Pula

JOB DESCRIPTION

Position: Actuarial Associate

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Preferred Start Date: As soon as possible

About Pula: 

Pula Advisors is a new insurance technology company specializing in developing scalable solutions for the agriculture and insurance sector. In 2019, over 1.1 million smallholder farmers were insured through our products and were able to access insurance and farm advisory services through them. 

We are passionate about insurance and making high quality insurance solutions work at scale for the low income mass market. With insurance, farmers in developing countries can invest and grow their family income sustainably in the face of the challenges of climate change and adversity.

Working with farming communities for the last 10 years across Africa has made us acutely aware of farmers’ slim margins. Nevertheless we believe that for our services to be sustainable and reach scale we must offer them at a rate that enables financial sustainability, and why our company is set up as for profit entity. Pula Advisors is incorporated as a limited company (GmbH) in Glarus, Switzerland, with a subsidiary office, incorporated as a fully owned limited company in Nairobi, Kenya and Nigeria.

The PULA Actuary

If you are looking to be a traditional pencil pushing actuary, then Pula isn’t the place for you. However, if you’re looking to push the boundaries of traditional insurance and take strides in changing the lives of the poor, then we look forward to receiving your application!

You will be working with a team of qualified actuaries, CFA’s and data scientists to build products that will shape the future of agriculture insurance across Africa & Asia. You will work exciting projects ranging from development of new business models of insurance to solving complex problems never tackled before. At Pula we strive to change the markets that we operate in using new & exciting technologies to make the world a better place. Some of the technologies we are currently using or exploring include Machine Learning, use of drones for claims adjustment, R-based models and satellite/remote sensing technology for pricing. 

Scope of work:

We are looking for an exceptional Actuarial Associate with a knack for numbers to join our team and take our products to the next level.

In this role, the right candidate will be responsible for up to four general areas of work, briefly outlined below:

1. Product development and pricing of index insurance products
2. Customer analytics and insights
3. Building and development of Pula’s pricing tools
4. Claims analytics

Product development and pricing: 

Pula Advisors has a portfolio of clients in the Agriculture sector ranging from Multinational Agribusinesses to International NGO’s and National Governments. We support these organizations to find the most suitable and competitively priced risk mitigation structure. To achieve this, we look for the data that others say is not available, enabling us to price products to customers that could never access insurance before. We relentlessly work to develop products at a price and coverage level that we believe offers a fair coverage at an affordable premium.

Customer Analytics:

As part of our insurance distribution strategy, we are collecting a unique and high value dataset of rural customers, which combined with our climate and agronomic data can provide valuable insights.

As part of this role, we would look for the candidate to develop customer data analytics and reports in near real time to drive decision making and operations. 

Development of Pula’s pricing tool: 

As part of scaling its agriculture insurance products, Pula has been building an in house pricing tool and database that handles product development, data analytics and pricing for a variety of agriculture insurance products and data sources. The right candidate will be part of a team working on building this tool and will be involved in writing modules of this tool.

As part of their daily responsibilities the Actuarial Associate will be tasked with:

• Liaising with customers at corporate and farmer level to understand their risks and exposure;
• Managing and ensuring high quality data is collected across our countries of operations, to insure the risks the clients look to cover;
• Reviewing and analysing the data collected; developing and pricing a product;
• Developing technical notes, legal wordings, and briefs for insurers and reinsurers;
• Managing the negotiation of rates between the client, insurers and reinsurers;
• Creative thinking around analysis of customer data and visualizing this data
• Designing modules of the pricing engine

The right applicant would have the following skill set:

• Graduate degree in actuarial science, statistics, climate science, mathematics or related relevant field;
• Very strong quantitative and analytical skills;
• At least 2 years actuarial or insurance experience
• Advanced knowledge of R/Excel/VBA/Python/SQL database;
• Experience in using GIS software preferable but not mandatory
• Experience in working with remote sensing or other alternative data sources preferable but not mandatory;
• Five actuarial exams or more preferred

Beyond this, a successful candidate should:

• Autonomously take full responsibility of analytical projects in some of the following areas: product pricing, corporate planning, reinsurance, and/or R&D. The Associate will be accountable to find the proper ways to meet the needs, deadlines and expectations of its stakeholders.
• Be responsible to find solutions and assist colleagues with their problem-solving of complex situations by sharing understanding of difficult actuarial/statistical concepts and providing training on such.
• Master the analytics and actuarial work processes to be able to recommend improvements and implement approved modifications, including but not limited to creating new macros working with existing software, etc
• Thrive in a fast paced start up environment, where getting the job done within seasonal deadlines is paramount 
• Occasional work and travel to rural areas in Africa and Asia
• Flourish in a highly talented, diverse and multi-cultural team environment

The position is based in Nairobi.

Finally, at Pula Advisors, we believe that it’s not enough just to be smart; attitude and hard work are just as important. With that background we are looking for an exceptionally bright individual, who is not afraid of getting her/his hands dirty to get work done. 

We are all self-starters and expect the same from the right candidate, in return, we will give our new team member the freedom to work independently with the knowledge that he/she can rely on the team to back them up and think things through when problems arise. Being polite and persistent in getting the job done are what has brought our team this far, and we are looking for the same qualities in any new member of our team. 

In return, we promise that the work we ask our new team member to do will not only be financially rewarding, but will have a wider impact on developing economies as a whole and will challenge you intellectually.

If this opportunity interests you, apply online now: https://www.shortlist.net/jobs/4280