Overview

Would you like to be part of a growing firm where you can make a difference?

Are you driven by client satisfaction and motivated to build strong relationships with clients and team members?

If the answer is yes, we’d love to hear from you!

Our Actuarial Consulting team provides a full range of actuarial services to trustees of defined benefit (DB) pension schemes based on a culture of providing all of our clients with a high quality, professional service through strong personal relationships and tailored solutions. To achieve this – and further support our continued growth as an independent, resilient and evergreen business – we need talented, motivated and enthusiastic people. We are currently looking to recruit nearly or recently qualified technical actuaries to work within our growing actuarial calculations team. On a day to day basis, the team undertakes calculations on behalf of IFAs, insurers, prospects and existing pension scheme clients using our in-house software.

How we work

As a leading independent UK professional services consultancy, we are free to do the right thing by our clients at all times. We aim to do so through a partnership approach that delivers real value. Our independence and culture empowers us to think freely and advise on solutions based on our clients’ needs rather than proposing solutions based on house standards and products or having chargeable hours targets. Look at what the people who have joined us over the last couple of years have to say:

“I have recently joined Barnett Waddingham, having been in the industry for a long time.  I have found the Firm to truly have a strong culture of commitment to excellence, doing the right thing for its clients and pension scheme members, and supporting each other as colleagues. BW is very ambitious to continue the level of growth it has seen in recent years and it is extremely well placed to do so in terms of its clear vision, highly talented individuals, technology, and ability to innovate and invest in the future.  People that join us will experience an organisation that is committed to their personal development alongside stimulating and rewarding long term prospects.”

“Barnett Waddingham has a different feel to the other consultancies I have worked for and I have never for one day regretted my move here.  They believe if they keep true to their commitment to helping clients and treating their staff well that the success of the business will follow.  They value people with diverse skills and understand that some people’s biggest strengths are technical skills whilst others are in consulting client facing roles.  They value both equally for the different benefits these bring.”

Barnett Waddingham will provide you with the opportunity to thrive in a growing business with ambitious and exciting future plans, which believes strongly in being supportive, developing its people and offering a good work/life balance. Last year, we were listed in the Sunday Times’ 100 Best Companies to Work For – a fantastic recognition of the hard work and dedication our entire team puts into creating an outstanding workplace culture.

• Your progression: We offer career progression opportunities and a focus on training and professional development to provide you with the necessary tools and skills.  We also offer study support for relevant professional qualifications.
• Wellbeing: Employee wellbeing has always been important to us and our approach is to create an environment where individuals will be engaged at work, successful in what they do and able to achieve their full potential, benefiting both their self and the business.
• Benefits package: We offer a great range of employee benefits as we believe it’s important individuals are supported in making choices which are flexible enough to meet their needs and help support their wellness.
• Diversity: We are committed to having a diverse and inclusive workforce where people from all backgrounds, beliefs and perspectives can thrive, feel welcome and develop to their full potential. Our recruitment processes are designed to be fair and consistent and enable candidates to compete on a level playing field.
• WorkSmart: Throughout the lockdowns and beyond, we have recognised that the ways many of our clients and people would like to work will change and have seized this unique opportunity to proactively review and improve the way we work for the better. Through our “WorkSmart” programme, launched in September 2020, we are actively looking at the wider business market to help identify the best ways of working and are engaging with our employees to obtain their opinions. Please do therefore let us know if you are interested in one of our vacancies even if you do not live near the offices listed above.

Responsibilities

You will act as the main contact for a number of clients, being responsible for managing and carrying out actuarial services for your dedicated clients on behalf of, or as, the Scheme Actuary. You may also assist more senior team members in fulfilling this role for larger clients. You’ll typically report to a line manager, but will work with all team members including Associates, Principals and Partners.

The role of an Actuarial Consultant is certainly varied with no two days being the same. Some of the more traditional tasks you’ll be involved in will include:

• Attending and taking an active role at client meetings
• Undertaking the bulk of the calculations for an actuarial valuation and other actuarial projects
• Producing company accounting disclosures
• Checking work of other team members, ensuring accuracy and compliance with scheme rules, procedures and legislation
• Calculating complex individual member calculations and checking more straightforward calculations
• Drafting client reports and communications
• Proactively advising clients on relevant developments in the pensions world

You’ll meet a number of different people as part of your day-to-day role and will have the opportunity to work closely with our other business areas, such as Investment Consulting and Employer Consulting. There will also be plenty of opportunities to get involved in a wide range of projects – both inside and outside of the Actuarial Consulting team.

You may have worked on risk transfer projects, including annuity transaction work, in your current or previous role. If so, we would be keen to hear about this and the extent you might be interested in being further involved in such work. We have a number of exciting opportunities to support our specialist Bulk Annuity team should you wish to develop in this area.

Qualifications

You will ideally be working within an actuarial consultancy and will be part or fully FIA qualified with experience in DB pensions.

You’ll be self-motivated, with a desire to apply and expand your technical knowledge and client management skills. You will be able to manage your own workload effectively along with that of the clients you are running. This will include delegating work to other team members and ensuring timescales are met. You’ll be confident in answering client queries (whilst recognising where input from more experienced team members may be needed) and will also have the ability to explain technical issues in simplified terms to trustees, scheme sponsors and more junior team members.

What’s in it for you?

Core & Flexible Benefits:

• Competitive discretionary annual bonus
• Core benefits paid for by BW including life assurance, group income protection, private medical cover and 25 days holiday per year with holiday trading
• A generous pension scheme where we contribute 8% of your salary from day one of your employment
• Employee Assistance Programme to support you and your family through any concerns or challenges you may experience
• A comprehensive range of voluntary benefits to suit your life stage and lifestyle including a tech scheme, cycle to work scheme, dental cover, healthcare cash plan, health assessments, critical illness cover, extension of private medical cover or life assurance to family members, gym membership, travel insurance and a broad range of discounts at hundreds of retailers including supermarkets, fitness centres, travel and leisure companies
• Fresh fruit, hot and cold drinks provided free of charge in all of our offices

Giving Something Back:

• 1 paid volunteering day per year as a commitment to our Corporate Social Investment
• Support your favourite charity with the “Give as You Earn” option
• Match-funding for individuals raising money for a recognised charity
• Our corporate social investment programme is an integral part of what we do and is focused on ensuring that our overall impact is a positive one. We recognise that we have an impact that goes beyond our core activities.

Values: our values are PRINCIPLED, RESPECT, QUALITY AND PARTNERSHIP – they are important to us and we want them to be important to you as well.

Wellbeing: employee wellbeing has always been important to us and our approach is to create an environment where individuals will be engaged at work, successful in what they do and able to achieve their full potential, benefiting both their self and the business. BW offer a great range of employee benefits as we believe it’s important individuals are supported in making choices which are flexible enough to meet their needs and help support their wellness.

Diversity: we are committed to having a diverse and inclusive workforce where people from all backgrounds, beliefs and perspectives can thrive, feel welcome and develop to their full potential. Our recruitment processes are designed to be fair and consistent and enable candidates to compete on a level playing field.

Your progression: we offer career progression opportunities and a focus on training and professional development to provide you with the tools and skills to thrive.  We  also offer study support for relevant professional or skills qualifications.

Other activities: we have clubs, sporting events, social, cultural and belief groups across our offices if you’d like to join in and meet like-minded people.