Operational Readiness Manager – DB Pensions & Third-Party Administrators

Overview

In this role you enable successful onboarding of new schemes and ensure operational readiness within PIC’s operating model. You’ll influence senior stakeholders and manage cross‑functional teams to deliver projects that protect policyholder outcomes and support business value. You’ll oversee Day 1/Day 2 readiness, governance, and handovers, driving improvements to processes, data quality, and reporting. This is a hands-on, leadership-focused role that shapes implementation quality and customer outcomes across complex pension schemes.

Pay / Benefits

• private medical insurance
• 28 days’ annual leave
• generous pension scheme
• insurance for Travel, Private Medical, Critical Illness, Life Assurance and Income Protection
• base salary with annual bonus

Responsibilities

• Represent PIC in decisions on client project delivery and alignment with the operating model
• Support the Head of Pension Operations in providing high-quality client and policyholder service
• Lead onboarding for PIC and Scheme Trustees with clear ownership of readiness items and handover
• Manage implementation delivery against target operating models with escalation when go-live is at risk
• Provide MI and reporting on TPA implementation quality, readiness status, risks, and post-go-live actions
• Identify and implement efficiencies to improve consistency, scalability, and control in the administration model
• Develop junior team members and expand their responsibilities
• Coordinate multi-workstream onboarding ensuring data readiness for administration and valuation, with tested payroll processes
• Ensure operational readiness communications with Outsourced Admin and Customer Experience teams for go-live readiness and post-go-live support
• Collaborate with internal actuaries on data requirements and issue resolution
• Lead calls with outsourced administrator to achieve timelines and issue resolution
• Prepare and present MI to stakeholders on readiness, risks, and service impacts
• Ensure Consumer Duty considerations are reflected in onboarding, communications, and customer journeys
• Complete internal projects on onboarding and continuous improvement of the readiness framework

Key requirements

• Good technical knowledge of DB pension schemes
• Thorough knowledge of project management techniques
• Good knowledge of pension buy-ins & buy-outs
• Strong technical knowledge of scheme implementations from buy in to buy out
• Strong organisational and communication skills
• Ability to persuade and influence stakeholders
• Ability to manage people and resources
• Ability to meet deadlines and work within defined procedures
• Effective collaboration with key stakeholders
• Good commercial judgement
• Excel competency and familiarity with MS products
• High level of pension experience
• Experience in DB pension scheme onboarding
• Experience of complex data analysis
• Prince2 or APMI experience or willingness to pursue
• Senior-level experience in corporate or consulting environments
• DE&I awareness at PIC

• strong communication
• persuasion and influence
• team development
• DB pension schemes
• project management techniques
• data analysis

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