Pensions Project Consultant

**Contractual hours**

36.25

**Basis**

Full time

**Job category/type**
- XPS Administration

**Date posted**

28/01/2025

**Job reference**

REQ002757

**Pensions Project Consultant**:
**Consultant grade**

**Hybrid - any of our XPS offices**

**Full Time**

**12 Months Fixed Term Contract**

**Ref: REQ002757**

**XPS Group is a leading UK consulting and administration business specialising in the pensions and insurance sectors. At XPS, our vision is to create a vibrant**place to work where difference**is recognised**as**a strength and where**talented**people can flourish and achieve their highest**potential.**

Our Pensions Administration business continues to grow and we are now looking for a Pensions Project Consultant to join our vibrant Administration Projects Team (APT) with hybrid working from any of our offices. This is an exciting role and would most likely suit someone with previous experience in a pure pensions administration role, or pensions project role where they have gained knowledge and experience of Defined Benefit (DB) pension schemes.

A FTSE 250 company, XPS combines expertise and insight with advanced technology and analytics to address the needs of over 1,400 pension schemes and their sponsoring employers on an ongoing and project basis. We undertake pensions administration for over one million members and provide advisory services to schemes and corporate sponsors in respect of schemes of all sizes, including 88 with assets over £1bn. We also provide wider ranging support to insurance companies in the life and bulk annuities sector.

Our people drive our success and as an XPS employee you can bring your whole self to work - Everyone is treated equally and with respect. We will provide you with the support and training you need to grow and be at your very best. It’s about inclusion and diversity, ensuring all our people feel included, that they belong to XPS and that they’re happy. Above all, it’s about ensuring everyone has a voice and feels valued. Because they are.

**The Team**

Our award-winning pensions administration business puts scheme members at the heart of everything we do. Our services include scheme administration, first-time outsourcing, member communications and scam protection.
Our Administration Projects Team (APT) team undertakes projects such as:

GMP rectification/equalisation
- Buy-in/ Buy-out
- Data Cleansing
- Ad hoc projects for example scheme closures, benefit rectifications, liability reduction exercises
- McCloud implementation: Public sector pension benefit rectification across police, fire, MOJ and LGPS pension schemes.
- Pension Dashboards

**The Role**
As a Pensions Project Consultant with XPS you will:

In this role you will be responsible for leading and managing projects end to end, in line with budgets, deadlines, and objectives. You will also coordinate and support less experienced staff. This role is client facing therefore you will be expected to:

Act as point of contact generally and to explain complex issues
- Attend client and trustee meetings to present project update
Other Key Responsibilities:

Set and achieve project delivery deadlines within scope and budget. Ensure client sign off on fees and scope has been secured as the work
- Delivery of projects within agreed budgets, identification of out of scope work and proactive management and discussion with the clients to ensure that all work is billed in a timely manner
- Involvement in process improvement initiatives.
- Completion and review of calculations for pension benefit data both manually and spreadsheet based.
- Partner with Client and Administration Managers within the business on project delivery requirements and stakeholder management.
- Checking and authorising other team members’ work
- Provision of technical information both verbally and in writing
- Compliance with ISO and AAF accreditations
- Checking and authorising project work
- Providing general support to the team manager
- Support the delivery of a continuous improvement programme championing operational excellence while identifying areas where the project delivery service to clients could be improved and/or expanded.

**Your profile**

**Essential Criteria**
- Experience in a similar role dealing with DB pension schemes.
- Commercial acumen in order to plan, manage, track, and deliver project revenue, client and business requirements within budget
- Strong organisational skills with proven ability to manage resources and operational delivery of a team to ensure revenue targets met and work delivered to plan
- Technical pensions and data projects knowledge to be able to explain complex issues to key stakeholders internally and externally
- The ability to manipulate spreadsheet data using formulas, such as Index, V-look up, Pivot table is essentia
- Ability to efficiently resolve issues by identifying solutions to enable projects to be effectively delivered in accordance with client requirements
- Proven ability t