Pensions Manager

3173 is a privately owned UK firm of pensions experts with clients throughout the UK, serviced from offices in London, Belfast, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Leeds. The 3173 Group of companies includes Dalriada Trustees Limited (Dalriada), one of the UK’s largest professional pension scheme trustee companies. Spence & Partners provides full pension actuarial, consulting, investment consulting and administration services that provide simply smarter solutions for trustees, employers and members.

Our primary aim is to provide interesting, worthwhile and healthy careers for all our people; we believe that this emphasis sets us apart from our competitors. We are defined by our ethos and by our goal: Our ethos is an individual and collective commitment achieved through carefully balancing responsibility with freedom and flexibility, all of which is underpinned by a willingness to work interdependently. When we get this balance right, it is how we do our best work. We look after our staff first and foremost, but for a commercial purpose, which is to deliver great service profitably. By focusing on our goal, we provide the best outcomes for pension scheme members, trustees, and employers.

You will be working as part of our outsourced pensions management and scheme secretarial team. You will act as the lead and day to day contact for our clients and will manage the delivery of services to the client through our client teams. To make an impact in this role you will be self-motivated and eager to improve member outcomes. Your technical pensions knowledge will be balanced with an ability to effectively communicate to a wide range of stakeholders. Your verbal and written communications will be tailored to suit the needs of the audience, and you will be an active promoter of our pensions management services, including helping respond to business opportunities. You should understand the importance of building and maintaining relationships with clients, networking contacts and your fellow colleagues. You will be expected to work with your team on a range of pension management and scheme secretarial appointments. Your appointments will be varied and could include managing scheme secretarial support to project and advisor management. You will have proven project management and organisation skills as well as evidence of building and managing relationship skills. You will be able to provide leadership and support to other members of your team. You will have the capability to work independently and collaboratively with colleagues across our multi-site business, to ensure timely and high quality delivery to our clients. You will be committed and driven to deliver service excellence.

We are a multi-award winning pension services firm and part of an integrated group of privately owned companies. Since our inception we have grown to be one of the largest providers of pensions trusteeship and governance services in the UK, with over 300 appointments. Our pensions specialists are all employed and we are committed to providing professional careers, supporting the Pensions Management Institution (PMI) qualification for our pension managers. Our business is based on a client-centric culture which provides high-quality professional service through strong personal relationships. We have offices in Belfast, Glasgow, Manchester, London, Bristol, Leeds and Birmingham and operate in a hybrid model of working, whereby you will have the opportunity to work in the office and at home. Our team of pensions professionals come from a wide range of professional backgrounds which we would like to further enrich. Therefore we are looking for candidates with a background in pensions management, scheme secretarial, pensions consultancy, pensions administration or pensions project management.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as a lead for outsourced support for in-house pensions teams
• Act as scheme secretary on a permanent or interim basis
• Act as day to day contact for clients and scheme advisors
• Overall project management of a portfolio of pension schemes and specific projects being undertaken
• Oversee and maintain services in line with the client contract and internal quality standards
• Lead on issue resolution
• Oversee delivery of all aspects of pension scheme governance to ensure full compliance/no breaches
• Own the scheme business plan and lead on addressing any diversion from the plan
• Monitor budget and ensure recovery and profitability with minimal write-off, identifying out of scope activities
• Lead on client pensions management projects – for example, management of adviser review projects.
• Assist with refinement of pensions management processes
• Check/review supplier bills and oversee payments

Business growth responsibilities include:

• Build a growing network of professional contacts at a regional level
• Identify business development opportunities and broker an introduction to the business
• Lead new business pitches
• Participate in weekly business development calls as appropriate
• Regularly write blogs and articles as marketing collateral
• Deliver on client seminars
• Identify and share opportunities for product and service enhancements through client proposition and revenue generating opportunities
• Support the growth of new business

People leadership & management responsibilities

• Act as a line manager - setting objectives, giving feedback, appraising performance and addressing performance issues
• Act as a mentor and support to team members
• Manage resource requirement across clients

Personal growth responsibilities

• Actively build skills and experience
• Keep abreast of all regulatory and governance changes
• Attend training, both technical and other business skills

Essential Criteria

• Team player
• Solid pensions industry background, with scheme secretarial and governance experience
• Recent experience in a role which specifically included occupational pension scheme responsibilities
• Full understanding of pension management and the work carried out by Dalriada
• Able to demonstrate technical understanding of pension legislation, regulations and other relevant legislation, codes of practice, including scheme management and compliance, best practice guides and a good knowledge of defined benefit and defined contribution schemes
• Excellent budget management skills
• Proven track record of project management exposure
• Evidence of client management responsibility and ability to manage and progress multiple strands of activity
• Excellent communication skills, both written and oral, with the ability to articulate technical points into lay terms
• Excellent organisation skills and ability to prioritise and work to client deadlines
• Experience of new business activity including new business pitches, networking and attending industry events.
• Use of computerised systems e.g. Microsoft Office products; in particular Excel, Word and PowerPoint; and the ability to learn and utilise bespoke systems and procedures.
• Mentoring/line management experience
• Excellent understanding of profitability

Desirable Criteria

• Attainment of the Pensions Regulator’s Trustee toolkit
• Working towards or successfully completed a relevant Professional Qualification (such as APMI or FPMI)

Circumstances

• Location: UK Wide
• Working hours: Monday to Friday, 37.5 hours per week with additional hours as and when required.
• All roles are subject to a six-month probationary period and all prospective employees are required to complete an Access NI check.
• As part of the pre-hire process the successful candidate will be subject to reference checking security vetting.

3173 is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Applying with a disability or long-term health condition? As part of our belief that we benefit from the differences among us we are committed to increasing the representation of disabled colleagues and want to remove any barriers or challenges that get in the way of candidates with a disability or long-term health condition from applying to work with us. If there is support or an adjustment that we can provide to enable you to be at your best during the recruitment and selection process, we encourage you to advise us in good time so that we may make suitable arrangements. We understand that being open with us may feel uncomfortable so please only share with us the information that you are comfortable to share, and rest assured that we will use this only to provide you with the right support. Any information you give us will be treated completely confidentially.

To discuss this further please call 028 9041 2000 and ask to speak to a member of the P&C team.