Managing Director, Actuary

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
Reporting to the Chief Financial Officer, and as a member of the UPP Senior Leadership Team (‘SLT’), the Managing Director, Actuary (MD, Actuary) will lead the actuarial function at UPP, providing consultative leadership across the organization on decisions related to the measurement and integration of UPP’s actuarial liabilities in the Plan’s total portfolio and actuarial analysis.
The MD, Actuary will ensure that UPP senior leaders, Board of Trustees and Sponsors have the appropriate, accurate and timely information required to enable decisions and discussion on matters pertinent to UPPs actuarial liabilities, in the context of the plan’s funding analysis.
As a key member of the SLT, this role is also responsible for leaning into, and supporting a culture defined by meaningful work, deep employee engagement and strong, inclusive leadership. In addition to supporting a positive company culture, this role will actively participate and contribute to UPP’s Enterprise Risk Management program.
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).
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Strategic Advisory
- Advise CEO, the Board of Trustees, and governance committees on actuarial implications of funding decisions, demographic trends, and legislative changes.
- Set and oversee the strategic direction of UPP’s internal and external actuarial processes, working toward a sound, structured decision and review framework that reflects diverse perspectives and models.
- Direct, review and, where necessary, constructively challenge the actuarial strategies, proposals and ideas brought forth by UPP’s actuarial and accounting staff, including those related to work planning, vendor selection, assumption-setting and compliance reporting.
- Oversee talent development and management within the Actuarial team, including succession planning, coaching and mentorship for all areas of development including technical, relationship, and leadership skills.

Governance
- Serve as a trusted sounding board to the plan Sponsors on actuarial issues and in deliberating plan changes, ensuring that material cost and risk implications are well understood and accounted for.
- Provide strategic advice and information support to the CFO on financial and compliance reporting requirements, including notional tracking to apportion risk sharing as outlined in the Funding Policy.
- Provides expertise and advice to Pension Services and Corporate on all actuarial matters.
- Ensure continued alignment between UPP’s benefit policy, funding policy and investment policy and that UPP’s investment activities properly reflect the holistic guidance of those policies.
- Asset and Liability Management (ALM) is the responsibility of the Portfolio Construction and Investment Risk team. The actuary team will perform analysis at regular intervals to assess the overall alignment of investment portfolio assumptions to the actuarial liabilities.
- Support Board Education on actuarial matters, as appropriate.
- Promote a culture of risk consciousness through clear accountabilities and supportive response to escalation of concerns.

Compliance and Reporting
- Ensure compliance with all applicable pension legislation, actuarial standards, and regulatory requirements.
- Lead the preparation and delivery of required actuarial disclosures and filings with pension regulators

Engagement and Influence
- Foster strong relationships with UPP’s partners and ensure that the plan’s key third party constituents (external actuaries, lawyer