Location: London

Canada Life UK looks after the retirement, investment and protection needs of individuals, families and companies. We help to build better futures for our customers, our intermediaries and our employees by operating as a modern, agile and welcoming organisation.

Part of our parent company Great-West Lifeco, Canada Life UK has operated in the United Kingdom since 1903. We have hundreds of respected and supported employees committed to doing the right thing for our customers and colleagues.

Canada Life UK is transforming to create a more customer-focused business by providing our customers with expertise on financial and tax planning, offering home finance and annuities propositions, and providing collective fund solutions to third party customers.

Job Summary:
This position reports into the Head of Internal Model and the Internal Model team is responsible for developing industry leading solutions for Solvency II / SUK capital modelling and supporting strong commercial outcomes and strategic business decisions for Canada Life UK. The IM Design Lead is a strategic role, responsible for designing and enhancing key components of the Internal Model, and ensuring that model outputs are embedded in decision making across investments, ALM, pricing, reinsurance and risk management. The role holder will work closely with senior stakeholders to make sure that decision makers are fully informed on risk and capital implications, and that model developments are aligned with regulatory expectations and business strategy.
The role holder will:
• Engage directly with senior stakeholders (e.g. Finance, Risk, Investments, Product) to ensure clear understanding and effective use of Internal Model outputs in strategic business decisions, including investments, ALM, pricing and reinsurance.
• Support regulatory engagement on Internal Model design topics within their area of responsibility, including preparation of materials for the PRA, responding to queries on methodology and calibration, and contributing to applications for major model changes.
• Provide expert input into the risk management framework, including the setting and monitoring of risk limits, and offering high level strategic advice on risk mitigation and ALM to relevant committees and stakeholders.
• Maintain a strong external perspective, monitoring market and regulatory developments in internal model design, credit risk modelling and aggregation techniques, and bringing relevant insights into Canada Life UK’s Internal Model.

What will you be doing:
1) Lead the design and development of key Internal Model components, including calibration, methodology selection, reporting and model use, with a particular focus on credit risk, Matching Adjustment under stress, stochastic aggregation and proxy modelling.

2) Evolve the Internal Model methodology within their remit, identifying optimisation opportunities, developing prototypes (e.g. in Python) and driving innovation to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the model.

3) Support the design and maintenance of aggregation and dependency structures within the Internal Model, ensuring that diversification effects and risk interactions are appropriately captured and evidenced.

4) Contribute to the Internal Model change agenda and roadmap, recommending and delivering updates to reflect regulatory developments, emerging risks, market conditions and internal risk appetite.

5) Lead and develop a small team of Internal Model specialists, setting priorities, providing training, mentoring and coaching to build technical capability and ensure high quality delivery under tight timelines.

Experience Required for the position:
Technical expertise
• Strong knowledge of Solvency II Internal Models with a proven track record of contributing to change, innovation and optimisation of model components.
• Proven experience of developing Internal Model components (e.g. credit risk, Matching Adjustment under Stress, aggregation or proxy modelling) and supporting their approval through internal governance and regulatory processes.
• Proven prototyping capability, ideally including Python, with experience using prototypes to shape and evidence methodology choices.
• Excellent quantitative and technical skills, with specialist knowledge in at least one of: Solvency II, Credit Risk & MAUS, or aggregation techniques for internal models, and the ability to learn quickly across other areas.
• Experience of applying technical expertise to analyse risk and capital information and using this to support commercial decision making.
• Strong project management skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities and deliver high quality outputs under tight time pressure.
• Strong commercial outlook and the ability to balance model rigour with pragmatic solutions that meet business needs.

Communication and influencing
• Strong communication skills, demonstrating a clear and articulate standard of written and verbal communication in a complex environment, tailored for all levels of management, with excellent attention to detail.
• Experience of presenting Internal Model methodologies, results and implications to senior executives and committees, simplifying complex concepts without losing technical integrity.
• Strong influencing skills, with experience of engaging with senior management and regulators (e.g. PRA) to achieve desired outcomes whilst maintaining transparency and openness.

Stakeholder management and relationship building
• Strong interpersonal and networking skills, with the ability to build and maintain effective relationships with a wide range of stakeholders across Finance, Risk, Investments, Product and other areas.
• Experience of working collaboratively with second and third line functions (e.g. Risk, Compliance, Internal Audit, Independent Model Validation) to address findings, improve methodologies and enhance the control environment.
• Ability to act with integrity and role model company values, building trust and credibility as a subject matter expert in Internal Model design.
Initiative and delivery
• Proven track record of delivery under tight time pressure, including the ability to prioritise effectively and manage competing demands.
• Self motivated, well organised and pragmatic, able to work independently, take ownership of issues and drive them through to resolution.
• Able to identify opportunities to enhance the Internal Model and its use in decision making, and to recommend and implement improvements in response to regulatory, market and business developments.

Developing self and others
• Experience of supporting,