OUR COMPANY BACKGROUND & CULTURE
UPP is the first pension plan of its kind in Ontario’s university sector, proudly serving over 46,000 members across six universities and nineteen 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
The Director, Pension Financial Transactions is accountable for the execution, integrity, and reliability of all financial transaction activities within Pension Services, ensuring that funds move accurately, compliantly, and transparently across the member and employer lifecycle.
This role owns the Pension Financial Transactions Team delivery model, overseeing recurring financial activities and the day-to-day execution of pension-related financial transactions, including contribution remittances, transfers, benefit payments, refunds, and reconciliations. The role ensures that all monetary activity aligns with plan rules, legislative requirements, and fiduciary obligations.
Reporting to the Managing Director, Specialized Operations, this role translates Pension Service strategy into a reliable, secure, controlled and audit-ready pension payment framework. While enterprise regulatory policy and risk appetite are set at the executive level, this role is accountable for ensuring pension financial transactions are executed within those frameworks, adhere to controls, and escalating material risks appropriately. This role works closely with Pension Services Business Solutions, Technology, Actuarial, Finance, and Experience teams.
A core focus of the role is maintaining trust in UPP’s financial interactions with members and employers, ensuring accuracy, auditability, and transparency in all pension-related financial transactions.
This role is based in downtown Toronto under a hybrid work policy, allowing employees the flexibility to work remotely and in-office (min two days per week in-office).
This job posting is for an existing vacancy.
SPECIFIC ACCOUNTABILITIES
The Director, Pension Financial Transactions will have responsibility for but not limited to the following:
- Own the end-to-end planning, execution, and governance of incoming contribution remittances and outgoing benefit payments.
- Accountable for the timely and accurate payment of pension benefits, ensuring payments are set up consistent with the member’s election, and are paid on time via UPP’s trustee.
- Own the design and operation of effective and efficient financial transaction processes and controls within Pension Services, including employer and member contributions, transfers, benefit payments, refunds, and reconciliations.
- Ensure that all monetary activities across the member and employer lifecycle are accurate, compliant, and auditable in accordance with plan rules, legislation, and fiduciary obligations.
- Oversee a calendar of recurring financial activities and manage the resource capacity required to execute those activities effectively.
- Accountable for the maintenance of accurate, up-to-date pensioner data, compliance requirements, operational risk, and business intelligence to ensure effective operational performance.
- Responsible for resolving payment escalations, such as overpayment recoveries, estate settlements, stale-dated payments and re-issued payments.
- Act as the business owner for systems, processes, and controls that support the movement of funds between employers, UPP, and members.
- Accountable for the timeline and accurate application of pensioner indexation, including UPP and prior plan applications.
- Responsible for the execution of business continuity management (BCM) activities relating to pension payments, including table-top exercises, approval of BCM planning and execution of quarterly testing.
- Ensure that UPP’s financial interactions with members and employers are accurate, transparent, and trustworthy.
- Accountable for providing accurate data for the financial reconciliation and financial statements to UPP’s Corporate Finance team.
- Partner with Finance, Pension Services Business Solutions, and Technology teams to ensure data integrity, automation, and reconciliation between pension administration systems (e.g., V3locity) and financial systems.
- Support readiness, testing, and change management for system upgrades or process changes impacting financial operations.
- Accountable for the application of monetary approval limits as delegated in UPP Policies, and for reporting exceptions, remediations and claims to the CEO and/or the Pension Services Committee of the Board. This includes authorizing payments within the Director-level approval limits.
- Translate organizational strategies into effective and efficient business operations.
- Create an environment in which team members are mentored and coached for continuous improvement and career development.
Enablement & Controls
- Accountable for the design, implementation, and ongoing effectiveness of processes and controls across assigned functions, ensuring alignment with the Target Operating Model and enterprise risk frameworks.
- Fosters a culture of constructive challenge by actively engaging with Second- and Third-Line functions, ensuring effective oversight and assurance, and driving timely and transparent responses to feedback, findings, and requests.
- Promotes a culture of ownership, accountability, and constructive challenge, where feedback from oversight and assurance functions is actively sought and used to strengthen processes and controls.
QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE
- Bachelor’s degree required; postgraduate degree is an asset.
- Minimum 10-12 years of progressive experience in pension administration, financial operations, or a comparable regulated financial services environment.
- Demonstrated experience leading or managing pension-related financial transaction processes.
- Strong understanding of Canadian defined benefit pension administration, including contributions, benefit payments, and reconciliations.
- Experience working with financial controls, audit requirements, and reconciliation processes.
- Demonstrated ability to work cross-functionally with Pension Services Business Solutions, Technology, Actuarial, Finance, and Service teams.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Clear, practical written and verbal communication skills.
- Professional designations such as CEBS or PPAC are considered assets.
ATTRIBUTES
- Strong attention to detail and commitment to accuracy.
- High integrity and sound judgment in handling financial transactions.
- Operationally disciplined and process oriented.
- Comfortable managing recurring cycles and time-sensitive deliverables.
- Collaborative and pragmatic in cross-functional environments.
- Calm and effective when resolving issues or discrepancies.
- Improvement-oriented, with a focus on efficiency and risk reduction.
- Commitment to transparency and trust in member and employer interactions.
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
- Paid time off – vacations, personal days and wellness days
- Work remotely 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
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.
