Senior Specialist, Plan Operations Risk Management

Why you’ll love working here:

• high-performance, people-focused culture

• our commitment that equity, diversity, and inclusion are fundamental to our work environment and business success, which helps employees feel valued and empowered to be their authentic selves

• learning and development initiatives, including workshops, Speaker Series events and access to LinkedIn Learning, that support employees’ career growth

• membership in HOOPP’s world class defined benefit pension plan, which can serve as an important part of your retirement security

• competitive, 100% company-paid extended health and dental benefits for permanent employees, including coverage supporting our team's diversity and mental health (e.g., gender affirmation, fertility and drug treatment, psychological support benefits of $2,500 per year, parental leave top-up, and a health spending account).

• optional post-retirement health and dental benefits subsidized at 50%

• yoga classes, meditation workshops, nutritional consultations, and wellness seminars

• the opportunity to make a difference and help take care of those who care for us, by providing a financially secure retirement for Ontario healthcare workers

Job Summary

Reporting to the Manager, Plan Operations Risk Management, the Senior Specialist, Plan Operations Risk Management (“Specialist”) is primarily responsible for a broad range of risk management activities affecting various areas of Plan Operations.

The Senior Specialist will be responsible for analyzing business processes, completed transactions and post-implementation outcomes to assess the effectiveness of risks management practices, the control environment and their overall quality. Effectively examining business and member data to enable meaningful conclusions to be drawn is also integral to the role.

Additionally, the Specialist will manage Insight access including daily provisioning, monitoring and maintenance of related application; provide timely information and reporting to audit teams and E&ORM activities. The role also includes overseeing the annual divisional Safeguarding Member Data training course in accordance with divisional access principles and standards.

The incumbent will be required to demonstrate excellent communication skills, and regularly employ critical-thinking and sound-judgement in the execution of daily tasks. The Specialist will be a key contributor in the promotion of a risk culture within Plan Operations.

The Specialist will support the team’s success by assisting the Manager, Plan Operations Risk Management with status updates, identifying and sharing challenges, and related feedback for improvement as required.

What you will do:

PERFORM RISKED-BASED ANALYSES:

• Conduct reviews of business processes, tools, completed transactions/ cases, reports, etc. as required.

• Examine associated business or member data/reports to obtain insights and formulate impactful conclusions relevant to the objective of the analysis.

• Conduct analyses in accordance with defined review procedures, or when required use sound judgement and critical thinking capabilities to define review procedures or methods aligned to the objective of the analysis.

• Identify and assess additional information required to effectively perform the analysis such as: documented controls, defined procedures, applicable process/ system documentation, system incidents/defects, reported issues/escalations, and/or related reporting.

• Identify any observations, findings, opportunities, gaps, issues and/or discrepancies based on the review scope and analysis objective. 

• Prepare reports, documents, and/or presentations summarizing reviews and associated conclusions.

EXECUTE INSIGHT ACCESS ADMINISTRATION OR MONITORING

• Responsible for the overall execution of access requests or monitoring of access hits within established internal timelines.

• Assess the request/hit to ensure it is reasonable, aligned to divisional access principles, and that underlining information is complete/ accurate.

• Identify and action any access requests/hits requiring further investigation, follow-up, or management escalation

• Manage the access application (iMAST or iGuard), proactively identify, monitor and report on application issues, or defects, recommend solutions, and assist with related analysis and troubleshooting as required. Perform testing on application upgrades/fixes as required.

• Proactively provide feedback to enhance or improve access-related processes, supporting continuous improvement while ensuring team objectives are being met.

BUILD RELATIONSHIPS WITH STAKEHOLDERS

• Build and maintain relationships with various divisional teams to effectively execute assigned tasks.

• Collaborate with the Data Science & Analytics team to develop, maintain, or enhance internal reporting including communicating business or technical requirements or testing of newly developed/enhanced reports for accuracy and completeness.

• Work closely with IT and Product Service & Experience teams to maintain and evolve Access Management Applications (iMast/iGuard).

• Interact and collaborate with HOOPP’s Plan Operations Teams, Member Services, Policy, Data Calculations Actuarial,  Data Science and Analytics departments.

• Liaise with and provide support to partners across HOOPP as required such as Internal Audit, IT GRC, ICFR, E&ORM, Finance, and/or PSG. Additional involvement with external stakeholders may also be required.

CONTRIBUTE TO THE PLAN OPERATIONS RISK MANAGEMENT TEAM OBJECTIVES

• Train/ mentor new team members.

• Actively participate in team meetings, training and events.

• Responsible for managing own workload and coordinating with team members’ workloads to complete assigned tasks on time.

• Perform additional, more complex tasks or participate in ad-hoc projects within the scope of the position as required.

• Remain current on pension plan administration knowledge including programs and services through ongoing training.

What you bring:

• Completed university degree (emphasis in Finance, Accounting, IT, or Business an asset).

• 3-5 years related experience in the pension industry, pension plan administration and knowledge of pension-related legislation and regulations.

• Pension Plan Administration Certificate (PPAC) and/or Certified Employee Benefit Senior Specialist Program (CEBS) and/or Registered Retirement Analyst program (RRA).

• Strong understanding of Microsoft applications (Excel, Word, PowerPoint). Excel proficiency in the use of formulas and macros.

• In-depth knowledge of risk concepts, methodologies, taxonomies, as well as a thorough understanding of pension plan administrative practices.

• Strong foundational knowledge of business analysis, process improvement and project management practices.

• Excellent attention to detail, analytical, logical and problem-solving skills.

• Team player with good interpersonal, oral, and written communication.

• Excellent organizational and interpersonal skills and high degree of independence and initiative.

• Strong judgment, critical thinking, and technical data mining skills.

• Effective verbal and report writing communication skills.

• Excellent time management and organizational/multi-tasking skills is required.

• Ability to work under pressure with multiple deadlines and deliverables.

• High sense of ownership and personal growth mindset.

• Bring positive, optimistic, and helpful energy to the team.

• Ability to work effectively with multiple stakeholders and influence without direct authority.