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VP, Corporate Actuarial and Reinsurance

Root Insurance

Root Insurance

United States · Remote
Posted on Oct 29, 2024

CURRENT ROOT EMPLOYEES - Please apply using the career page in Workday. This career site is for external applicants only.


The Opportunity

We are seeking an experienced, analytical, and strategic leader with a deep knowledge of auto insurance to join our Finance Team as the Vice President of Corporate Actuarial and Reinsurance. The VP of Corporate Actuarial and Reinsurance will be a key advisor to senior leadership in the critical areas of risk and cash management. Root is a full-stack insurance company and the leading InsurTech, with a first-mover advantage in the mobile-first auto insurance industry. The ideal candidate will seamlessly step into a fast-paced environment and approach these programs with a passion for creative problem solving and an entrepreneurial mindset.

This role has overall responsibility for leading, managing, and improving the programs, projects, and processes relating to reserving, reinsurance, pricing and underwriting partnership, enterprise risk management.

Root is a “work where it works best” company. Meaning we will support you working in whatever location that works best for you across the US.

Salary Range: $240,000 - $300,000 (Bonus & LTI Eligible)

How You Will Make an Impact

Reserving

  • Oversee appointed actuary and corporate actuarial team leading the monthly reserving processes, ensuring accurate and reliable estimates of loss reserves. Use statistical techniques and actuarial modeling to monitor trends, factoring in economic changes, competitor behavior, and internal shifts in underwriting or claims processes. Provide actionable insights to senior leadership, enabling the company to make informed decisions on pricing, risk, and reserve adequacy.

  • Conduct peer review of appointed actuary on a quarterly basis.

Reinsurance

  • Collaborate with senior leadership to design and implement reinsurance strategies that optimize risk transfer, capital allocation, and surplus preservation.

  • Evaluate and execute quota share, excess of loss, and catastrophe reinsurance placements, aligning them with the company’s capital needs and risk appetite.

  • Manage reinsurance structures to balance cost, risk retention, and compliance with regulatory capital requirements, ensuring they contribute to long-term financial stability.

  • Cultivate and maintain relationships with reinsurance brokers, reinsurers, and other industry stakeholders.

  • Work with reinsurance brokers to identify and assess novel reinsurance structures and strategies that can replace / work in concert with traditional reinsurance structures currently in place.

  • Internal Deals Structuring: Design reinsurance transactions that maximize the financial and operational benefits of Root’s captive entity, ensuring alignment with risk-based capital (RBC) and solvency requirements. Implement structures that optimize the company’s reinsurance costs, loss absorption, and surplus preservation, while maintaining strong regulatory relationships.

  • Deep Expertise in volatility reinsurance covers: Develop and manage Root’s catastrophe (CAT) and excess of loss (XOL) reinsurance programs to protect against volatility and large loss events, ensuring appropriate coverage limits and efficient cost structures. Work closely with senior leadership to assess and model catastrophe risk, guiding the selection of optimal reinsurance arrangements that align with Root's risk tolerance and capital strategy. Continuously monitor emerging risk exposures, including climate-related catastrophes, and ensure the reinsurance program is scalable to meet the needs of a growing personal lines insurer. Collaborate with reinsurers and brokers to secure tailored solutions that balance protection with financial efficiency.

  • Work with accounting to direct reinsurance audits.

  • Collaborate closely with Finance and Accounting.

Pricing and Underwriting Partnership

  • Partner with and provide support to pricing and underwriting teams to assure that products, rates, and projected losses are appropriate to achieve planned financial objectives.

  • Contribute to the review of quarterly Rate indications that determine adequacy of current rates by line and by state for personal lines.

  • Maintain clear and consistent communication and collaboration with data science, underwriting, and claims departments to discuss and proactively manage potential changes in pricing and loss trends, the market, competitive environment, etc.

  • Coordinate feedback and communication between pricing and reserving functions to bridge the Pricing and Reserving views of profitability across the business.

Enterprise Risk Management

  • Play a central role in the ERM Working Group and work across the organization to enhance and implement risk management frameworks, policies, and procedures to mitigate identified risks in line with the size and complexity of the enterprise.

  • Stay on top of and develop recurring reporting for critical and strategic initiatives and develop and promote plans for risk identification and risk mitigation strategies for these key strategic and operational risks.

  • Assist with regular risk assessments and stress tests to ensure resilience against potential adverse scenarios.

  • Collaborate with relevant stakeholders to establish risk management frameworks, controls, and processes and ensure that appropriate risk mitigation strategies are in place.

  • Provide technical expertise with respect to initiatives including economic capital, Own Risk and Solvency Assessment scenario analysis, earnings volatility, and financial planning.

Other Strategic Insights and deliverables

  • Market Analysis: Conduct comprehensive market research and analysis to identify market segments, customer needs, and competitive landscape.

  • Champion initiatives to enhance automation and predictive analytics within actuarial and risk management functions.

  • Innovation and Disruption: Stay abreast of emerging technologies, industry trends, and regulatory developments in the InsurTech and insurance space.

  • Contribute to company efforts for SOX and MAR compliance.

Talent Responsibilities

  • Manage, lead and develop Corporate Actuarial team members.

  • Empower day to day execution within the department. Consistently drive broad department initiatives.

  • Serve as a mentor to other team members on aspects of project work, insurance and general business knowledge.

  • Promote efficiency and automation efforts.

Internal and External Presentations and Relationships

  • Must be able to present complex issues in a manner that is easily understood by non-technical audiences.

  • Maintain an external network within the insurance industry to track emerging trends and approaches to business issues.

  • Represent Root at an executive level at industry events and conferences.

  • Liaise with and maintain excellent relationships with the following bodies: Regulators, Board of Directors and Audit Committee, Rating agencies, and Reinsurance Brokers.

  • Collaborate with cross-functional business partners, such as Data Science, Pricing and Underwriting, Analytics, Claims, State Management, Regulatory and FPA and Accounting teams.

What You Will Need to Succeed

  • 15+ years of actuarial experience, preferably with at least 5 years in personal auto insurance.

  • Fellowship in the Casualty Actuarial Society (FCAS) designation required.

  • Ability to participate effectively on the senior management team

  • Strong analytical skills with solid understanding of all casualty actuarial techniques, standards, and assumptions.

  • Experience structuring and executing comprehensive reinsurance programs.

  • Expert in capital modeling.

  • Expert level understanding of complex reinsurance arrangements, and impact on surplus, RBC and risk management.

  • Ability to work in a fast-paced environment.

  • Expert knowledge of insurance operations and P&C insurance business.

  • Excellent management and communication skills.

  • Experience managing and leading a team.


Don’t meet every single requirement?

Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Root, Inc., we are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway!

Join us

At Root, we judge people based on the merit of their work, not who they are. If you are passionate about what this role entails and solving real problems, we encourage you to apply. We want to learn about you and what you can add to our team.

Who we are

We’re harnessing the power of technology to revolutionize insurance. Using machine learning and mobile telematic platforms, we’ve built one of the most innovative FinTech companies in the world. And we’re just getting started.

What draws people to Root

Our success is in large part due to our unwavering standards in hiring. We recognize that our products are only as good as the people building and promoting them. We want individuals who find solutions by going through the cycle of ideation to implementation with curiosity, rigor, and an analytical lens. Ask anyone who works here and you’ll hear similar reasons for why they joined:

Autonomy—for assertive self-starters, the opportunities to contribute are limitless.

Impact—by challenging the way it’s always been done, we solve problems that have a big impact on our business.

Collaboration—we encourage rich discussion and civil debate at every turn.

People—we are inspired by the collection of crazy-smart people around us.