Graduate Programme - Actuarial Consulting - Pensions

An Actuarial Consulting Graduate role at Aon involving pension scheme valuations, financial modelling, risk analysis, and advising clients on retirement funding and investment risks, supported by a 10-month graduate development programme.

Better Decisions Begin with You

At Aon, we shape decisions for the better to protect and enrich the lives of people around the world. As an organisation, we are united through trust as one inclusive, diverse team, and we are passionate about helping our colleagues and clients succeed.

Launch Your Career in Actuarial Consulting

Aon is looking for soon-to-be graduates and recent graduates to join our Early Careers Launch Development Program in actuarial roles across different areas of the business. You do not need to be an actuarial expert on day one. Through our Launch Program and on-the-job learning, you will develop into a credentialed, advisory-capable actuary who applies quantitative techniques to help clients understand, price and manage financial risk.

As an Actuarial colleague, you will build the skills, confidence and market knowledge needed to turn complex quantitative information into clear business insight and support better client decisions.

By reviewing AI-pre-populated baselines, setting and challenging assumptions, and interpreting results, you will learn how to let AI and global delivery teams clear routine calculation so effort concentrates on judgment, scenario thinking and communication, while preserving the hands-on experience needed to progress through your actuarial exams.

Wealth Solutions: Retirement

Aon’s Wealth Solutions: Retirement teams help organisations make better decisions about pensions, retirement programmes and long-term financial commitments. In the UK, companies hold significant assets in pension schemes and must plan carefully to meet their obligations over many years.

Our actuarial consultants advise trustees and employers on defined benefit pension schemes, helping them understand funding positions, manage financial and operational risks and prepare for the future.

How work is changing

Technology, including AI-enabled tools and global delivery teams, increasingly supports routine data preparation, reconciliation and baseline calculation. This allows our Actuarial colleagues to focus earlier on validation, output checking, report drafting and documentation, while elevating the work towards assumption-setting, scenario analysis, methodology communication and client value.

You will learn to use digital tools thoughtfully, including framing clear prompts, refining outputs, checking AI-supported analysis and auditing AI outputs before using them to support client work. We will help you develop both your technical and consulting skills, including your understanding of key calculations, communication techniques, project management and AI plus offshore workflow orchestration, commercial awareness and professional judgement.

Your role as an Actuarial Graduate

No two days are the same. You will work across a range of client teams, supporting colleagues who advise either the trustees responsible for pension schemes or the companies that sponsor them. You will gain hands-on actuarial experience while developing your understanding of how data, models, clients and strategy come together to bring value.

What you will do

What Graduate Actuaries work on:

• Building and running models for pricing, reserving, profitability and pension scheme analysis, reviewing AI baselines, testing scenarios and validating outputs, spotting anomalies and knowing when to question automated or AI-supported results against actuarial principles.

• Supporting funding and accounting valuations, projections, benefit calculations, data reconciliation, reserving and pension scheme reporting, while configuring and challenging the assumptions beneath automated calculations.

• Conducting data and risk analysis to identify patterns, test scenarios and help clients understand financial obligations, risk drivers, assumptions, market trends and potential future outcomes, while connecting analysis to client priorities, trade-offs and practical decisions.

• Identifying ways for trustees and companies to manage or reduce scheme risks, including longevity, investment and inflation risk.

• Supporting profitability and reinsurance analysis, interpreting results and trends where relevant to the client work you support.

Client-focused work may include:                   

• Drafting precise reports, presentations and analysis summaries that support good governance, financial reporting and client decision-making.

• Coordinating workstreams, orchestrating AI and offshore analysts as one workflow, managing documentation and supporting the day-to-day delivery of pension scheme and internal projects.

• Supporting senior actuaries in client meetings, building relationships with clients and colleagues, translating methodology into narrative, listening to different perspectives and presenting analysis in a clear, confident and accessible way.

You may also gain exposure to specialist areas, depending on business need and location, such as:

• Risk Settlement, advising clients on the best way to reduce risk through transferring it to a third party.

• Member Options, helping clients reduce risk and/or cost by offering pension scheme members the choice to reshape their benefits to better suit their individual circumstances.

• Analysis of mortality and other demographic factors to predict future trends within Aon's Demographic HorizonsTM team.

Your Development

Upon joining Aon as a Graduate, you will be enrolled onto our Launch Programme. Launch is a structured 10-month Early Careers development program that combines meaningful work, business learning, professional development and relationship-building across Aon. The program helps you build a strong foundation for a long-term actuarial and advisory career built around three core elements:

1. Business learning. On-the-job learning with actuarial consultants, client teams and solution line specialists, helping you develop knowledge of Wealth Solutions: Retirement and the wider Aon business.

2. Centralised learning. UK graduates complete an Aon induction, monthly webinars, business skills training and workshops designed to build your confidence, knowledge and network across our business.

3. Professional qualifications. As part of your role, you will be expected to work towards qualification as a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA). You will receive paid study leave, as well as access to study and tuition materials to support your progress.

Your career beyond your Graduate programme

Once you’ve completed the formal graduate programme, you’ll continue to receive lots of support at Aon. As well as continued technical and business skills training, you’ll be expected to complete your actuarial qualifications.

To aid your professional development you’ll receive regular performance feedback, and work with your line manager towards promotions, which are considered twice a year, enabling you to progress from a Graduate Analyst to Associate Consultant, then Consultant and beyond!

Throughout this time, you’ll have the chance to explore different career paths, you may choose to specialise in advising trustee clients, or corporate pension scheme sponsors. There’s also the opportunity to join and develop a role in one of Aon’s specialist teams, like those listed above. Whichever route you choose, we’ll provide support and training at every step, giving you the tools you need to build an exciting career at Aon.

Entry Requirements:

As Actuarial Consulting is a mathematically based career path you will need:

• To have or be on track to achieve a 2:1 degree (or equivalent) in a Maths, actuarial science, or other highly numerical degree

• To have achieved an A-grade or above in Maths A-level, A-grade in Maths Scottish Higher, or international equivalent

• To have or are looking to build practical skills in Python, SQL, VBA, or cloud platforms (optional)

What will help you succeed and grow

We are looking for candidates who are curious, motivated and excited to learn, with transferrable skills or experience, a strong quantitative background and business insight. Insurance experience is not required.

Through the Launch Program, you will continue developing the same skills and capabilities that support a successful actuarial and advisory career, including:

• Interest in actuarial consulting, analytics, risk, finance, insurance or related fields.

• A desire to pursue a career in actuarial consulting and build expertise within Aon's business.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

• Strong critical thinking, problem-solving, analytical abilities and attention to detail.

• A collaborative approach, alongside initiative and adaptability.

• Excellent organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and meet deadlines.

• A proactive approach to seeking feedback, taking ownership of your work and following through reliably.

• The ability to consider wider objectives, prioritise carefully and explain your thinking clearly.

• An inclusive approach, valuing different perspectives and helping others feel respected and able to contribute.

• Confidence using technology and learning new tools, including AI literacy, prompt engineering, AI-enabled and technology-supported ways of working, and the judgement to review, refine and challenge outputs before relying on them.

• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, including using tools such as Copilot or similar technologies to structure, test and improve outputs; experience with Python, SQL, VBA or similar technologies is an asset.

• You will also develop business context translation, AI and workflow orchestration, business communications, data management, research, process improvement, project management, actuarial science, model building, profitability analysis, good governance and reinsurance skills over time.