Specialist, Pension Operations

University Pension Plan Ontario; Toronto; Hybrid; CAD 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Work from abroad up to eight weeks/year

Extended paramedical and mental health service coverage

Education Assistance program

Job summary

A leading pension organization in Toronto is seeking a Specialist in Pension Operations to join their dynamic team. This role involves providing expert guidance on pension services, overseeing membership data reconciliation, and ensuring compliance with legal standards. The ideal candidate will have over 3 years of experience in pension administration and strong communication skills. Join an inclusive workplace focused on equity, diversity, and member wellness with a hybrid work policy that promotes work-life balance.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of strong pension administration experience in the pension or financial services industry.
• Experience in defined benefit, defined contribution and hybrid plans.
• Ability to self-diagnose member data issues correctly.

Responsibilities

• Provide pension administration services while ensuring compliance with timelines.
• Act as a team lead for reconciliation of membership pension data.
• Deliver best-in-class service to members and participating employers.

Skills

Pension administration experience

Communication skills

Data analysis skills

Client-focused approach

Education

College diploma or university degree

Tools

SQL

Power BI

Excel VBA

Reporting best practices

Job description

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UPP is the first pension plan of its kind in Ontario’s university sector, proudly serving over 41,000 members across five universities and fourteen sector organizations. Our purpose is to bring greater retirement peace of mind to the university sector by investing with integrity and serving members with care. As a sector-wide plan designed for growth, our doors are open to all Ontario universities.

Together, we’re a team of progressive thinkers and agile doers operating within a fast‑paced culture of collaboration and respect. We believe in bringing smart and capable people together to create, solve, and grow with a clear shared vision and values of integrity, inclusivity, ingenuity, and impact. Our culture is intentionally welcoming and purposefully rooted in equity, diversity, inclusion, and reconciliation (EDI&R). We believe diverse teams, perspectives, and lived experiences contribute to better decisions and a better workplace.

As a pension plan, UPP approaches investing through a long‑term lens to generate and safeguard value. Our commitment to investing responsibly accounts for material risks that impact our investment portfolio to generate sufficient risk‑adjusted returns to meet the pension needs of our members.

Join us in building a bright future for our members, our organization, and each other.

THE ROLE

Reporting to the Manager, Pension Operations, this is a fantastic opportunity for an experienced Pension Services professional to join a team of high performing professionals to make a great impact.

You will be involved in a variety of activities within Pension Services and provide subject‑matter expertise on the UPP and participating universities’ prior plans. Your role will include acting as a team lead to reconcile membership pension data and reporting key measures to stakeholders. The role also includes supporting the transactions and payroll team and interacting with the Client Experience team as a subject matter expert.

This role is based in downtown Toronto under a hybrid work policy, allowing employees the flexibility to work remotely and in‑office (approximately two days per week in‑office).

SPECIFIC ACCOUNTABILITIES

UPP is uniquely positioned in its flexibility to build an internal foundation from the ground up. We approach this build thoughtfully and methodically, with a careful focus on building a strong base, operational efficiency and excellent member and employer experience. We are creating a digitally enabled service experience for our members.

Pension Administration

• Become a subject‑matter expert of UPP plan provisions.
• Calculate pension benefits using system tool, along with offline calculators.
• Assess feasibility of workarounds for system‑generated member calculations.
• Peer review transaction cases and payment streams.
• Monitor employer transactions, including the collection, recording and reconciliation of contributions and data.
• Ensure compliance with the pension plan text, all legally prescribed timelines, and internal policies; ensure that all data is accurate and comprehensive.
• Ensure all benefit payments, including monthly pension payroll, are paid accurately and on time via the trustee.
• Prepare and/or coordinate statutory reporting requirements, such as annual member statements, pension adjustments, and quarterly pension adjustment reversals.
• Remain current on pension benefit trends, practices and procedures, and evaluate and recommend adjustments.
• Other projects and activities, as assigned.

Service Delivery

• Deliver best‑in‑class service to our members, participating employers and universities.
• Act as a primary contact for queries regarding member data, contribution data captures, and connecting with client Experience Team.
• Recommend improvements to pension administration.
• Guide team on delivering services with legislation timelines.
• Provide accurate and timely reporting to all stakeholders regarding general and specific provisions of the benefit and pension plans.
• Exhibit an ability to listen, negotiate and communicate goals; share knowledge, experience, and responsibility with the team to achieve the highest standards of professionalism.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

• Completed college diploma or university degree with 3+ years of strong pension administration experience in the pension or financial services industry.
• Experience in a broad range of pension plans, including defined benefit, defined contribution and hybrid plans.
• Experience reading and interpreting pension plan texts and translating provisions to be used operationally.
• Strong ability to self‑diagnose member data issues correctly.
• CEBS or PPAC would be an asset.
• Experience working with university pension plans related to UPP would be a strong asset.
• Experience coding SQL, Data visualization (PowerBI/Domo), Mail Merge, PowerAutomation, Excel VBA, and Reporting best practices would be a strong asset.

ATTRIBUTES

• A passion for delivering a great pension experience from enrollment to retirement, with a proven ability to develop and maintain effective working relationships.
• Good numeric skills to ensure accuracy in calculations of pension entitlements, payments and deductions.
• High emotional intelligence.
• Self‑motivated, flexible, and adaptable to changing priorities and new challenges.
• Logical and detail oriented.
• Strong commitment to innovation and continuous improvement.
• Ownership mindset.
• Strong conflict resolution skills to manage complaints and escalations from members and employers.
• Strong oral and written communication skills and an ability to communicate complex information clearly and at a level appropriate for the member and employer.
• Professional, client‑focused approach to colleagues and assignments.
• Seeks out experiences that may change perspective or provide an opportunity to learn new things.
• Ability to organize, set priorities and work independently.
• Excellent judgment and clear and precise communication skills, including a high degree of diplomacy and confidentiality with the ability to adapt communication style to the audience.

LIFE AT UPP

Do work that matters. We are duty‑bound to serve our members’ interests, and it’s a responsibility we don’t take lightly. That’s why we’ve ingrained sustainability in our work from day one—to ensure our members have a resilient future to retire into, both today and for generations to come.

Stronger together. Collaboration is how UPP was born, and it’s how we work with each other and our partners day in, day out. No one at UPP is just a number (even if they are excellent at math) and every win is a shared win.

Grow every day. You’ll have the opportunity to work on unique, once‑in‑a‑career projects that maximize your skill set and probably teach you some new ones—at any stage in your career.

Prioritize wellness. At UPP, wellness takes many forms. Ultimately, it’s about ensuring our people are cared for in the ways that matter to them. Check out some highlights of our inclusive employee‑focused benefits program including:

• Work from abroad up to eight weeks/year
• Extended paramedical and mental health service coverage
• Health care and lifestyle spending accounts
• Fertility treatments, paid parental leave, and gender affirmation coverage
• Education Assistance program

UPP enthusiastically welcomes applications from all qualified applicants and especially invites people with lived experience as an Indigenous person, a person with a disability or as a member of another Human Rights Code protected group that faces barriers to employment to apply. Our goal is to create a barrier‑free experience for every candidate throughout the recruitment process, so if you require accommodation at any point during the process, please let us know so that we can make the appropriate arrangements. It would be our honor to work with you to adapt our processes to ensure that you can meaningfully participate.

UPP respects your privacy. For information on how UPP handles the personal information you provide during the application process, please see our Job Applicant Privacy Statement.