Ethos is a leading life insurance technology company on a mission to protect families by democratizing access to life insurance and empowering agents at scale. With its robust three-sided technology platform, Ethos is transforming the life insurance experience for consumers, agents, and carriers alike. Ethos offers instant, accessible products and a seamless online process that requires no medical exams and just a few health questions; it eliminates traditional barriers, making it easier than ever for everyone to protect their families. Ethos is redefining how life insurance is bought, sold, and underwritten.
About the role
Ethos is looking for an experienced actuary to lead our mortality analytics and actuarial assumption modeling. You will serve as the company's expert on mortality, translating complex insights into strategies that improve our product competitiveness and financial integrity.
We're seeking someone with a strong foundation in life insurance mortality modeling who brings deep actuarial expertise and enjoys tackling open-ended problems. Building new methodologies where playbooks don't exist. You're energized by the chance to apply AI and emerging techniques to problems insurance companies have solved the same way for decades, and you know how to align actuarial rigor with product velocity across finance, product, and underwriting teams.
If you're excited about pushing the boundaries of actuarial science while maintaining rigor and reliability, we'd love to hear from you.
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Own mortality-related assumptions and other actuarial inputs across product development, forecasting, and financial reporting.
- Lead the development and maintenance of expected mortality models, assumption frameworks, and experience studies.
- Leverage leading data points, such as post-issue audit data and mortality risk scores, to predict mortality before experience is fully credible.
- Monitor actual-to-expected mortality experience and work collaboratively with underwriting and data science teams.
- Design and complete protective value studies to quantify the mortality lift of underwriting requirements.
- Quantify the impact of applicant behavior on overall expected mortality and mortality curve shapes.
- Utilize AI to accelerate pace of insights and maximize business impact.
- Serve as the Ethos mortality subject matter expert, advising senior leaders internally and engaging with key partners externally, translating technical work into actionable business recommendations.
Qualifications and Skills:
- FSA or near-FSA designation preferred; experienced ASA candidates considered.
- 5+ years of experience in life insurance actuarial roles with exposure to both mortality and underwriting models.
- Proven ability to translate third-party data, post-issue audits, and other leading indicators into expected mortality outcomes.
- Experience with assumption setting for life insurance pricing, forecasting, or valuation across a broad range of products.
- Track record of partnering with finance, product, and underwriting teams—aligning actuarial rigor with business velocity.
- Familiarity with modern data tools and pipelines (SQL, dbt, Snowflake, etc.).
- Strong statistical modeling skills in R or Python.
- Proficiency with Excel and actuarial modeling tools.
- Excellent communication skills, able to translate technical work for non-actuarial audiences.
#LI-Remote #LI-CM1
The US national base salary range for this full-time position is $150,000 -$266,000. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.
Please note that the compensation details listed in US role postings reflect the base salary only and do not include applicable bonus, equity, or benefits.
You can find further details of our US benefits at https://www.ethoslife.com/careers/
Don’t meet every single requirement? If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. At Ethos we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace.
We are an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Pursuant to the SF Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider employment for qualified applicants with arrests and conviction records.
To learn more about what information we collect and how it may be used, please refer to our California Candidate Privacy Notice.
Recruitment Notice: Please be aware of recruitment scams. All legitimate communication from our team will only come from email addresses ending in @ethos.com or @getethos.com.
We will never ask for payment, banking details, or sensitive personal information during the hiring process. If you are contacted by someone claiming to represent us from a different email address, please treat it as fraudulent.
Ethos San Francisco, California, USA Office
San Francisco, CA, United States
Similar Jobs
What you need to know about the San Francisco Tech Scene
Key Facts About San Francisco Tech
- Number of Tech Workers: 365,500; 13.9% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
- Major Tech Employers: Google, Apple, Salesforce, Meta
- Key Industries: Artificial intelligence, cloud computing, fintech, consumer technology, software
- Funding Landscape: $50.5 billion in venture capital funding in 2024 (Pitchbook)
- Notable Investors: Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, Greylock Partners, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins
- Research Centers and Universities: Stanford University; University of California, Berkeley; University of San Francisco; Santa Clara University; Ames Research Center; Center for AI Safety; California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
