General Insurance Actuary

Do you want an actuarial career with a difference? Where you can have a real impact working with government departments and the wider public sector. If yes, then a career at the Government Actuary's Department (GAD) could be for you.

At GAD our mission is to support effective decision-making and robust reporting within the public sector as the first-choice provider of actuarial and specialist analysis, advice and assurance. The department’s work covers valuation work and policy support in relation to insurance type indemnities and contingent liabilities, pension schemes, financial risk, and social security. We also provide financial modelling and quality assurance.

We offer great working benefits including a world-class pension, flexible working options and a career where your learning and development is taken seriously.

You will be a key consultant advising our general insurance clients. The purpose of the role is to support our engagement and delivery of actuarial advice to help make more effective and informed decisions. The work is significantly more varied than a traditional general insurance actuary role given the public sector context. For example, supporting the client holistically on feeding reserving insights into pricing and cashflow considerations, producing financial statements, wider policy support, and adapting to changes in client priorities, situations where there may be limited data or novel areas of risk where government may act as insurer of last resort.

Further information on GAD is provided in the attached pack.

N.B. GAD may work with recruiters on this campaign provided prior agreement is reached for this specific campaign

The role will likely be based in our Insurance Provisioning team, although we would expect you to support other teams and undertake a wider variety of work as required (see Key responsibilities 4). This team works closely with public sector risk-pooling arrangements (such as the schemes operated by NHS Resolution and the Risk Protection Arrangement for schools).

The role is likely to be initially concentrated on working for an individual client but the work is varied, interesting, and has purpose, for example working in the best interests of the taxpayer or adapting to new challenges. You are expected to lead on some aspects of core annual projects, as well as supporting and/or leading on a range of additional projects (more details below).

You will be expected to build client relationships, identify areas where GAD can provide additional support and ensure consistency of approach where appropriate. Additionally, the expectation is that, over time, you will work with more than one client.

Core annual projects:

Calculation of the provision for government accounting, which includes:

• Producing the year-end provisioning estimates (akin to reserving in the private sector)
• Supporting the client on features of the known claims book
• Supporting the production of the accounts and liaising with auditors

Cashflow projections and pricing, which includes:

• Producing short-term cashflow projections to meet government budgetary requirements
• Supporting annual contribution setting within the arrangement (akin to pricing in the private sector)

Additional projects might include:

• Quantifying the impacts of emerging trends and changes to the risk pool
• Using insights from our work to feed into policy development and wider decision making such as risk prevention measures
• Supporting client analysis, model development and/or system improvements
• Developing and implementing process improvements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Technical skills.

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete:

A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you provide employment history that relates to the essential criteria, and that any gaps in employment history within the last 2 years are explained.

A Personal statement of up to 500-words explaining how you meet the essential criteria for the role, with particular reference to the criteria provided in the person specification of the JD.

Your CV and Personal Statement will be used to assess the essential criteria listed in the job description.

During the interview you will be assessed on the experience and behaviours listed in the Person Specification and detailed in this advert. The interview will include a presentation, details of which will be sent to those invited to interview.

Application deadline: 1200 hrs on 07 September 2026

Shortlisting: By w/c 14 September 2026

Interviews: w/c 21 September 2026

Interview location: In office (Either London, E14 4PU or Edinburgh, EH8 8FT)

Please apply via our recruitment portal below.

As part of the application form process, please submit your CV and supporting statement. Please do not email your CV outside of this process as it will not be accepted.

Shortlisting criteria is based on the Person Specification as set out in the Assessment Criteria section of the Job Description. Please ensure you provide examples of how you meet the Assessment Criteria; a strong application will also demonstrate that you meet the required criteria that are identified as key for this role. Applications will be shortlisted in line with the essential criteria for the role. The desirable criteria will not be assessed throughout the recruitment process, but will be used in the event of tied scores between candidates. Behaviours will be assessed at sift and interview stage. Candidates who are successful at shortlist will be contacted as soon as possible and advised of the interview process and assessment (exact times and dates will also be confirmed).

A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.