Specialist, Pension Operations

OUR COMPANY BACKGROUND & CULTURE
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
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.
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
Pension Administration
- 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