Pension Manager in London

Flexible working: due to the sensitive nature of the work, this is an office-based role with little to no opportunities for home working. We recognise the importance of a good work-life balance and offer part-time and compressed hours, with flexibility around start and finish times.

About us: MI5 keeps the country safe from serious threats like terrorism and attempts by states to harm the UK, its people and way of life. We carry out investigations by obtaining, analysing and assessing intelligence, and then work with a range of partners, including MI6 and GCHQ to disrupt these threats. Through our protective security arm, we provide advice and guidance to government, businesses and other organisations about how to keep themselves safe. A role in MI5 means you’ll do unique and challenging work in a supportive and encouraging environment, making a real difference to UK national security.

The role: As a Pensions Manager, you’ll help oversee our processes and support your colleagues as a subject matter expert. You’ll balance high-volume casework with training and mentoring a growing team as you bring your expertise to our busy department. Working at pace, you’ll maintain quality and ensure our processes and systems run smoothly. Day-to-day, you’ll be taking on project work, supporting with problem-solving, handling complaints and carrying out extensive quality checking. So, multi-tasking is key as you’ll be balancing your own workload alongside your team’s. You’ll answer queries from, and give advice to, pay teams and provide insights and guidance to senior leaders. You’ll also collaborate with colleagues throughout the UK’s Intelligence Services and build relationships with external partners. Everything you do will contribute to supporting the growth of the department, from helping your team improve their skills and knowledge, to using your experience to come up with ideas for continuous improvement.

About you: You’ll bring existing knowledge about, and experience working in, pensions and have a minimum of 3 years’ experience in a similar role or sector. This will be supported by line management experience. You’ll also need a minimum of 2 GCSEs at Grade 4/C or above in maths and English language (or an equivalent Level 2 qualification). Importantly, you’ll be an adaptable, organised leader with a focus on wellbeing. Comfortable with numbers, you’ll have keen attention to detail and be able to check calculations and spot errors with ease. You’ll also be a confident communicator able to adjust your style depending on whether you’re supporting your team, building external relationships, or presenting to senior leaders. Whether you’re managing complex retirement cases, identifying solutions or managing stakeholders, you’ll be organised and balance target-driven performance with empathy. And of course, you’ll be IT systems literate.

Training and development: We’re passionate about your personal development, so we have lots of ways to help grow your skills. As a line manager, you’ll be offered a Management Training Pathway. Plus, you’ll have access to internal training courses available from any of the UK’s Intelligence Services, as well as access to internal communities, support networks, and mentors. You’ll be expected to stay within Pensions for your first 4 years, after which time, you’ll be able to apply for roles across the organisation.

Rewards and benefits: You’ll receive a starting salary of £47,677, plus other benefits including: 25 days’ annual leave automatically rising to 30 days after 5 years’ service, and an additional 10.5 days’ public and privilege holidays, opportunities to be recognised through our employee performance scheme, a dedicated development budget, an interest-free season ticket loan, a cycle to work scheme, facilities such as a gym, restaurant and on-site coffee bars (at some locations), paid parental and adoption leave.

Equal opportunities: At MI5 diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. To protect the UK, we need a truly diverse workforce that reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: those with different backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, ways of thinking and those with disabilities or neurodivergent conditions. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including those from groups that are under-represented in our workforce such as women, those from an ethnic minority background, people with disabilities and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Disability Confident: MI5 is proud to have achieved Leader status within the Department for Work and Pensions’ Disability Confident scheme. This is aimed at encouraging employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled people. As a Disability Confident Leader, we aim to ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants who best meet the essential minimum criteria for this position, will be offered an interview, if it is practical for us to do so.

What to expect: Our recruitment process is fair, transparent, and based on merit. Here is a brief overview of each stage, in order: application sift, looking at your motivation and skills for the role and the organisation. There will also be a competency question, an interview, assessing competencies, skills and experience relevant to the role, if successful, you will receive a conditional offer of employment and then proceed to the vetting stage. Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process to progress to the next. Your application may take around 6 to 9 months to process including vetting, so we advise you to continue any current employment until you have received your final job offer.

Before you apply: To work at MI5, you need to be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality. This role requires the highest security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). It’s something everyone in the UK Intelligence Community undertakes. Please note we have a strict drugs policy, so once you start your application, you can’t take any recreational drugs and you’ll need to declare your previous drug usage at the relevant stage. Before you apply, we advise you to consider setting up a separate email address for your contact with us, to ensure your personal and application correspondence remain separate. The role is based in London, so you’ll need to live within a commutable distance. An interest-free loan is available to assist with relocating into privately rented accommodation to take up the offer of employment.