Chief Actuarial Officer

About the Role

Novacore built its actuarial function from the ground up over the last two years. Now we're looking for the person to lead it. As Head of Actuarial, you'll own the actuarial voice of a specialty MGA writing 20+ programs across 11+ segments — specialty transport, commercial casualty, aerospace, hospitality, environmental, and more. You'll inherit something real: a founding pricing team, a modern data platform (NovaLytics), a rating-transformation program already in flight (hyperexponential), and a book with genuine momentum. This isn't a greenfield and it isn't a legacy shop to babysit — it's a function built to be scaled, and your job is to scale it. You'll report directly to the Chief Product & Technology Officer (CPTO) and sit at the center of how Novacore prices, monitors, and defends its portfolio.

What You'll Own

• NovaLytics — the data marts and program performance reporting that tell us which programs are working and why
• Rating Governance — the rate-adequacy and methodology discipline that keeps a fast-growing book honest, including the HX rollout across programs
• Carrier Marketing — the actuarial story that wins and holds reinsurance and carrier capacity
• Corporate Support — M&A, sidecar, and the capital-structuring work that a specialty platform runs on

Responsibilities

• Lead the Actuarial Function — Head Novacore's actuarial organization, an initial founding team with oversight spanning 11+ specialty segments, each with its own pricing, reserving, and analytics capability, plus a bench of specialists deployed to the highest-value problems; grow and develop the team, mentor analysts and segment actuaries, set technical standards and house conventions, and build the career paths that turn a founding team into a durable department; own the actuarial operating model: hiring, structure, review cadence, and how the function plugs into underwriting and the business; serve as the actuarial voice to the executive team and board, reporting directly to the CPTO
• NovaLytics — Data Foundation & Performance Reporting — Own NovaLytics, Novacore's actuarial data platform — program-level data marts and automated loss-development and consolidation that replace manual data pulls; run the program-profitability engine: monthly/quarterly performance monitoring across the top programs, with deep-dive reviews roughly twice a year; turn emerging data into a clear read on which programs are working, which aren't, and why — the single source of truth for actuarial performance across the book
• Rating Governance — Own rate-adequacy, model-assumption, and methodology governance across every program in partnership with underwriting leads; lead the hyperexponential (HX) rollout — rating transformation across contracted programs plus oversight of everything the team builds — and the lift-out/transformation track alongside it; lead the development of rating plans for new programs; provide oversight and support for underwriting models (“mousetraps”) that can aid underwriters in selecting the best risks and/or structuring terms/rating to make a risk profitable
• Carrier Marketing & Corporate Support — Be the actuarial voice into carrier and reinsurer relationships — carrier packs, deep-dive analyses, and profitability-framework materials that win and defend capacity; support corporate strategy: M&A due diligence, reinsurance sidecar structuring, and other capital and structuring initiatives; partner across underwriting, claims, data engineering, technology, and compliance so the actuarial function drives enterprise decisions rather than checking them after the fact
• AI-Native Leadership — Set the standard for an AI-first actuarial function — where LLMs and agentic workflows handle data extraction, report generation, and the tedious middle of every process; push modern data science — predictive modeling, GLMs, gradient boosting, clustering — into pricing and portfolio problems, and hire and build toward ML-based underwriting as the data matures; make sure the team builds tools it's proud of, not spreadsheets it tolerates

Qualifications

• Foundation — Credentialed P&C actuary — FCAS/ACAS (or equivalent) preferred; but an exceptional actuarial professional with a track record will be considered; deep specialty / commercial-lines experience; MGA, program, or E&S background is a strong plus given how Novacore is built; command of both pricing and reserving across multiple lines — you've owned loss picks, rate adequacy, and reserve reviews, and can stand behind all three
• Leadership — You've built or led an actuarial team — set standards, mentored analysts, and grown people into ownership; executive presence: you can carry the actuarial voice into a board room, a carrier negotiation, and a broker call with equal credibility; comfort operating at a founding-era for the department — enough structure to lead, enough whitespace to shape
• Technical Chops — Programming proficiency in Python, R, and/or SQL — you don't need to be a software engineer, but you should be comfortable building things, not just reviewing them; hands-on with modern pricing and rating platforms; experience with hyperexponential (HX) or comparable rating engines is a strong plus; familiarity with modern data tools: version control (Git), cloud platforms, BI tools (Power BI, Tableau), and notebook environments (Jupyter, Databricks, etc.)
• The AI-Native Mindset — You already use AI tools in your daily workflow — not because someone told you to, but because you can't imagine leading a team that doesn't; a point of view on how LLMs, agentic frameworks, and automation reshape a traditional actuarial department — and the will to actually implement it; willingness to prototype, experiment, and ship — and to set that expectation for your team
• The Human Stuff — Judgment and conviction — you can make the call on a loss pick, a reserve, or a program's future and own the outcome; the ability to communicate complex actuarial concepts to non-actuarial stakeholders — underwriters, carriers, reinsurers, leadership, and the board; a genuine desire to build something and bring a team along with you

What You Won't Find in Most Head of Actuarial Postings

• A function to lead, not a legacy to babysit. Novacore's actuarial team, data platform, and rating transformation are already in motion. You inherit momentum — and the mandate to scale it.
• A seat at the top table. You report directly to the CPTO with real exposure to the executive team and board. No layers of middle management between your judgment and the decision.
• Real infrastructure, day one. NovaLytics for performance reporting, hyperexponential for rating, a founding pricing bench across 11+ segments. You're not starting from a blank page.
• AI-first investment. We don't just talk about AI — we invest in tokens, tools, and time. You'll lead a function built to work this way, not one you have to drag into it.
• Breadth big carriers can't match. 20+ specialty programs across standard and niche lines (yes, including space and aviation). The variety alone will keep the role from ever getting stale.
• A real path to Chief Actuary. This role is the actuarial leadership seat of the platform, designed to grow into the top actuarial job as Novacore scales.
• We'll have fun. Seriously. We're building something new and doing it with people who actually enjoy the work.

You Might Be a Great Fit If...

• You've led an actuarial team — and can point to analysts you grew into owners
• You've owned rate adequacy across a portfolio and set the governance that kept it honest as the book grew
• You've stood in front of a reinsurer or carrier and defended a loss pick, a rate move, or a program's story — and held the capacity
• You've built (or badly wanted to build) a real data foundation for performance reporting instead of pulling triangles by hand every quarter
• You've led or lived through a rating-platform transformation and know where the bodies are buried
• You've used an LLM to solve a real work problem — and it changed how you think about running a department
• You want to lead a function, not just join one

Experience Range

We're flexible — the right leader matters more than the exact resume. We'd typically expect 10+ years of P&C actuarial experience with meaningful time in specialty, program, or MGA business, and a track record of leading people and owning portfolio-level decisions. If you're a credentialed actuary ready to step up into your first full department-lead seat and you're exceptional, tell us — we'll build the role around the right person.