Actuarial Data Science Lead at Shepherd in New York, NY

Job description

What we do Build the insurance behind the physical world. The world is building data centers, energy projects, hospitals, schools, and critical infrastructure. Every one of those projects needs insurance to move forward. Yet the process of getting that insurance still depends on scattered documents, manual work, and weeks of back-and-forth. Shepherd is rebuilding commercial insurance with software, data, AI, and deep underwriting expertise. We started in construction and energy, where understanding the specifics of a project matters and better decisions have consequences far beyond a screen. We develop insurance products, decide which risks to insure and how to price them, and partner with established insurers to back the coverage. We own the platform our team uses to turn complex submissions into coverage for the builders and operators shaping the world around us. Real problems. Real ownership. Our engineers, designers, underwriters, and actuaries build together. The problems span turning messy documents into reliable data, making pricing more precise, and designing AI agents that can take on increasingly complex underwriting work. The ambition is a platform where experts spend more time on judgment and relationships, supported by software that handles the work around them. Join us to build systems whose decisions help real projects get built. 630+ customers / $500B+ insured project value Our investors Capital to build. Partners to grow with. $67M total funding / $42M Series B in March 2026 Shepherd is backed by Intact Private Capital, Costanoa Ventures, Spark Capital, Susa Ventures, and Y Combinator. In March 2026, we announced a $42M Series B led by Intact Private Capital, bringing our total funding to $67M. Intact is also a capacity partner. Alongside its investment, Intact works with Shepherd to bring insurance products to market. That relationship connects our platform and underwriting expertise with the resources of a global insurer. A bigger opportunity ahead We are investing in new insurance products, our underwriting team, and the path toward autonomous underwriting. For the people joining Shepherd, that means the chance to shape both the technology and the business it makes possible. Our backing brings together investors who build technology companies and partners who understand insurance. We are building a company that earns the confidence of both. About the Role Shepherd is building the data infrastructure and predictive models that power modern commercial insurance. As an Actuarial Data Science Lead on the Actuarial & Predictive Analytics team, you will own the development of pricing models starting with commercial auto, one of our highest-volume and most data-rich lines. You'll directly shape the quality of the book we write and the products we bring to market. This is a high-impact, individual-contributor role for someone who thrives at the intersection of statistical rigor and shipping real products. You will work closely with actuaries, underwriters, and engineers to turn data into decisions. What You'll Do • Own commercial auto pricing models end-to-end from feature development through deployment and iterate on them as the book grows and new data sources come online • Build and deploy predictive models build and deploy loss cost models that set pricing for Shepherd's commercial auto book • Design and maintain feature pipelines that transform raw submission, claims, and third-party data into model-ready inputs • Collaborate with actuaries and underwriters to translate domain expertise into model features and validate outputs against real-world outcomes • Develop model monitoring frameworks to track drift, performance degradation, and calibration over time • Run experiments and back-tests to quantify model impact on loss ratios, pricing accuracy, and portfolio quality • Communicate findings clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders through concise documentation and presentations What We're Looking Fo