Measuring and pricing risk with math: insurance, pensions, disasters, and cyberattacks.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
Actuary: Uses math and statistics to measure risk and put a price on uncertain future events. Typical pay $126k.
Pension Actuary: Makes sure retirement plans have enough money to pay workers' pensions decades into the future. Typical pay $135k.
Property & Casualty Actuary: Prices insurance for cars, homes, businesses, and disasters. Typical pay $135k.
Health Actuary: Prices health insurance and predicts medical costs. Typical pay $135k.
Chief Actuary: Leads an insurance company's actuarial department and signs off on its financial health. Typical pay $260k.
Catastrophe Modeler: Simulates hurricanes, earthquakes, and wildfires to estimate how much they could cost insurers. Typical pay $120k.
Insurance Predictive Modeler: Builds machine-learning models that help insurers price policies and spot fraud. Typical pay $130k.
Cyber Risk Modeler: Estimates the chance and cost of hacks and ransomware attacks so insurers can price cyber insurance. Typical pay $135k.
Parametric Insurance Structurer: Designs insurance that pays out automatically when a measured trigger is hit, like wind over 120 mph or too little rain, with no claims adjuster needed. Typical pay $120k.
Catastrophe Bond Analyst: Helps investors decide which hurricane and earthquake 'cat bonds' to buy: investments that pay well unless a disaster strikes a certain place. Typical pay $140k.
Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship
Actuarial Analyst: The starting job for future actuaries: running models and studying for exams. Typical pay $90k.
Enterprise Risk Analyst: Looks across a whole company for risks, like market crashes or supply shocks, and plans for them. Typical pay $100k.
Insurance Underwriter: Decides whether to insure a person or business and at what price. Typical pay $79k.
Claims Adjuster: Investigates insurance claims after accidents and disasters and decides how much to pay. Typical pay $76k.
Loss Control Specialist: Inspects businesses for an insurer to find and fix hazards before accidents happen. Typical pay $78k.
Insurance Regulatory Analyst: Works for a state government checking that insurance prices are fair and companies can pay their claims. Typical pay $75k.
Benefits Analyst: Designs and analyzes employee benefits like health insurance and retirement plans. Typical pay $72k.
Life Expectancy Underwriter: Reads an older person's medical records and estimates how many years they will likely live, so investors can price life insurance policies they buy. Typical pay $85k.
Starter: fastest way in
Actuarial Technician: Prepares data and runs routine reports for an actuarial team. Typical pay $52k.
Insurance Claims Processor: Reviews and processes insurance claims and policy paperwork for insurers, checking forms, entering data, and answering customer questions. Typical pay $47k.
Underwriting Assistant: Supports underwriters by gathering information and preparing policy files. Typical pay $47k.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.