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 44,000 members across six universities and eighteen 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.

UPP is recognized as one of Greater Toronto’s Top Employers for 2026. 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

We are actively looking for an Intern Analyst, Actuary, to join our team in May 2026, for an 8-month internship. The Intern Analyst, Actuary is responsible for helping to perform various actuarial funding calculations, supporting UPP’s engagement, corporate finance, and pension services areas. The incumbent may also have ongoing interactions with external actuaries, legal advisors, auditors, and investment professionals. Three key areas of accountability for the Intern Analyst, Actuary include: (i) actuarial support for pension administrative services, (ii) various actuarial funding and investment calculations, and (iii) supporting other key UPP areas such as engagement and corporate finance.

This is a fantastic opportunity for an undergraduate student to gain valuable work experience in a fast-growing, dynamic environment while being a part of a new pension plan.

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

Application Details: We ask that you submit a one-page resume, transcript, and a cover letter that includes a proposed research topic relevant to actuarial work in the pension industry as part of your application.

This posting is for an existing vacancy.

SPECIFIC ACCOUNTABILITIES

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

Actuarial Support to Pension Services

• Perform various tasks to support the accuracy and effectiveness of administrative calculations for Pension Services
• Support the execution and validation of various annual deliverables required by the plan terms and pension legislation
• 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).

Engagement, Corporate Finance Support

• UPP’s actuarial team provides support to UPP’s university sector engagement, corporate finance areas
• Projects and tasks cover from these three areas include preparing presentations comparing different universities’ pension arrangements, comparing member profiles at various retirement ages, answering various UPP funding questions, reviewing draft of corporate financial statements, supporting external audit requests

Actuarial Valuation of Assets and Liabilities

• Calculating the market value and smoothed value of assets using established methods
• Calculating actuarial accrued liabilities, current service costs, and funded statuses under various actuarial cost methods
• Validating data used for valuation purposes
• Reviewing economic, demographic, and other assumptions.
• Researching various models for assumption setting, performing experience studies, and attending webcasts and (when permitted) in-person actuarial and other pension industry meetings

Preparing UPP Committee and Board Presentations

• The intern analyst, actuary will support the Actuary team in preparing presentations covering topics such as assumptions, the plan’s funded status, membership summaries, discount rate, notional tracking, portfolio construction, and other investment topics or corporate finance topics as required from time to time.

Peer Plan Analysis

• Preparing and maintaining repositories of key information of peer pension plans

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

• Completion of second-year actuarial science program or similar mathematical sciences program or completion of an undergraduate degree in actuarial science, finance, or business
• Successful completion of at least one Society of Actuaries (SOA) actuarial exam
• Some actuarial industry, investment or pension plan experience is an asset
• Strong ability to prepare advanced presentations in PowerPoint
• Strong ability to set up and manipulate spreadsheets in Excel
• Some familiarity with pension industry actuarial valuation programs and annuity calculation tools
• Strong computer skills including solid grasp of MS Office applications and advanced Excel skills; VBA scripting skills and the ability to build out reports and presentations

ATTRIBUTES

• Demonstrated ability to manage the ambiguity and shifting work demands inherent in a start-up environment
• An ambitious self-starter and collaborative team player and who brings a positive can-do, roll-up-your-sleeves attitude in a highly entrepreneurial, fast-paced environment
• Resourceful and persistent in gathering and assessing information with the ability to quickly assimilate knowledge
• Strong communication skills, both verbal and written
• High degree of professionalism and integrity

EXPECTED COMPENSATION

The expected compensation for this role is an annualized base salary in the range of $50,500 to $61,500. This range reflects base salaries for all intern levels and is subject to change and may be modified in the future. Salaries are aligned to academic year and role scope.

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:

• Supportive and welcoming onboarding through the UPP Buddy Program
• Free snacks and beverages (coffee, tea, and flavored water) in the office
• Monthly social events
• Paid holidays
• Slowdown periods and Mental Health Days

This posting will remain open for a minimum of seven (7) days and will remain open until a sufficient number of qualified applications are received or finalist candidates have been identified.

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools may be used to support certain stages of the recruitment process, including sourcing, screening, and assessment. All hiring decisions involve human review and intervention by UPP employees.

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.

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.

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