The Vacancy

As a Pension Consultant, your role will include leading your clients through their Buy-out and wind-up journey working with both Trustee Boards and Sponsoring Employers of UK defined benefit pension schemes.

You would be a key member of the Buy-out and Wind-Up Transaction Services team, bringing together key stakeholders and advisers. Your focus will be on delivery of advice to clients; building relationships with key decision makers to help with managing projects, and coaching and managing less experienced members of the teams.

The ideal candidate will have experience of consulting with pension schemes either in Trustee Executive, actuarial or scheme management roles or working with an insurer on buy out transactions. You will need to have a significant understanding of the pensions management space with a track record of client facing roles and some experience in new business and wider pensions consulting would be desirable. You will work closely with others involved in this area of pensions wind up and receive support from a wider team for each scheme.

Key responsibilities will include:

Client delivery

• Leading on a number of Buy-out and Wind-up projects including being the direct contact for the trustees/working party and liaising with other relevant stakeholders
• Providing oversight and direction when both planning for and carrying out scheme wind up projects
• Leading (or supporting) on strategic and technical aspects related to wind ups, e.g. comparing scheme factors to insurer factors, carrying out winding up lump sum exercises, inputting into funding reserves and providing surplus balance sheets
• Prospecting for future wind up cases and helping them plan for their end game
• Helping to develop the Scheme wind ups proposition, build relationships within the team and share ideas
• Delivering training to clients
• Consult with client contacts to agree budgets and deadlines for work, ensuring necessary service agreements are in place.
• Encourage effective communication within client teams to support the delivery of work and understanding of client commercials.
• Prepare client invoices within the internal deadlines and subject to internal procedures.

Practice Development:

Proactively contribute to the development of the firm through a combination of:

• delivering high quality advice working within a client team. Working collaboratively as part of the team in the preparation of advice including reviewing/checking calculations undertaken by more junior team members, and peer review of client work for other colleagues.;
• understanding client needs to provide solutions and develop client accounts;
• undertaking project work or acting as champion for new service initiatives;
• pitching for new business and supporting business development opportunities;
• participating in the management, mentoring and training of more junior staff;
• active participation in internal forums to provide input to the strategic direction of the firm; and
• contributing to the technical knowledge of the practice via continuing professional development and peer review of colleagues’ work.

Working Practices:

• Develop internal and external networks.
• Provide leadership, role modelling and mentoring to all members of the client team, including helping to proactively identify and uncover client development opportunities and/or potential threats and weaknesses.
• Managing the delivery of our core services efficiently and in line with agreed utilisation and recovery objectives
• Present work in a clear and understandable manner to clients and colleagues as required.
• Ensure all work is undertaken in a rigorous and methodical manner consistent with professional and internal requirements and that comprehensive audit trails are maintained.
• Adhere to the firm’s Information Security standards, policies and procedures.
• Manage all work on nominated clients to ensure that work is done in a timely, efficient way and within budget including maintaining project plans.
• Keep up-to-date with developments in pensions law and practice.
• Participate as requested in preparing technical papers for internal and external publications.

Skills and Qualifications Required:

Qualifications:

• Ideally, a professional qualification (or part-qualification) in pensions (e.g. APMI, AFPC or IFoA).
• Ideally holds an Honours Degree.
• Educated to at least A’ level/Scottish Higher level or with demonstrable equivalent experience.

Technical skills:

• Have some broader experience in areas such as corporate transactions, risk transfer, liability management exercises, pensions aspects of sale agreements, or dealing with the practical aspects of bulk transfers.
• Have an understanding of related employee benefits issues in order to advise clients on strategy and liaise effectively with other disciplines within the Firm.
• Experience of operating successfully in a previous consultancy role or else have experience of leading and advising UK pension funds within a complex pensions environment in a Trustee Executive or Pension Scheme Management role.
• Technical competence and solid understanding of the legislative framework for UK pension schemes including disclosure requirements and statutory reporting requirements.
• Strong organisational and analytical skills, with the ability to deal with ambiguity and rapid change
• Strong influencing skills and ability to positively and sensitively work with senior stakeholders
• Good written communication skills
• Ability to align people behind a vision and motivate them to achieve it
• Ability to manage multiple stakeholders with varying objectives
• Ability to find ways of solving or pre-empting problems

In addition to a competitive salary and access to our profit share scheme, we offer:

• A flexible selection of employee benefits, so you can choose a package that best matches your lifestyle and needs.
• A collaborative and supportive work environment where your thinking and ideas are encouraged.
• On site mental health and wellbeing support
• A commitment to helping you develop both personally and professionally, with mentoring opportunities and access to our award-winning learning portal, Aspire.
• Regular social activities, in addition to three days paid volunteering leave each year and a day’s leave to celebrate your birthday.

About Us

Together, we’ve been building better futures for over 100 years. For our people, our clients and their people, our communities and the environment.

We thrive on tackling complex problems. And we believe those problems are best solved by diverse teams – diverse in skills, approaches and backgrounds. Our independence lets our people be themselves and think freely, while working in a collaborative, supportive environment.  We love innovative, independent thinking and want everyone to share their ideas.

Working alongside employers, trustees and financial services institutions, we offer pensions, investments, benefits and risk consulting services, as well as data and technology solutions. With over 1000 employees and counting, we’re one of the leading consultancies in our field and are proud to be recognised by numerous industry awards.

We’re committed to developing our people and encourage everyone to carve out their own career path. We’ve many colleagues who started out in one team in the business and have ended up somewhere completely different, having had the chance to develop new skills and explore new passions.

We are continually working to improve our inclusive culture and employ diverse talent. We therefore welcome applications from people from all backgrounds, which includes but isn’t limited to: age, disability, ethnic heritage, gender, marital or civil partnership status, neurodiversity, religion, sexual orientation, and socio-economic background.

Our hybrid working model offers the best of both worlds – home working as well as a fun, collaborative office environment – meaning flexible working patterns to accommodate individual needs.

If you need any assistance in relation to a personal requirement, medical condition or neurological difference during our selection process then please let us know.

Together, we can make this the best job you’ll ever have.