Actuary - life experience studies & assumption setting - remote

As a team member in Finance at Nationwide, a Fortune 100 company with nearly $70 billion in annual sales, the opportunities are endless! Let Nationwide help create your career journey! At Nationwide®, “on your side” goes beyond just words. Our customers are at the center of everything we do and we’re looking for associates who are passionate about delivering extraordinary care.

Make your actuarial expertise visible where it matters most.

Nationwide Financial is seeking an Actuary to help shape life insurance assumptions that inform pricing, product strategy, risk management, and business decisions. In this high-impact role, you’ll own meaningful experience-study work from data through recommendation, partner with actuarial leaders and the assumption council, and translate complex analysis into clear actions.

This is an opportunity to combine rigorous actuarial analysis with business influence, modern data practices, and practical innovation. You’ll join a collaborative team that values sound judgment, continuous improvement, and a healthy balance between established processes and new ideas.

What you’ll own

• Lead life insurance experience studies and assumption-setting activities, including data analysis, controls, documentation, interpretation, and recommendations.
• Take ownership of a major life assumption through the annual assumption unlock cycle, with support and oversight from experienced team members.
• Present recommendations to the assumption council and communicate insights clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Investigate experience trends and help identify opportunities to support pricing, product decisions, risk analysis, and business growth.
• Build, maintain, and improve actuarial models, testing tools, data processes, and reporting solutions.
• Partner with actuarial, finance, product, technology, and other business teams to develop new processes and strengthen existing ones.
• Help advance responsible AI use in actuarial work, including data transformation, documentation, control testing, quality checks, and analysis support.

What makes this opportunity different

• Business impact: Your recommendations will help shape assumptions and decisions across Nationwide Financial’s life insurance business.
• End-to-end ownership: You’ll move beyond producing analysis to investigating the story in the data, applying judgment, and influencing the recommendation.
• Modern actuarial practice: The team is actively improving data structures, automation, controls, visualization, and responsible AI-enabled workflows.
• Work-life balance: Choose a fully remote work arrangement or work from Nationwide’s Columbus, Ohio headquarters.

What you’ll bring

• FSA credential, or progress toward FSA with the experience and judgment to perform at the appropriate level.
• Approximately 7 years of actuarial experience, or an equivalent combination of actuarial education and relevant experience.
• Strong experience with actuarial analysis, statistical methods, data interpretation, modeling, and assumption development.
• The ability to make thoughtful decisions when data is incomplete, ambiguous, or evolving.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including confidence presenting recommendations in one-on-one and group settings.
• Experience with SQL, Excel, VBA, Access, Tableau, Power BI, or comparable actuarial, analytical, and data-visualization tools.
• Life insurance experience is valuable but not required. Experience with universal life, secondary guarantees, or related life products is a plus.
• A collaborative, curious, and adaptable approach, with the ability to work independently and build strong partnerships across the organization.

If you enjoy turning experience data into decisions, communicating actuarial insight with influence, and helping modernize how actuarial work gets done, we’d like to hear from you.

#LI-remote

#LI-SM1

Job Description Summary

Our Nationwide Financial Actuarial team members have opportunities to use state-of-the-art tools, are encouraged to innovate and learn to master actuarial methodologies. If this sounds like a place you could thrive, then we want to know more about you!

As an Actuary, you’ll show a mastery of business operations, systems and actuarial methodologies. You will provide leadership, direction and oversight for the performance of sophisticated actuarial techniques and procedures and risk analysis. In addition, you’ll develop a strategic vision for the team to ensure efficient, consistent and integrated data and analysis. We’ll count on you to provide business recommendations that are crucial to the success of Nationwide and the protection we provide our customers. You’ll need to work independently and may directly or indirectly lead others.

Job Description

Key Responsibilities:

• Acts as a specialist for compilation, categorization and analysis of data.
• Constructs sophisticated testing tools and product calculations.
• Builds, maintains and computes Actuarial, Projection & Valuation Models.
• Conducts financial reporting and analysis.
• Prices and supports implementation of products.
• Conducts risk analysis for lines of business/products.
• Establishes reserves and other valuation items under multiple accounting regimes (statutory, GAAP, and tax) for products.
• Leads and provides experienced knowledge for the analysis of reinsurance opportunities.
• Builds cohesive presentations, communication strategies and recommendations of actuarial findings that are suitable for technical and non-technical audiences at the OCFO leadership level.
• May perform other responsibilities as assigned.

Reporting Relationships:

Reports to Actuarial leader.

Typical Skills and Experiences:

• Education: Undergraduate degree in actuarial science, mathematics, statistics, or similar background requiring modeling, programming or quantitative analysis.
• License/Certification/Designation: FSA required. PLEASE REFER TO THE NATIONWIDE LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY ACTUARIAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.
• Experience: Typically, 5 to 7 years of actuarial experience.
• Knowledge, Abilities and Skills: Experienced knowledge of actuarial business functions, statistical methods of analysis, actuarial models, actuarial software and databases. Mastery of Microsoft Office products (including VBA within Access and Excel), analytical software (such as tableau) and programming languages. Basic level of organizational agility and conflict management. Proficient level of command skills, strategic agility, delegation, motivating others, business perspective, and accounting. Mastery level of perspective, problem solving, customer focus, dealing with ambiguity, drive for results, analysis, learning.

Other criteria, including leadership skills, competencies and experiences may take precedence.

Staffing exceptions to the above must be approved by the hiring manager’s leader and Human Resources Business Partner.

Values:

Regularly and consistently demonstrates the Nationwide Values.

Job Conditions:

Overtime Eligibility: Exempt (Not eligible)

Working Conditions: Normal office environment.

ADA: The above statements cover what are generally believed to be principal and essential functions of this job. Specific circumstances may allow or require some people assigned to the job to perform a somewhat different combination of duties.

We currently anticipate accepting applications until 10/09/2026. However, we encourage early submissions, as the posting may close sooner if a strong candidate slate is identified before the deadline.

Benefits

We have an array of benefits to fit your needs, including: medical/dental/vision, life insurance, short and long term disability coverage, paid time off with newly hired associates receiving a minimum of 18 days paid time off each full calendar year pro-rated quarterly based on hire date, nine paid holidays, 8 hours of Lifetime paid time off, 8 hours of Unity Day paid time off, 401(k) with company match, company-paid pension plan, business casual attire, and more. To learn more about the benefits we offer, click here.

Nationwide is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive culture where everyone feels challenged, appreciated, respected and engaged. Nationwide prohibits discrimination and harassment and affords equal employment opportunities to employees and applicants without regard to any characteristic (or classification) protected by applicable law.

This position could be filled within any of the lower 48 U.S. states.

#actuarial

Smoke-Free Iowa Statement: Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, its affiliates and subsidiaries comply with the Iowa Smokefree Air Act. Smoking is prohibited in all enclosed areas on or around company premises as well as company issued vehicles. The company offers designated smoking areas in which smoking is permitted at each individual location. The Act prohibits retaliation for reporting complaints or violations. For more information on the Iowa Smokefree Air Act, individuals may contact the Smokefree Air Act Helpline at 888-944-2247.

For NY residents please review the following state law information: Notice of Employee Rights, Protections, and Obligations LS740 (ny.gov) https://dol.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2022/02/ls740_1.pdf

NOTE TO EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES: We value the partnerships we have built with our preferred vendors. Nationwide does not accept unsolicited resumes from employment agencies. All resumes submitted by employment agencies directly to any Nationwide employee or hiring manager in any form without a signed Nationwide Client Services Agreement on file and search engagement for that position will be deemed unsolicited in nature. No fee will be paid in the event the candidate is subsequently hired as a result of the referral or through other means.

Nationwide pays on a geographic-specific salary structure and placement within the actual starting salary range for this position will be determined by a number of factors including the skills, education, training, credentials and experience of the candidate; the scope, complexity and location of the role as well as the cost of labor in the market; and other conditions of employment. If a Sales job, Sales Incentives, based on performance goals are possible in addition to this range. Note on Compensation for Part-Time Roles: Please be aware that the salary ranges listed below reflect full-time compensation. Actual compensation may be prorated based on the number of hours worked relative to a full-time schedule.

The national salary range for Actuary, NF : $138,000.00-$243,000.00

The expected starting salary range for Actuary, NF : $138,000.00 - $206,000.00