Job description

About PULA

Pula is an agricultural insurance and technology company that designs and delivers innovative agricultural insurance and digital products to help small-holder farmers endure climate risks, improve their farming practices, and bolster their incomes over time. They are experts in insurance product design and delivery; farmer sensitization and training; digital extension services and project monitoring and evaluation. 

They have reached over 3.4 million farmers with our insurance and digital products across 11 countries in Africa and Asia.

Learn more here: https://www.pula-advisors.com/

About the Role:

If you are looking to be a traditional pencil pushing actuary, then Pula is not the place for you. However, if you’re looking to push the boundaries of traditional insurance and take strides in changing the lives of the poor, then we look forward to receiving your application!

You will be working with a team of qualified actuaries, CFA’s and data scientists to build products that will shape the future of agriculture insurance across Africa & Asia. You will work exciting projects ranging from development of new business models of insurance to solving complex problems never tackled before. At Pula we strive to change the markets that we operate in using new & exciting technologies to make the world a better place. Some of the technologies we are currently using or exploring include Machine Learning, use of drones for claims adjustment, R-based models and satellite/remote sensing technology for pricing. 

Scope of work:

We are looking for an exceptional Actuarial Analyst with a knack for numbers to join our team and take our products to the next level.

In this role, the right candidate will be responsible for up to four general areas of work, briefly outlined below:

1. Product development and pricing of index insurance products
2. Customer analytics and insights
3. Building and development of Pula’s pricing tools
4. Claims analytics

Key Responsibilities:

• Gathering and compiling yield, climate and vegetation data from a wide variety of sources such as satellite, publications, third parties, internal etc.
• Managing master data, including creation, updates, and deletion and providing quality assurance of the data. This data will be used to facilitate and support pricing and risk placement.
• Create, modify and execute computer programs to extract, transform and summarize data, as input to derive analyses and reports used to facilitate and support pricing and risk placement.
• Liaising with customers at corporate and farmer level to understand their risks and exposure.
• Reviewing and analysing the data collected; developing and pricing a product.
• Developing technical notes, legal wordings, and briefs for insurers and reinsurers.
• Managing the negotiation of rates between the client, insurers and reinsurers.
• Creative thinking around analysis of customer data and visualizing this data.
• Designing modules of the pricing engine.

The right applicant would have the following skill set:

• Graduate degree in actuarial science, statistics, climate science, mathematics or related relevant field.
• Pursuit of Actuarial Exams is preferred.
• Practical experience in quantitative and qualitative data analysis, using tools such as SQL, Python, R or SAS. 
• Very strong quantitative and analytical skills.
• Advanced knowledge of some of R/Excel/VBA/Python/SQL database .
• Experience in using GIS software preferable but not mandatory.
• Experience in working with remote sensing or other alternative data sources preferable but not mandatory.

Beyond this, a successful candidate should:

• Thrive in a fast paced start up environment, where getting the job done within seasonal deadlines is paramount .
• Occasional work and travel to rural areas in Africa and Asia.
• Flourish in a highly talented, diverse and multi-cultural team environment.
• Be a straight A student!
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.