Principal – Medicaid Actuary

Location: Remote (with occasional travel to client sites, industry conferences and Athena hub cities)
Type: Full-Time, Salaried

Role Overview

As a Principal at Athena, you’ll serve as a senior client leader and account owner responsible for setting strategic direction, owning key client relationships, and guiding complex Medicaid actuarial engagements from pursuit through delivery. You’ll collaborate closely with other Principals, Senior Managers, junior staff, clients, and Athena’s executive team to shape solutions that drive meaningful impact. In this role, you will play a key part in growing our practice, developing high-performing teams, and strengthening Athena’s reputation as a trusted advisor in the health space.

Key Responsibilities

Client Leadership & Delivery

• Own and grow key client accounts, leading engagements ranging from targeted actuarial analyses to multi-year consulting relationships

• Serve as the senior strategic advisor and primary client contact, ensuring work is aligned with client objectives and delivered at the highest level of quality

• Provide senior technical oversight of actuarial modeling, methodology, and analytical frameworks to ensure rigor, consistency, and defensibility

Team Leadership

• Mentor and develop actuarial staff, supporting professional growth through coaching, technical guidance, and feedback

• Help shape and strengthen Athena’s health practice by partnering with leadership on hiring, team development, and strategic priorities

Health Practice Growth & Business Development

• Identify and pursue new opportunities within existing and prospective client relationships to expand Athena’s Health practice

• Contribute to business development efforts through proposal leadership, pursuit strategy, and technical writing

• Represent Athena externally through industry conferences, publications, and thought leadership

Firm Leadership

• Demonstrate exemplary levels of personal and professional integrity, and ability to support and promote Athena’s mission and values

• Participate in firmwide strategy discussions and contribute perspective on Athena’s long-term vision and growth

What We’re Looking For

Must-Haves:

• 10+ years of health actuarial experience, including 5+ years in consulting and 5+ years in Medicaid-specific program work

• ASA and MAAA certification

• Deep actuarial expertise with Medicaid programs in areas such as rate setting, waiver programs, state policy initiatives, or federal interactions

• Proven experience leading large, complex actuarial engagements and managing multiple client relationships

• Demonstrated success owning client accounts and expanding consulting engagements

• Strong ability to translate complex technical concepts for both technical and non-technical audiences

• Advanced technical proficiency in Excel and actuarial modeling tools

• Experience mentoring and developing actuarial staff

• Ability to lead teams in a remote environment and travel to client locations as required

• A leadership mindset grounded in curiosity, thoughtful challenge, and commitment to high-quality work

Nice-to-Haves:

• FSA certification preferred

• Other health actuarial experience, including Government-funded (TRICARE, VA, Medicare), Commercial/Employer, and/or other Public/State programs

• Experience contributing to proposals, publications, and/or thought leadership

• Active participation in industry conferences or professional speaking engagements

• Proficiency in data visualization design and tools

Elevate Your Consulting Career with Athena

At Athena, we believe actuarial consulting and specialty advisory services is more than just calculating risk: It’s a lens for reimagining what’s possible. That’s why we’ve built a team of passionate experts who infuse the power of data and predictive modeling with imagination, human insight, and a commitment to helping people thrive.

Every day at Athena, we seek to live and lead—to serve and solve problems—with courage as our fuel. That means challenging assumptions in search of untapped potential that benefits our clients. It looks like striving to ask better questions that might yield breakthrough answers for a community. And it means seeing people not as problems, but full of possibility—because we know the future isn’t prescribed, it’s built. Courage is a competitive advantage in actuarial consulting—not just because it emboldens people, but because it moves businesses forward.

Athena is a new kind of actuarial services company, founded by a former leader at a ”Big 4” firm who had a vision and drive to build something different. We tackle big challenges with small teams of experienced pros who look beyond traditional risk modeling to find innovative solutions.

Perks & Benefits

• Paid Time Off & Holidays

• Flexible Schedule Opportunities

• Medical Coverage — 100% Employer-Paid Employee Premium

• Dental & Vision Coverage

• Short- and Long-Term Disability Insurance

• Paid Parental Leave

• Life Insurance

• 401(k) with Employer Match

• Annual Bonus Opportunity

• Long-term Incentive Plan Opportunities

Additional Info

• Candidates must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents

• We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will be considered without regard to race, color, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, or any other legally protected status