The Vacancy
Our Third Party Administration (TPA) department is a dynamic administration team with a varied portfolio of clients. They play a key part in providing our clients and members with a market-leading service on Defined Benefits (DB), Defined Contribution (DC) and CARE pension arrangements.
We currently have an exciting opportunity to join this department as a Team Leader, within our Client Services team in our Birmingham, Edinburgh or Glasgow Office.
What will your role look like?
Within this role, you will be responsible for the leadership, development, and day‑to‑day operational management of the team, you will oversee effective and efficient workflow across DB and DC client work, ensuring resources are allocated appropriately and processes are followed consistently. You’ll provide direction on both operational and procedural matters that impact the team’s performance and client delivery.
Commercial awareness is key to this role, with accountability for accurate and timely time‑recording, billing, and contributing to the overall financial performance of the team. In addition, you’ll play an active role in supporting business growth by helping to win new work and assisting with the successful implementation of new client schemes.
Though this is a varied role, your key tasks will include:
1. Proactively oversees people management and development of his/her team and ensures the team is working effectively, efficiently and achieves key performance indicators set by the Business Unit.
2. Liaises with the Administration Manager on team resourcing, workflow and client expectations.
3. Daily active management of workloads and workflows for the team.
4. Ensures resources are available in the right place at the right time by keeping up to date with current work and what is in the pipeline.
5. Assesses the capacity for introduction of new clients or project work into the team and allocates team resources to that work accordingly.
6. Actively inputs into recruitment/resource planning and participates in selection, recruitment and induction processes.
7. Communicates monthly financial information, staff updates, business plan progress, client news, work in progress reviews, etc to the team/Administration Manager, as appropriate.
8. Is the principal contact and point of escalation for the team on clients.
9. Attends Trustee meetings to present on administration activities.
10. Identifies non-standard events through work planning to ensure all work is charged, especially requests and projects outside the agreed fee basis which can generate additional revenue for TPA.
11. Regular communication should include monthly financial information, staff updates, business plan progress, client news, work in progress review etc.
12. Is point of reference on technical issues – both DB and DC - and non-standard cases and ensures work allocated is processed in accordance with TPA guidelines, documented operating procedures, quality standards and performance/service levels.
13. Takes the lead in more complex work when required.
14. Works with the Administration Manager to improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, including automation and use of standard procedures.
15. Provides technical training and guidance to the team, as required.
16. Has an overview of budgets and fees across the team, with an awareness of the financial status of the team’s clients.
To enjoy and succeed in this role, you will have:
17. Degree standard or equivalent education.
18. GCSE / Scottish Standard (or equivalent) in Maths and English at Grade B or above, or relevant comparable experience.
19. Experience of team and workflow management and compliance with service quality standards.
20. Proven experience in the provision of effective, efficient and proactive administration services to allocated clients.
21. Strong working knowledge of current pension legislation and the impact this has on the practice (both DB and DC).
22. Sound knowledge of Pension Administration operating systems, such as Universal Pensions Management (UPM), or similar.
23. Good commercial and business awareness.
24. Evidenced people leadership skills and able to motivate and engage staff.
25. Excellent verbal and written communication skills and the ability to influence at all levels.
26. Exceptional attention to detail.
27. A consultative and partnering working style – both with colleagues and clients/members.
28. A strong analytical way of thinking with a pragmatic approach to operational management.
Ideally, we would be looking for candidates to hold a professional qualification such as Associate Membership to the Pension Management Institute (or be working towards this). However, we would also be open to applications from candidates who could bring a knowledge of the UK pensions market from relevant industry experience.
We would also encourage applications from candidates who perhaps do not possess all the attributes and experience listed above but are competent with the majority and would be able to quickly develop the additional skills and experience required in post with our full support. We would also love to hear about other knowledge and experience you may have that is not listed but could be of interest.
In addition to a competitive salary and access to our profit share scheme, we offer:
29. A flexible selection of employee benefits, so you can choose a package that best matches your lifestyle and needs.
30. A collaborative and encouraging work environment where your thinking and ideas are encouraged.
31. On site mental health and wellbeing assistance.
32. A commitment to helping you develop both personally and professionally, with mentoring opportunities and access to our award-winning learning portal, Aspire.
33. Regular social activities, in addition to three days paid volunteering leave each year and a day’s leave to celebrate your birthday.
34. Hybrid working so you can enjoy the positive wellbeing of working from home as well as the benefits of meeting colleagues in our sociable, modern office environments – with the expectation of two ‘in-office’ days per week.
35. A flexible working window, allowing colleagues the freedom to work flexibly between the hours of 7am and 7pm.
Please note, we recruit on a rolling basis so early applications are recommended to avoid disappointment.