Head of Experience Insights & Assumption Management

Head of Experience Insights & Assumption Management
Full‑Time • Boston, MA or Springfield, MA

The Opportunity
MassMutual is looking for an exceptional, well‑rounded, highly motivated and collaborative actuary to lead the Experience Insights & Assumption Management team of 10+ professionals within the broader Corporate Actuarial team. The Head of Experience Insights & Assumption Management will partner closely with Corporate Actuarial, business and corporate stakeholders to create and execute on a roadmap for developing robust/detailed data pipelines, monitoring capabilities and translating emerging experience trends into actionable insights for senior management.

This role requires exceptional technical and analytical skills as well as superior business acumen to provide the vision for and guide the development of frameworks and infrastructure that support assumption management and experience monitoring across various product lines and accounting bases, ensuring consistency, credibility, and responsiveness to emerging trends and regulatory expectations. It also involves presenting and communicating on emerging experience trends and impacts to business/financials with clarity and credibility to various stakeholders and senior management.

Responsibilities

Accountable for experience studies and related liability actuarial assumptions across all of MassMutual’s insurance products and for partnering with many key business stakeholders, including Corporate Actuarial, Product, CFO, ERM, ETX – Actuarial Data Science and Operations.

Lead, develop and manage a team of talented individuals performing experience studies and developing recommendations for actuarial assumptions related to mortality, longevity, morbidity, terminations, lapses, premium persistency benefit utilization and other policy holder behavior analysis across the following business lines:

Retail and Group Life (including combination products)

Worksite (Life, Disability, Critical Illness, Accident, Medical Supplemental Insurance/Small Medical)

Individual Health (Disability, Long‑Term Care and acceleration‑type riders)

Retail Annuity (MYGA, FIA, SPIA, DIA, VA and GLWB/GLDB riders)

Lead the development and implementation of best practices around experience studies across lines of business and understand implications of updates to major insurance experience elements to various downstream applications (valuation, pricing, risk management, etc.).

Drive the vision for the tools and reporting needed to support the team and other stakeholders with storytelling around business results that connect emerging experience trends to company financials.

Influence development of and ensure adherence to corporate and actuarial standards on assumption development.

Serve as a voting member of the Experience Studies and Assumption Governance Steering Committee and sit on various sub‑committees (e.g. Life, Health, Annuity, Institutional).

Drive the direction/strategy regarding the development of COMET (Continuous Monitoring Experience Tool) and experience pipelines in collaboration with the Head of Assumption Oversight and Actuarial Data Science, and maturing existing feedback loops with key stakeholders.

Stay abreast of underwriting and predictive model changes and provide thought leadership, technical expertise and collaborate with Pricing teams supporting the quantification of actuarial assumption changes.

Leverage expertise and industry insights from participation in select industry groups (e.g. SOA LIMRA Experience Studies Advisory Council) to inform experience monitoring and assumption methodology updates.

Establish strong credibility and executive presence with key stakeholders to drive ideas forward, impact management decision‑making, and translate experience insights into action.

Provide team leadership, clear communications and strong partnership with the Pricing teams, Underwriting, Claims, Data Science and other Corporate Actuarial stakeholders.

Contribute to Corporate Actuarial thought leadership and positive team culture.

Minimum Qualifications

Bachelor’s Degree or higher.

Fellow of Society of Actuaries (FSA), or equivalent professional credential from a recognized professional actuarial association.

10+ years of actuarial experience, preferably in the U.S. market, in areas such as pricing, valuation, financial planning, CFT/ALM, reinsurance and/or experience studies.

Strong knowledge of actuarial concepts and practices as well as of U.S. life, annuity, and health insurance products; experience with quantifying, analyzing and managing a range of product risks and/or assumptions.

Innovative, self‑motivated and independent with strong analytical, critical thinking, and problem‑solving skills; comfortable dealing with both complexity and ambiguity, and able to explore multiple solutions to problems and challenges.

Effective time‑management, planning and organization skills.

Strong communication (both written and verbal) and influencing skills: ability to convey complex issues to senior management; ability to work well under pressure and manage multiple deliverables.

Strong interpersonal skills and ability to build and maintain strong working relationships across cross‑functional groups.

Demonstrable experience with creative problem‑solving and thought leadership.

Experience with managing teams and demonstrates ability to attract, retain and develop strong talent.

Deep experience with data science, analytics and visualization skills (e.g., Python, R, SQL, Tableau, Power BI, Alteryx) and leveraging generative AI tools to enhance workflows and analysis.

Experience in presenting or writing research papers or other industry participation is a plus.

What to Expect as Part of MassMutual and the Team

Regular meetings with the team.

Focused one‑on‑one meetings with your manager.

Networking opportunities including access to Asian, Hispanic/Latinx, African American, women, LGBTQ, Veteran and disability‑focused Business Resource Groups.

Access to learning content on Degreed and other informational platforms.

Your ethics and integrity will be valued by a company with a strong and stable ethical business with industry‑leading pay and benefits.

Salary Range
$180,700.00 – $237,100.00

At MassMutual, we focus on ensuring fair and equitable pay by providing competitive salaries, along with incentive and bonus opportunities for all employees. Your total compensation package includes either a bonus target or, in a sales‑focused role, a Variable Incentive Compensation component.

Equal Employment Opportunity
MassMutual is an equal employment opportunity employer. We welcome all persons to apply.

Accommodation Statement
If you need an accommodation to complete the application process, please contact us and share the specifics of the assistance you need.

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