Oliver Wyman
Development Lead (Manager)
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Company / Practice: Oliver Wyman — P&C Actuarial Practice
Reports to: Senior Manager & Solutions Architect
Location / pattern: Hybrid — London
Engagement: Permanent
Recommendation: I recommend that we create a hands-on Development Lead role at Manager grade within the P&C actuarial practice, reporting to me, and proceed to recruit. The role will scale our software delivery capacity and provide engineering leadership continuity as client demand grows. The full job specification is set out in Part 2
Context
Client demand for software implementations, platform integrations, and technical design is growing steadily across the practice. Today that delivery rests largely on me as Senior Manager, supported by a single full-stack developer within a team otherwise made up of actuarial specialists. Engineering capacity, not client appetite, has become the binding constraint on how much of this work we can take on and how quickly we can deliver it.
The role
A hands-on Development Lead who both leads and does the build: designing cloud-based solutions, writing production code across the stack, applying AI-assisted development practices, and working directly with our actuarial specialists and client teams. Pitched at Manager grade, one level below me, the person would act as my number two, sharing technical ownership and leading delivery on client projects while remaining genuinely hands-on.
Expected impact
- More client work, delivered faster — additional senior delivery capacity to run more software engagements in parallel and shorten timelines
- Stronger technical and AI advisory — greater capacity to design solutions and guide clients on adopting AI-driven approaches responsibly
- Leadership continuity — technical ownership and delivery leadership shared beyond a single individual as the practice scales
Indicative investment
A base salary in the region of £90,000–£120,000 at Manager grade — benchmarked to the London market for a hands-on lead combining cloud architecture, AI-assisted delivery, and financial-domain experience, plus performance bonus and benefits (total compensation broadly £105,000–£140,000). To be confirmed against the firm's published banding
The ask
Approval to create the role at Manager grade and to open recruitment. Responsibilities, essential and desirable experience, and the technical environment are detailed in the full job specification that follows
Development Lead — Manager (P&C Actuarial)
Manager grade in the Oliver Wyman career structure, reporting to the Senior Manager; a hands-on development-lead role.
Role summary
We are seeking a hands-on Development Lead (Manager grade) to lead and deliver our software development on client projects, and to support the Senior Manager as a number two, within Oliver Wyman's P&C actuarial practice. You will lead and contribute to development across the full stack, design cloud-based solutions, work hands-on under tight timelines, and collaborate closely with actuarial specialists and client teams to turn complex actuarial and financial requirements into reliable, scalable software. You will prioritise pragmatically, organise your own work and that of others with minimal oversight, and share technical ownership with the Senior Manager across a growing portfolio of client work.
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Key responsibilities
Technical design & architecture
- Design cloud-native, secure, and scalable solutions for client software implementations and internal tooling.
- Provide sound technical recommendations to the Senior Manager, clients, and internal stakeholders, evaluating options and trade-offs.
- Own technical design decisions, data models, and integration patterns; document and communicate them so others can build against them.
- Help define technical standards and pragmatic build / buy / integrate choices across projects.
- Apply AI-assisted development practices in day-to-day delivery, and guide the business and clients on where and how to adopt AI-driven solutions effectively and responsibly.
Hands-on development (full stack)
- Write production-quality code across front end, back end, and data layers. This is and remains a genuinely hands-on role.
- Build and integrate APIs, data pipelines, and tooling that turn actuarial and financial models into usable software.
- Design and evolve database schemas and data models, working alongside the existing team.
- Implement and maintain CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and DevOps practices.
Development & delivery leadership
- Lead the development effort across multiple concurrent client projects, owning scope, quality, and deadlines.
- Plan, estimate, prioritise, and sequence work under tight timelines; self-organise and drive progress with minimal supervision.
- Where the project requires it, lead developers and small cross-functional teams (engineers, actuarial specialists, analysts) through to delivery; on other projects, deliver hands-on as an individual contributor.
- Work within Agile / Scrum delivery practices and run ceremonies where needed.
Collaboration & stakeholder engagement
- Work closely with actuarial specialists, and other quantitative or scientific experts, to translate their models and requirements into software.
- Partner with client-side technical engineers and stakeholders as a credible technical point of contact.
- Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both non-technical and actuarial audiences.
Quality, governance & continuity
- Uphold secure coding standards (e.g. OWASP), code quality, and engineering governance.
- Ensure solutions are reliable, maintainable, and appropriately documented.
- Provide hands-on support and continuity to the Senior Manager as a number two, sharing technical ownership as the project portfolio grows.
- Mentor and coach the practice's developer and other team members, growing overall engineering capability.
Essential skills & experience
- Solid, demonstrable experience as a hands-on full-stack developer who also leads development, combining day-to-day coding with technical design and solution architecture.
- Experience working closely with actuaries, quantitative analysts, or scientists, translating their models and requirements into working software.
- Exposure to financial systems or financial software (e.g. pricing, risk, capital, trading, or other quantitative/financial applications).
- Proven experience designing and architecting cloud-based solutions (Azure and/or AWS).
- Strong full-stack development across a modern back-end stack (e.g. C# / .NET Core and/or Python) and front end (e.g. Angular or React, JavaScript / TypeScript).
- Strong database and data-modelling skills (e.g. SQL Server / PostgreSQL; schema design; DBML or equivalent).
- Experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices (e.g. Azure DevOps, PowerShell / YAML, Docker, Git).
- AI-assisted development best practices are a must, using AI coding tools and assistants effectively, responsibly, and securely, together with the ability to guide the business and clients on adopting AI-driven solutions.
- Demonstrated experience leading developers or a development effort and delivering to tight timelines.
- Strong prioritisation, self-organisation, and ownership; comfortable with ambiguity and minimal oversight.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder-management skills, with the credibility to work directly with clients.
- Experience working in Agile / Scrum environments.
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Desirable skills & experience
- Insurance-domain experience (ideally P&C / general insurance), insurtech, or fintech is a plus, but not a requirement.
- Familiarity with actuarial workflows (pricing, reserving, capital modelling, reinsurance) and/or catastrophe modelling (e.g. Oasis LMF, Moody's RMS, Verisk, KatRisk).
- Experience integrating with insurance / actuarial platforms or external data providers.
- Exposure to regulated environments (FCA, Lloyd's of London, Solvency II, IFRS 17).
- Experience with CQRS, microservices, message brokers (RabbitMQ / NServiceBus), or NoSQL databases.
- A consulting or client-delivery background.
Representative technical environment
The technical stack varies from project to project and client to client; the list below is representative rather than fixed.
- Back end: C# / .NET Core, Python
- Front end: Angular or React, JavaScript / TypeScript
- Data: SQL Server, PostgreSQL, DBML, NoSQL databases
- Cloud & DevOps: Azure, AWS, Docker, Azure DevOps, GitHub, CI/CD, PowerShell, YAML
- Ways of working: Agile / Scrum, OWASP-aligned secure development
Qualifications
- Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
- Cloud architecture certification desirable (e.g. Azure Solutions Architect Expert, AWS Solutions Architect).
Behavioural competencies
- Ownership and accountability for outcomes.
- Pragmatic prioritisation under pressure.
- Self-starting and self-organising.
- Collaborative and credible with engineers, actuarial specialists, and clients.
- A clear communicator and a willing mentor.
- Comfortable being a leader and a hands-on contributor in the same role.
What success looks like (first 6–12 months)
- Takes technical ownership of, and independently leads, the development on key client engagements.
- Lifts overall delivery capacity, enabling the practice to run more software implementations in parallel.
- Works as an effective number two to the Senior Manager, sharing ownership and providing continuity across the portfolio.
- Establishes or strengthens engineering practices (architecture standards, CI/CD, quality) across projects.
- Builds trusted relationships with actuaries and client-side technical teams.
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