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As a Trainee Actuary, you will have the opportunity to rotate around a number of different teams in the company, building essential skills and gaining a wide range of experience. You could be involved in developing and delivering our investment strategy, pricing products, analysing mortality experience or modelling the different risks faced by the business.
You’ll receive on the job training and a fully-supported study package, including paid leave. Over the course of your studies we’ll support you in becoming a qualified fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA).
We have locations all over the UK, including Birmingham and Edinburgh, with candidates being able to specify where they’d like to be based.
There are three steps in the application process:
Applications for the 2025 actuarial trainee scheme are now closed. The 2026 scheme will open at the start of Q4 2025.
We’re already a market-leading FTSE 100 organisation, but we’re just getting started. With 6,600 employees, a powerful voice and shared purpose, we have the unique opportunity to make better longer lives a reality for all. Working together, we’re trying to solve some of the biggest social, financial and environmental challenges.
We’re passionate about making Phoenix Group a place where the brightest talent will love to work. We’re committed to ensuring that everyone feels accepted and we welcome, and encourage, candidates from all backgrounds to apply. If your experience looks different from what we’ve advertised but you believe that you can bring value to the role, we’d love to hear from you.
Rotations programme
You’ll be placed on a rotations programme which will allow you to gain experience across a wide range of business areas. This could include financial reporting, capital and risk management, investment operations, and commercial, to name a few.
Qualification
We’ll support you in becoming a fully qualified fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA).
Exam support
You’ll receive a comprehensive, flexible, and fully supported study package including funding for revision materials as well as tutorials. This also includes paid study leave to complete the exams.
Professional development
You’ll join our internal actuarial community who organise a wide variety of professional development and networking events.
Personal development
As being an actuary is about more than just technical knowledge, your personal growth story will include developing softer skills, supported by a personal mentor.
Reward & benefits
You’ll receive a comprehensive and flexible benefits package, with full details available here.
You’ll have (or be on track to achieve) a degree 2.1 or above in an analytically-based subject. We also expect you to have a B grade at A level, Higher, or equivalent in Mathematics.
We’re looking for people who are keen to develop their analytical skills in a variety of different areas within the company.
You’re motivated to tackle complex and technical problems; able to take feedback and advice from colleagues to help deliver tailored solutions.
We don’t expect you to have the experience and knowledge from day one, and instead look for candidates that are able to absorb knowledge alongside the support provided.
Phoenix is a dynamic workplace that involves juggling work demands on top of study demands. We want candidates that are eager to develop their organisation skills and demonstrate pro-activity in this space.
Actuarial roles require the ability to communicate technical concepts to a variety of audiences. We are looking for trainees who have a desire to develop both written and verbal communication skills.
By joining Phoenix Group, you'll join a vast network of fellow actuaries and actuarial trainees.
You'll be assigned a qualified mentor when you join our scheme, who will support you through your exam journey as well as your career afterwards.
You’ll also be paired up with an experienced student as a buddy who’ll be able to give you guidance and experience from their time on the study scheme. As they’ll be going through the exams themselves, they can provide support from their personal experience in managing their studies and workload.
“I joined Standard Life as a graduate in 2010, and since then have experienced a wide variety of roles in different areas of the business from Finance to Customer and now Risk. I find that the actuarial skillset adds value in all sorts of business situations and I’ve enjoyed the variety this has brought me in my career. Phoenix is keen to invest in its talent and I’ve benefited from this support to develop my skills. I’ve particularly enjoyed the opportunity to give back by supporting the development of future generations of actuarial talent.”
Claire Yule, Head of Risk Reporting
“Joining Standard Life’s Actuarial graduate scheme in 2008, I had the opportunity to work in a variety of roles, gaining a wide range of experiences. After working on the implementation of Solvency II, I found my way into actuarial change work as my main focus, including highly complex projects such as Part VII transfers, large-scale data migrations, internal model harmonisation, IRS17, BPA, ERM and numerous new insurance product launches. While working on these projects the main focus has been on implementation into Acturial reporting but I have also experienced other things such as Capital Planning, MI reporting earns. I have had the privilege to work with and to lead some outstanding people in a number of project and BAU teams.
I cannot recommend Phoenix highly enough as a place to learn, develop and to build a rewarding actuarial career."
Chris Scott, Head of Open Actuarial and Change
"My current rotation is in the commercial team within pensions and savings. During my time in this role so far, I have had the opportunity to get involved in a wide variety of work and learn about the pricing of both our workplace and retail pension products. I am learning a lot as part of the actuarial graduate scheme and have found there to be a great level of support available to trainees at Phoenix. I have found it especially helpful having a mentor assigned as part of the scheme to give advice and answer any questions.”
Beth Herbert, Actuarial Trainee
“Phoenix Actuarial Rotation scheme is one which gives you every opportunity to thrive in the company. Every 2 years you rotate to a different team. This allows you to see many parts of the business and understand how it functions. Each team is different, and this process helps you to find the role best suited for you. This ranges from very specific technical roles to ones which have an overview of the company.
My first and current rotation is within the Assumptions team. Within this team I could see how the content which I was studying linked into the business. This makes studying a lot more purposeful as I get to apply the theory day to day but see how it changes in the working world.
The Study scheme not only provides generous amount of time off to study for each exam but also enough of a budget to get all the material and resources to best suit your style of studying.
Phoenix as a company has a lot of actuarial students, this is very valuable as you can get insight and advice from other students who have just been through the exams. Everyone is also assigned a mentor who helps you along your journey to becoming qualified. Not only this, managers understand students’ needs and are flexible with workload to help you succeed.”
Kumaran Sri Ragavan, Senior Actuarial Trainee
"Since joining the scheme, I’ve gained experience across a wide breadth of areas in the business while being able to apply the technical knowledge gained during my University and Actuarial studies. I’ve had roles spanning our customer and adviser digital journeys, market analysis and proposition development, as well as getting more exposure to all things Solvency II. The rotations scheme is a great opportunity to develop your understanding of the business in a way that other career paths won’t offer as standard.
As a queer man, I would recommend Phoenix to any aspiring actuary looking to start or continue their career development in a safe, encouraging, and welcoming space. The training and opportunities provided by Standard Life & Phoenix have been crucial to both my personal and professional development; this has led to me being keenly involved in student mentorship and development. You’ll also be able to test and challenge yourself while having an extensive support network helping you along every step of the way.”
Ewan Murray, Review Actuary
Actuarial is a great way into working in pensions, investment and insurance. There's no doubt my career has been much more successful and enjoyable as a result of completing my actuarial qualification.
I started out taking the exams, and found I had to be very disciplined to give it the time it needed. Alongside this, I actively moved across different areas of the business, to build a broad understanding of different parts of the business. All this was hugely beneficial in progressing my career and becoming a CEO. I think an actuarial graduate scheme is an excellent career choice, as it opens so many opportunities, and the opportunity to progress quickly. And I would strongly recommend Phoenix, as we are a broad, diverse business with a breadth of opportunities and experiences as a result.
