Actuarial Insights Lead & Assumption Strategy

Head of Experience Insights & Assumption Management

Full‑Time
• Boston, MA or Springfield, MA

Mass Mutual 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.

• Accountable for experience studies and related liability actuarial assumptions across all of Mass Mutual’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.

• Bachelor’s Degree or higher.
• Fellow of Society of Actuaries (FSA), or equivalent professional credential from a…