Faces of DUAL: Meet Sonia Mahajan, Head of Actuarial Analytics

DUAL UK’s actuarial team is focused on creating meaningful insights and robust processes, and it’s people like Sonia Mahajan who drive that ambition forward. In the latest edition of our Faces of DUAL interview series, Sonia takes the spotlight, sharing her perspective on the role of the actuarial team at DUAL UK, what excites her about her work, and what she’s looking forward to in the year ahead. Watch the video now to hear from Sonia.

Can you introduce yourself and your role at DUAL?

Hi, I’m Sonia Mahajan. I’m Head of Actuarial Analytics at DUAL UK. My role is to support the Chief Actuary, Cat Farnworth, in running a team of nine (soon to be ten) actuaries based here in London.

What does an actuary do?

Put very simply, an actuary’s job is to use maths to predict the future. It usually involves analysing past data and overlaying knowledge of economic theory, geography, politics, current affairs, and a bit of actuarial judgement.

What does the actuarial team at DUAL do?

We have three main functions.

The first is carrying out profitability analysis, which helps shape DUAL’s financial strategy and planning. The second is supporting carrier negotiations. The third is building and maintaining pricing models.

Does DUAL’s actuarial function differentiate us in the market?

Not many MGAs have well-established actuarial functions, and this is something we’re really proud of at DUAL UK. One of my personal goals is for our team to produce analytics that the rest of the market isn’t able to produce. We also receive regular feedback from our carriers that we’re using techniques they aspire to use themselves.

What is your team working on this year?

Alongside our quarterly profitability analysis and maintaining our existing pricing models, the team is currently working on three major projects.

The first is migrating our pricing models to our new pricing platform, Hyperexponential. This will improve the user experience and the data captured from the models.

The second is building out our suite of analytics so we can provide more insight to underwriters on their portfolios.

The third is expanding our coverage. DUAL is consistently producing new products, and the more support we can provide to these teams, the more we can aid product strategy and development.

What excites you about working at DUAL?

One of my favourite things about my role at DUAL is approaching processes with a fresh pair of eyes and asking: How can I make this better? How can I make it more accurate, more efficient, or help DUAL become a market leader in this area? That’s what really excites me about working here - the executive team is so encouraging of change and innovation.

What’s been your biggest achievement?

I spent much of the last year overhauling our profitability analysis process; rebuilding the foundations, the data model, the inputs, and the outputs so we can produce better, faster, and more insightful analysis for the business, and remain flexible to DUAL’s needs. So, if you see another email from me about a new actuarial dashboard, that’s why.

What are you looking forward to in 2026?

The actuarial team here is really strong. Over the past couple of years, we’ve taken processes that used to take several months and reduced them significantly. What I’m most looking forward to in 2026 is expanding the team’s coverage. The more products we can analyse, the more support we can provide to the underwriting teams.

What do you like doing outside of work?

I love to travel, and my goal is to see the whole world. That’s taken me on some incredible adventures, sleeping under the Northern Lights in an igloo in Greenland, climbing a volcano while it was erupting in Guatemala, and my favourite trip to date, being surrounded by 25,000 penguins in Antarctica. This planet is beautiful, and I want to see as much of it as I can.

Stay tuned for more stories in the Faces of DUAL series!