the company's strategic objectives, capital efficiency, and growth aspirations. The core function involves transforming raw data into actionable intelligence that guides pricing, enhances risk management, fortifies financial sustainability, and underpins data-driven decision-making for group risk cover solutions. You will be the authority on experience trends, claims drivers, and portfolio dynamics, presenting findings to executive and board-level forums.

Your responsibilities will span a wide and strategic spectrum, focusing on extracting maximum value from the organisation's data. Key outputs include:

• **Strategic Leadership and Analytical Vision:**
• Developing and owning the overarching experience analysis and analytics strategy for Group Risk, ensuring alignment with broader business goals.
• Providing senior oversight for all experience investigations, guaranteeing consistency, credibility, and robust governance.
• Elevating the analytics capability from basic reporting to sophisticated predictive modelling that provides true decision support.
• Acting as a thought leader on emerging trends within claims, portfolio performance, and overall customer experience.

• **Experience Analysis and Pricing Enablement:**
• Overseeing the design, execution, and interpretation of experience investigations and assumption setting for pricing and business planning.
• Collaborating closely with Pricing and Actuarial teams to ensure that insights from experience data directly inform pricing bases, assumption reviews, portfolio remediation, and new business/renewal decisions.
• Ensuring that experience analyses accurately reflect segmentation, emerging risks, and the inherent credibility of the data.

• **Business Insight and Portfolio Performance:**
• Delivering clear, executive-level insights into portfolio performance, analysing claims drivers, variance against plans, and margin sustainability across different segments.
• Translating complex analytical outputs into commercially relevant narratives for senior stakeholders.
• Supporting strategic decisions related to product development, underwriting strategies, benefit design, and risk appetite.

• **Actuarial Modelling and Reporting:**
• Maintaining, developing, and reviewing actuarial models used for analytics and pricing, ensuring clear documentation and governance.
• Enhancing experience monitoring frameworks and assumptions used in pricing.
• Overseeing the production of regular and ad-hoc reports and dashboards, communicating insights and recommendations effectively.

• **Advanced Analytics and Capability Development:**
• Leading the development of advanced analytical capabilities, including automation, tooling, and scalable frameworks.
• Championing the use of data science, segmentation, and analytics to improve risk selection, pricing accuracy, and customer outcomes.
• Ensuring that analytical solutions are practical, integrated into business processes, and actively utilised.

• **Leadership, Talent, and Collaboration:**
• Leading, mentoring, and developing a high-performing team.
• Fostering strong collaborative relationships across Actuarial, Pricing, Product, Claims, Finance, Distribution, and Data teams.
• Cultivating a culture of analytical excellence, curiosity, and commercial relevance within the team.
• Driving automation and optimisation initiatives to improve efficiency and repeatability of analytical processes.

What They're Looking For

To excel in this role, you will need to be a Qualified Actuary (or hold an equivalent senior actuarial qualification) with substantial experience, typically between 8 to 12 years or more, specifically within the Group Risk, Life Insurance, or Reinsurance sectors. A deep technical expertise in experience analysis, assumption setting, and actuarial analytics is paramount. You must have a proven ability to influence senior leadership through compelling, data-driven insights and demonstrated experience operating at a senior leadership level with enterprise-wide impact. A strong understanding of Group Risk products, pricing mechanisms, and claims dynamics is essential. Any exposure to advanced analytics, automation, or data science initiatives will be considered advantageous.

Beyond technical skills, the organisation seeks individuals with strong business acumen, exceptional analytical thinking, a talent for stakeholder collaboration and influence, a focus on accountability and delivery, and a commitment to continuous improvement and innovation, coupled with proven people development and technical leadership capabilities.

This is an exceptional opportunity for an experienced actuarial professional to make a significant impact at a leading financial services organisation in South Africa. Roles of this seniority in the insurance sector typically command competitive remuneration packages, reflecting the critical nature of the function and the required expertise. Existing employers for such roles often include established insurance giants, large financial institutions, and specialist risk management firms. The career path for individuals in this domain typically involves progression into executive leadership roles within actuarial, risk, or strategic analytics functions.

Requirements:

• Qualified Actuary (or equivalent senior actuarial qualification).
• Significant experience (typically 8–12+ years) in Group Risk / Life Insurance / Reinsurance.
• Deep expertise in experience analysis, assumptions setting, and actuarial analytics.
• Proven track record of influencing senior leadership through data-driven insights.
• Experience operating at senior leadership level, with enterprise-wide impact.
• Strong understanding of Group Risk products, pricing mechanics, and claims dynamics.
• Exposure to advanced analytics, automation, or data science initiatives is advantageous.

Critical capabilities for success:

• Business acumen
• Analytical thinking
• Stakeholder collaboration and influence
• Accountability and delivery focus
• Continuous improvement and innovation
• People development and technical leadership

 

Skills

Action Planning, Adaptive Thinking, Agile Project Management, Data Compilation, Data Controls, Executing Plans, Financial Acumen, Identifying Customer Needs, Information Management, Insurance Product Management, Insurance Sales, Legal Practices, Negotiation, Policies & Procedures, Risk Management, Workflow Management

Competencies

Balances Stakeholders

Builds Effective Teams

Builds Networks

Business Insight

Communicates Effectively

Decision Quality

Ensures Accountability

Financial Acumen

Education

Fellow Of Actuarial Society Of South Africa (FASSA) (Required), Fellow Of The Institute Of Actuaries (Required)

Closing Date

14 July 2026 , 23:59

The appointment will be made from the designated group in line with the Employment Equity Plan of Old Mutual South Africa and the specific business unit in question.

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