Senior Cat Model Specialist

Swiss Re is one of the world’s leading providers of reinsurance, insurance and other forms of insurance-based risk transfer, working to make the world more resilient. We anticipate and manage a wide variety of risks, from natural catastrophes and climate change to cybercrime. We cover both Property & Casualty and Life & Health. Combining experience with creative thinking and cutting-edge expertise, we create new opportunities and solutions for our clients. This is possible thanks to the collaboration of more than 14,000 employees across the world.

Our success depends on our ability to build an inclusive culture encouraging fresh perspectives and innovative thinking. We embrace a workplace where everyone has equal opportunities to thrive and develop professionally regardless of their age, gender, race, ethnicity, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, skillset, thought or other characteristics. In our inclusive and flexible environment everyone can bring their authentic selves to work and their passion for sustainability.

If you are an experienced professional returning to the workforce after a career break, we encourage you to apply for open positions that match your skills and experience.

We are looking for a Senior Cat Model Specialist with a strong Product management mindset! Do you like driving complex, cross-functional projects in an agile way? Do you love to ingest innovation and have a passion for making technology work against any wind and hurdles? Are you an agile and avid learner, both on simulation and risk assessment approaches, as well as state-of-the-art computation and data handling? Then this opportunity could be for you!

About the Role

In this role you will have the unique opportunity to shape the future of Swiss Re's natural catastrophe Underwriting (UWing) landscape. You act on the brink of advancing our existing UWing platform – which hosts and runs all our (probabilistic) storm, earthquake, flood, wildfire models - while also investigating in and introducing New accumulation management concepts. 

Your task is to advance our Cat UWing landscape to the next level with a strong focus on exposure management including new formats of exchanging exposure and modelling results with our internal and external clients. In our small and dedicated expert team, you act at the interception of state-of-the-art NatCat model development and our professional grade IT platform implementation, always dedicated to enable underwriting teams to take the best possible decisions. 

Your main responsibilities include: 

• Lead Nat Cat Uwing platform development projects with the Cat Perils "Cat and Geo Modelling" Team in the role of a senior NatCat product manager 
• You specify and prototype new methodologies and concepts which are then implemented in close collaboration with our IT teams.
• Stay on top of the latest developments in the natural catastrophe model universe (e.g. Oasis framework and community, model vendor market, scientific advancements) and leverage these for Swiss Re. 
• Ensure high-quality training and support for our modeling platform to our users / underwriters for best practice and efficient usage. 
• Engage and closely interact with our stakeholders to collect feedback and ideas for useability and efficiency improvements related to the cat modeling and underwriting platform. 
• Regular functional and technical benchmarking with third party tools/models and other relevant sources to advance state of the art. 

About the Team

The catastrophe perils ("Cat Perils") department is responsible for Swiss Re’s global natural catastrophe risk assessment. The department consists of 50 dedicated engineers and scientists in multi-faceted fields. We are mandated to advance probabilistic and proprietary modelling technology for earthquakes, windstorm and flood hazards, the largest and most refined company owned model framework in the re/insurance industry. 

We provide crucial center capability to advance our landscape from status-quo to an ever more data rich and more interlinked analysis future. Our business mandate is to grow Swiss Re’s competitive edge in close collaboration with our underwriters and clients. "Making the world more resilient", Swiss Re's vision, is at the core of our development work and solutions in natural perils risk assessment. You will be embedded in the Cat Perils Cat and Geo Modelling team located in Zurich and Bangalore which covers a wide range of specializations in natural science, engineering and statistics fields. 

About You 

You are an outstanding teammate with project management skills, excellent social competence and strong capabilities in building global visions and shaping strategies. With your excellent multicultural and interpersonal skills, you are effective in establishing and building credibility quickly and managing relationships with customers, partners and peers. You are known to have a creative approach and a flair to build innovative ideas in the full business context with a focus on the bottom line. 

Essentials
• 5+ years experience in Cat Modeling R&D 
• Hands on experience applying Nat Cat models or modelling platforms 
• Product management mindset 
• Master's degree or PhD in natural science/engineering/math with a background in Wind, Earthquake or Flood modelling 
• A solid grasp of both of state-of-the-art risk assessment concepts in the insurance industry as well as of today's cloud-based model infrastructures opportunities 
• Familiarity with 3rd-party nat cat models (e.g. Oasis, RMS, Verisk, Corelogic) 
• Strong mathematical, analytical and conceptual skills 
• Passion in computer programming (Python, Matlab and SQL) 
• Strong dedication, job might include occasional weekend activity and travel 
• Languages: English fluently (orally and in writing), German a plus

A clear plus will be: 
• GIS knowhow 
• Touchpoints with open source software concepts 
• Data analytics experience with large data sets 
• (Re-)Insurance underwriting experience