Pensions Executive

The Role:

Salary: Negotiable Market Leading Base Salary, Bonus + Excellent Benefits
Location: London (with some hybrid working)

My client is a rapidly growing international organisation offering a range of solutions to the global Financial & Professional Services sector. As part of their exciting growth plans an opportunity exists to join one of their independent key business entities in a specialist Pension secretarial role, a key appointment as they continue to pursue market share expansion.

Principal Duties
Outsourced pensions executive services and projects:

1. Business planning/organisation - liaising with chair/trustees/in-house pensions leads and other stakeholders
2. Managing relationships with/ sourcing input from advisers and service providers on behalf of trustee boards and corporates
3. Scheme secretarial duties including
* Planning/organisation - liaising with chair/trustees/in-house pensions manager
* Meetings - preparation/attendance/minutes/follow-up actions
* Member communications - e.g. trustee newsletters/Summary Funding Statements
* Managing relationships with/ input from providers and advisers on behalf of the trustee board
* Ongoing governance activity - including budget and cost control, maintaining business plans/risk registers, annual returns etc
* Oversight and co-ordination of routine scheme projects e.g. annual report and accounts
* Governance projects e.g. trustee effectiveness, service provider reviews and procurement projects
4. Strategic change projects - varying levels of involvement, as required (e.g. implementing investment strategy, scheme de-risking and wind-up projects)

Business development and client care
* Networking, maintaining and developing external relationships to support business growth
* Assist with developing marketing content - website, service line brochures, case studies, blog content
* Managing client/ commercial relationships (e.g. invoicing, input into RFP responses and client agreements)
* In collaboration with colleagues, contributing to development of new and existing service lines for the company.

Team and work management
* Participating in induction and training activities
* Establishing and documenting work protocols; maintaining work-management tools etc.

General Duties
* Contribute fully to the development and growth of this growing business and ensure processes are efficient and effective, including thorough record-keeping and provision for client access
* Undertake training and development as appropriate and engage fully in the performance management process.
* Contribute to the culture positively, attend meetings as required, and carry out duties willingly and diligently
* Where regulatory rules apply, abide by these in spirit and fact
* Carry out such other tasks as you may be reasonably directed to do by your line manager and the senior management team from time to time


Essential Knowledge, Skills, Experience
* Strong experience of all types of occupational pension schemes/knowledge of pensions market (gained from a minimum 5 - 10 years of working in pensions arena)
* Up-to-date knowledge of technical pensions matters and industry developments
* Competent user of MS office systems including Excel, Word, PowerPoint
* Experience of managing third party / supplier relationships and dealing with industry regulators
* Outstanding communication, numeracy and data manipulation skills (incl. grammar and adapting communication style to suit audience)


Preferred Knowledge, Skills, Experience
* Part- or fully-qualified APMI, actuarial or equivalent professional qualification


Person Specification
* High standards of professionalism, integrity and ability to maintain confidentiality
* A confident, articulate communicator both written and oral
* Able to work with little supervision on own initiative and outside of comfort zone
* A "sleeves rolled up" style of working; pro-active in driving forward Trustee business plans and continuously striving for improvements
* An innovative, solutions-focused, "can do" attitude to solving problems with the ability to collaborate in resolving client issues, develop process improvements and new service lines, researching and deploying new technologies where appropriate
* Excellent time management, organisational and planning skills; able to prioritise work and meet competing deadlines
* Able to be agile and adaptable to changing priorities, and to work flexibly
* Diligent, systematic, logical, with meticulous attention to detail
* Takes accountability for own professional knowledge and progress
* Resilience, willingness to listen, learn and incorporate feedback