Director, Actuary (Retirement Strategies) (Hybrid)

Prudential Financial • Newark, NJ

7d • Hybrid

About The Position

At Prudential, we believe talent is key to achieving our vision. When you join Prudential, you’ll unlock a motivating and impactful career – all while growing your skills and advancing your profession at one of the world’s leading financial services institutions! The Director, Actuary role is a high impact leadership role within the Retirement Strategies (RS) Modeling, Methodology, and Assumptions team, offering the opportunity to shape enterprise critical mortality assumptions that directly influence Prudential’s financial results and strategic growth. As the Institutional Retirement Strategies Assumptions Team Lead, you will own and advance assumption development for Pension Risk Transfer (PRT), Longevity Risk Transfer (LRT), and Structured Settlements, supporting both in force and new business across expanding global product lines. This role combines deep actuarial expertise with strong business influence, visibility to senior leadership, and the chance to modernize how assumptions are developed, governed, and integrated into pricing and underwriting decisions. In addition, this leader will provide technical and strategic leadership in transforming data processes and analytical tooling, leveraging Python, SQL, and Power BI to build modern, repeatable, and enterprise grade analytics capabilities. The current employee work arrangement for this position is hybrid and requires your on-site presence on a reoccurring basis as determined by your business. Your manager will provide additional details relative to the specific number of days you are expected to be on-site.

Requirements

• College Degree (BA / BS) required.
• FSA with 8+ years of actuarial experience or equivalent experience in a similar quantitative financial field.
• Knowledge of experience studies and assumption development process required.
• Proven track record of control mindset.
• Strong analytical mind and the ability to produce unique insights that bring business value.
• Excellent communication skills, particularly in presenting technical results to senior executives and non-technical audiences.
• Self-starter with excellent project management skills and ability to juggle multiple urgent priorities.
• Creative problem-solver, particularly in areas with very little clarity or precedence.
• Highly motivated and ability to thrive in a fast-paced, results-oriented environment with high quality standards.

Nice To Haves

• Degree in Actuarial Science, mathematics, finance, computer science or other quantitative related fields.
• Annuity and/or retirement product knowledge.
• Understanding of, and experience with, robust governance controls is strongly preferred.
• Familiarity with, or exposure to, SQL, VBA, Python, Power BI, and Git/Bitbucket.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of four actuaries, including one rotational student, in the development of Inforce Valuation & New Business Pricing assumptions used for financial reporting (Stat/GAAP), Pricing, Capital, and Forecasting for various insurance products.
• Collaborating with Valuation, Pricing, Modeling, and the Product Management to communicate assumption updates and determine reasonability of impact estimates.
• Drive recommendations through the governance and approval process including presentation to senior management.
• Support establishing assumptions required for new product development and strategic business initiatives.
• Participating in and supporting industry experience studies.
• Support internal/external audit, and statutory PBR assumption examinations.
• Support Assumption management team initiatives to develop assumption monitoring tools and techniques.
• Collaborate across various teams to enhance/streamline our data analytics tools and capabilities by leveraging emerging technology and best practices.
• Participate in enterprise-wide assumption groups to share knowledge and be an active participant in Prudential’s Actuarial Community.

Benefits

• Market competitive base salaries, with a yearly bonus potential at every level.
• Medical, dental, vision, life insurance, disability insurance, Paid Time Off (PTO), and leave of absences, such as parental and military leave.
• 401(k) plan with company match (up to 4%).
• Company-funded pension plan.
• Wellness Programs including up to $1,600 a year for reimbursement of items purchased to support personal wellbeing needs.
• Work/Life Resources to help support topics such as parenting, housing, senior care, finances, pets, legal matters, education, emotional and mental health, and career development.
• Education Benefit to help finance traditional college enrollment toward obtaining an approved degree and many accredited certificate programs.
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan: Shares can be purchased at 85% of the lower of two prices (Beginning or End of the purchase period), after one year of service.
• Eligibility to participate in a discretionary annual incentive program is subject to the rules governing the program, whereby an award, if any, depends on various factors including, without limitation, individual and organizational performance.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director