Natural Hazards and Climate Change Risk Consultant

Natural Hazards and Climate Change Risk Consultant

AXA Group

Multiple Locations

As a Natural Hazards and Climate Change Risk Consultant, your core mission is to support the Underwriting team and AXA XL clients in identifying, assessing, anticipating, and mitigate/adapt to physical climate risks and support their ESG strategies. You will deliver differentiated consulting services and actively contribute to the ongoing enhancement of our risk consulting methodologies and offerings worldwide.

You will join the Risk Consulting team focused on Natural Catastrophes, Geospatial Analytics, and Data Science - a global, multicultural group of approximately 20 risk experts across six countries. Reporting to the Head of Risk Consulting, the team serves all Lines of Business and Regions, analyzing all facets of natural disasters and climate change and developing innovative geospatial and data science solutions for insurers and clients.

Specifically, you will conduct physical climate risk analyses and contribute to the development of cutting-edge tools to assess these risks, in close collaboration with AXA's Innovation teams.

What you’ll be doing

What will your essential responsibilities include?

• Conducting desk-based risk analyses and develop quantitative loss estimates of key AXA XL insured and prospect customers, with a strong focus on natural catastrophes and physical climate change risks ESG or Climate due-diligence. To this aim, you work closely with AXA XL account engineers and Underwriters throughout all aspects of the natural catastrophe risk quantification process and use a mix of scientific sources and proprietary risk analysis tools, developed by the team;
• Meeting with clients and brokers to collect needs, develop and deliver tailor-made, differentiating, risk consulting services. You contribute building credibility with and creating customer satisfaction by demonstrating the value of risk control services;
• Supporting Business Development across all regions and LoBs, enhancing and developing a strong team culture of trust and commitment to impact in how we support our customers worldwide;
• Contributing to the continuous development and deployment of innovative consulting mission, highly differentiating AXA XL from competitors. This also includes contributing to the enhancement of current processes, to increase automation and reliability. This work is conducted in collaboration with team members, as well other entities of the AXA Group, e.g. AXA Climate and AXA DCP;
• Sharing your knowledge and expertise with colleagues who require technical support, or are interested in learning about natural catastrophes and climate change in general. This includes working with our Technical Center to develop and deliver technical standards and training material and/or classes;
• Working mostly desk-based, but conducting on-site visits to inspect Clients’ risks, or physical meetings with international teams when needed. The time on site is approximately estimated at 10-20%;
• Working in compliance with our technical rules and guidelines. For this, you will be working closely with our regional and country managers;
• You will report to the global Head of NatCat, Geospatial and Data Science, with a transversal report to the Account Consulting team and Head of Risk Consulting in the respective Country.

What you’ll bring

We’re looking for someone who has these abilities and skills:

Required Skills and Abilities:

• At least 2 years of experience in the (re)insurance industry and/or risk consulting field and/or as a project manager, or leading contributor, of complex R&D projects with industry partners;
• Master’s degree - or equivalent - in Engineering, Natural Sciences, or Physics. The preferred educational background is civil or environmental engineering, with a focus on, NatCat risks and physical climate change;
• Excellent understanding of the science underlying natural hazards and climate-related risk assessment is a key requirement;
• Working knowledge of NatCat exposures using various models such as Nathan and Catnet and/or catastrophe models;
• Full proficiency in programming, in R, Python, or equivalent language;
• Analytical and data driven mindset: ability to process and understand data quickly and creatively, ideally be able to demonstrate innovative applications and solutions for risk assessment;
• Excellent communication skills: the ability to explain technical data in simpler language and communicate effectively with a broad range of underwriting and customer partners are essential;
• Self-motivated and able to work autonomously on routine tasks, while demonstrating the ability to work in a team and curiosity to learn new topics, being motivated to grow within a global market leader;
• Valid driver’s license required;
• Availability for travel (including abroad) – approximately 25%-30%;
• Full proficiency in English.

Desired Skills and Abilities:

• Doctorate degree is considered a plus;
• Experience in machine learning and data science is considered a plus;
• Understanding of the probabilistic background of quantitative risk analysis is considered a plus;
• Experience in visualizing and processing geospatial data (ArcGIS/QGIS, or equivalent) is considered a plus;
• Knowledge of NatCat models/hazard maps from major vendors (JBA, Fathom, Deltares, Mitiga) and/or NatCat simulation software (HEC-RAS, Openquake, or equivalent) are considered a plus;
• Knowledge of languages other than English is considered a plus.