University Pension Plan Ontario

OUR COMPANY BACKGROUND & CULTURE

UPP is the first pension plan of its kind in Ontario’s university sector, proudly serving over 41,000 members across five universities and fourteen sector organizations. Our purpose is to bring greater retirement peace of mind to the university sector by investing with integrity and serving members with care. As a sector-wide plan designed for growth, our doors are open to all Ontario universities.

Together, we’re a team of progressive thinkers and agile doers operating within a fast-paced culture of collaboration and respect. We believe in bringing smart and capable people together to create, solve, and grow with a clear shared vision and values of integrity, inclusivity, ingenuity, and impact. Our culture is intentionally welcoming and purposefully rooted in equity, diversity, inclusion, and reconciliation (EDI&R). We believe diverse teams, perspectives, and lived experiences contribute to better decisions and a better workplace.

As a pension plan, UPP approaches investing through a long-term lens to generate and safeguard value. Our commitment to investing responsibly accounts for material risks that impact our investment portfolio to generate sufficient risk-adjusted returns to meet the pension needs of our members.

Join us in building a bright future for our members, our organization, and each other.

THE ROLE

Reporting directly to the Associate Director, Actuary, the Senior Actuarial Analyst will assist with wide-ranging actuarial tasks at UPP, from developing actuarial tools to verifying pension benefit calculations to preparing strategic presentations on actuarial topics and models.

The Senior Actuarial Analyst will directly support the Associate Director, Actuary on various projects including analysis and presentations to support UPP’s Active Outreach and Onboarding teams, conducting strategic asset liability management (ALM) studies, actuarial analysis to set the plan’s discount rate and other valuation assumptions, preparing Board and Investment Committee presentations and other special requests for UPP’s Executive Leadership Team. The Senior Actuarial Analyst will also support the Senior Director, Actuary by providing actuarial support to Pension Services through calculation of complex benefits on plan member termination of employment or retirement, developing pension administration calculation tools, reviewing pension legislation and providing actuarial analysis for setting administrative policies. The Senior Actuarial Analyst will regularly communicate with various internal teams (within the Investment Team, Engagement and Outreach, Pension Services, and Corporate Finance), as well as with external parties such as actuarial consulting firms, regulators, lawyers, and other stakeholders. Given UPP’s “scale-up” atmosphere, there is room to make significant impact on the actuarial team and on the overall fund. There are numerous opportunities to take ownership of projects from inception to completion in this role.

The ideal candidate would be authentic, enthusiastic, and eager to learn. It is important they have exceptional attention to detail and strong mathematical rigor while also maintaining the ability to think broadly and creatively. The Senior Actuarial Analyst should have strong communication skills as they will be working with executives both across the UPP and externally. The candidate would have three to six years of pension actuarial consulting experience at either an actuarial consulting firm or has worked on an actuarial team servicing a large pension plan. Additionally, the ideal candidate is working towards the completion of their actuarial designations (FSA, FCIA), and has some familiarity with Ontario pension legislation and actuarial standards.

This role is based in downtown Toronto in a hybrid work environment, allowing employees the flexibility to work remotely and in-office (minimum two days per week in-office).

SPECIFIC ACCOUNTABILITIES

The Senior Actuarial Analyst will be responsible for a variety of duties, including but not limited to the following:

• Providing Actuarial Support to Pension Services: Interpreting plan provisions to develop tools to verify pension benefit calculations and pension projection calculations and testing the tools to ensure quality and accuracy of administrative calculations. Performing pension administration calculations that are of a special or complex nature (family law, pre-retirement death, or other complex/infrequent type calculations).
• Providing Actuarial Support to UPP’s Outreach and Onboarding Teams: Preparing actuarial analysis as requested from time to time by UPP’s Active Engagement and Onboarding Teams. This includes preparing side-by-side comparisons of pension plan provisions of universities interested in joining UPP, preparing member accrued pension comparison graphs, preparing illustrative defined contribution to defined benefit pension calculations, performing funded status projections for interested universities, and helping with any inquiries from the Outreach Teams regarding UPP plan funding, risk management, or pension legislation.
• Presentation Development: Preparing presentation materials for UPP’s Investment Committee, Board, or Joint Sponsors on a variety of actuarial and ALM topics (such as discount rate, other actuarial assumptions and methods, actuarial valuation results, economic scenario generators, key investment risk measures and other actuarial or investment studies as required from time to time).
• Asset Liability Management (ALM) Studies: Updating, if needed, member details, plan provisions, assumptions, and asset information in UPP’s asset-liability management system to produce analysis that helps the ALM team understand the plan’s investment and funding risks. Producing graphs and charts summarizing results of the ALM studies. Supporting risk appetite and risk management initiatives between the Actuary team and Investment team.
• Peer Plan Analysis: Preparing and maintaining repositories of key information of peer pension plans
• Valuation Assumption Setting: Researching and benchmarking economic and demographic assumptions using capital market assumptions from the UPP investment team, CIA/SOA studies, and industry data.
• Supporting Corporate Finance: Working with UPP’s Corporate Finance and Investment Operations Teams to support the preparation of corporate financials and notional tracking requirements under UPP’s Funding Policy.
• Supporting Special Projects from the CEO: When requested to do so, supporting CEO requests related to UPP’s strategy for long-term funding, growth and sustainability.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor’s Degree in Actuarial Science or Mathematics or equivalent
• ASA/ACIA or near completion of ASA/ACIA
• 3 to 6 years of experience in a professional consulting firm environment or other large pension plan performing actuarial valuations, pension administration, and related consulting assignments
• Strong programming skills and command of MS Office
• Strong technical proficiency with MS Excel and PowerPoint
• Familiarity with valuation or asset liability management (ALM) software is an asset
• Familiarity with Ontario pension legislation, Income Tax Act and CIA standards of practice

SKILLS & ATTRIBUTES

• Familiarity with financial markets
• Experience in interpreting various defined benefit pension plan provisions
• A nimble, resourceful team player/leader who thrives in a scale-up environment
• Ability to work on multiple initiatives in a fast-paced environment
• Excellent interpersonal skills and a positive attitude; able to build positive relationships within the UPP and with external stakeholders
• Demonstrated ability to meet high performance standards and maintain a calm, pleasant demeanor in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment

LIFE AT UPP

Do work that matters. We are duty-bound to serve our members’ interests, and it’s a responsibility we don’t take lightly. That’s why we’ve ingrained sustainability in our work from day one—to ensure our members have a resilient future to retire into, both today and for generations to come.

Stronger together. Collaboration is how UPP was born, and it’s how we work with each other and our partners day in, day out. No one at UPP is just a number (even if they are excellent at math) and every win is a shared win.

Grow every day. You’ll have the opportunity to work on unique, once-in-a-career projects that maximize your skill set and probably teach you some new ones—at any stage in your career.

Prioritize wellness. At UPP, wellness takes many forms. Ultimately, it’s about ensuring our people are cared for in the ways that matter to them. Check out some highlights of our inclusive employee-focused benefits program including:

• Defined benefit pension plan
• Flexible hybrid work model
• Work from abroad up to eight weeks/year
• Comprehensive group benefits including medical, dental, vision etc.
• Extended paramedical and mental health service coverage
• Health care and lifestyle spending accounts
• Fertility treatments, paid parental leave, and gender affirmation coverage
• Education Assistance program

UPP enthusiastically welcomes applications from all qualified applicants and especially invites people with lived experience as an Indigenous person, a person with a disability or as a member of another Human Rights Code protected group that faces barriers to employment to apply. Our goal is to create a barrier-free experience for every candidate throughout the recruitment process, so if you require accommodation at any point during the process, please let us know so that we can make the appropriate arrangements. It would be our honor to work with you to adapt our processes to ensure that you can meaningfully participate.

UPP respects your privacy. For information on how UPP handles the personal information you provide during the application process, please see our Job Applicant Privacy Statement.