Actuary Job Description (2026): Duties, Skills and Salary
An actuary uses math, statistics and financial theory to measure and price risk, mainly in insurance and pensions. They build models to estimate the cost of future claims, set premiums, and make sure a company holds enough reserves to pay what it owes.
The work is exam-driven: actuaries pass a long sequence of professional exams through organizations like the SOA or CAS while working, and seniority tracks closely with how many exams someone has passed. Day to day, the job mixes model-building, data work and explaining assumptions to underwriters, regulators or executives.
Actuary job description template
Copy it, replace everything in [brackets] and cut what doesn't apply. Keep the requirements to what the job really needs.
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Actuary
[Company] · [City and office days, or remote with the countries or time zones you hire in] · [Full-time]
About [Company]
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, who it serves and why this team matters now.]
About the role
[Company] is hiring an actuary to support pricing and reserving for our [line of business, e.g. life, health, property-casualty or pension] products. You'll build and maintain models, analyze experience data, and explain assumptions to [underwriting / finance / leadership].
What you'll do
- Build and maintain actuarial models for pricing, reserving or valuation.
- Analyze claims and policy data to update assumptions such as mortality or loss ratios.
- Prepare reserve estimates and support the quarterly financial close.
- Support pricing decisions for new or existing products with underwriting.
- Document methodology and assumptions for internal review and regulators.
- Monitor emerging experience against assumptions and flag material deviations.
- Support regulatory filings and statutory reporting requirements.
- Collaborate with data science or IT on model automation and data quality.
What you'll bring
- [X]+ actuarial exams passed, or progress appropriate to the level.
- Bachelor's degree in actuarial science, math, statistics or a related field.
- Strong skills in Excel and a statistical or actuarial modeling tool.
- Solid grounding in probability, statistics and financial math.
- Attention to detail when working with large, imperfect datasets.
- Clear communication of technical assumptions to non-actuaries.
Nice to have
- ASA or FSA (or ACAS/FCAS) designation, or close to completing it.
- Experience with SQL, R or Python for data analysis.
- Experience with [life / health / property-casualty / pension] specifically.
- Experience with a specific actuarial software such as Prophet or AXIS.
What we offer
- [Pay range: e.g. $X–$Y base salary, plus bonus or equity if offered]
- [Paid exam fees and study time, exam-pass bonuses, flexible hours]
- [Health cover, retirement or pension plan, paid time off, parental leave]
- [Work authorization: whether you can sponsor a visa or hire through an employer of record]
[Our process: a recruiter call, a technical interview on probability and reserving concepts, a modeling exercise, and a final interview with the actuarial team.]
[Your equal opportunity statement, and how candidates can ask for adjustments during the process]
Put the pay range in the ad. Several US states, including California, Colorado, New York and Washington, require it in job postings, and the EU Pay Transparency Directive gives applicants the right to know the starting pay or its range before the interview.
Actuary duties by seniority
What the job usually looks like at each level. Pitch the ad at one level and say which in the title.
Junior
- Builds and runs models on defined tasks under review.
- Passes early actuarial exams while gaining hands-on experience.
- Prepares data and basic exhibits for senior actuaries.
Mid-level
- Owns pricing or reserving for a product line or segment.
- Sets assumptions and defends them to underwriting or finance.
- Mentors junior actuaries and reviews their work.
Senior
- Leads actuarial strategy for a major product line or the whole company.
- Signs statutory opinions and represents the company to regulators.
- Sets modeling standards and manages a team of actuaries.
Actuary career path
- Actuarial Analyst
- Associate Actuary (ASA)
- Actuary (FSA/FCAS)
- Chief Actuary
Actuary is reached through a math-heavy degree and a multi-year sequence of professional exams passed while working as an actuarial analyst. Progress through the exams, more than tenure alone, drives promotion, and senior actuaries often move into risk management or executive roles.
Similar roles
- Quantitative Analyst job description
Builds models for financial markets rather than insurance risk and exams.
- Risk Analyst job description
Assesses broader business or credit risk, usually without the actuarial exam track.
- Underwriter job description
Applies pricing and risk rules to individual policies rather than building the models.
- Data Scientist job description
Uses broader machine learning methods rather than actuarial-specific techniques and exams.
Actuary job description FAQ
What does an actuary do?
Uses statistics and financial math to price risk and estimate future claims, mainly for insurance and pension products, and makes sure a company holds enough reserves to cover what it will owe.
What skills should an actuary job description require?
Strong probability and statistics, progress through actuarial exams (SOA or CAS), modeling tool proficiency, and the ability to explain assumptions clearly. State how many exams the role expects, since that drives seniority.
How long does it take to become a fully qualified actuary?
It usually takes several years of passing exams while working as an actuarial analyst, since the full exam sequence to reach ASA or FSA (or ACAS/FCAS) status takes most candidates years to complete alongside full-time work.