Highams Recruitment

Pension Services TPA Manager London | Hybrid (3 days in office) Competitive salary + bonus + strong benefits A leading insurer in the UK pensions de-risking market is looking for a Pension Services TPA Manager to join its Customer Operations team. This is a key leadership role with responsibility for managing third-party administrators (TPAs), overseeing scheme transitions, and ensuring high-quality outcomes for policyholders across a growing bulk annuity portfolio. The Opportunity You'll take ownership of TPA relationships and performance, ensuring strong governance, robust controls and consistent delivery across complex defined benefit schemes. This role combines operational leadership, stakeholder engagement and continuous improvement, with exposure to large-scale buy-in and buy-out activity. Key Responsibilities TPA Oversight & Governance Lead oversight of third-party administrators, ensuring delivery against agreed SLAs, KPIs and quality standards Monitor performance across key areas including complex calculations, regulatory queries, payments and reporting Drive improvements across processes, controls and service delivery Team Leadership Lead and develop a team, including performance management, coaching and capability building Ensure the team is equipped to manage scheme complexity and deliver high-quality outcomes Scheme Transitions & Delivery Support onboarding of new schemes and transitions into TPA operating models Work closely with internal teams (Actuarial, Transitions, Finance, Payroll) to ensure readiness and smooth implementation Stakeholder Management Act as a key point of contact for Trustees, TPAs and internal stakeholders Attend governance forums and contribute to strategic discussions on service delivery and operations Risk, Compliance & Customer Outcomes Ensure adherence to Consumer Duty and regulatory expectations Oversee audit activity, risk events and issue resolution Drive a strong customer-first approach across all administration activity Your Background Strong experience in defined benefit pensions administration Proven track record managing or overseeing TPAs Experience of scheme transitions, buy-ins or buy-outs Previous leadership experience within pensions operations Strong stakeholder management across Trustees and external providers Solid understanding of regulatory expectations, including Consumer Duty What Sets You Apart Commercially aware, with the ability to balance risk, cost and customer outcomes Strong operational leader who can manage complexity and drive performance Confident influencing internal teams and external partners Proactive in identifying improvements and driving change Why Apply Join a market-leading business in a high-growth area of pensions Work on complex, large-scale schemes and transactions Role with real ownership and visibility across the organisation Strong culture focused on collaboration, accountability and outcomes If you're currently leading DB pensions operations or managing TPA relationships and want to step into a broader, more strategic role, this is a strong opportunity to progress your career.

Pensions Technical Specialist - DB Onboarding (Insurance) Location: UK (Hybrid) Salary: Competitive + bonus + benefits We're supporting a leading insurance provider as they continue to grow their bulk annuity and pension risk transfer business. As part of this, they are hiring a Pensions Technical Specialist to support the onboarding of Defined Benefit schemes into their insurance platform. This role sits at the critical point between trustees, consultancies and internal operations, ensuring schemes are accurately transitioned and data integrity is maintained from day one. Key responsibilities Lead technical validation of DB pension scheme data as part of onboarding activity Review benefit specifications, scheme rules and administration practices to ensure accurate interpretation within the insurance environment Identify and resolve data inconsistencies, benefit calculation issues and historical anomalies Work closely with onboarding, administration and actuarial teams to deliver smooth scheme transitions Support due diligence activity during buy-in/buy-out transactions Provide technical oversight and sign-off on scheme setup Key experience Strong DB pensions technical background (scheme rules, benefits, calculations) Experience in pensions administration, technical services or implementation/onboarding roles Good understanding of bulk annuity/risk transfer processes (desirable) Confident working with complex data and resolving inconsistencies Strong stakeholder engagement skills across trustees, consultants and internal teams Knowledge of pensions systems such as Hartlink, Administrator, Intellipen or similar Why join Direct involvement in high-profile bulk annuity transactions Growing insurance platform with strong deal pipeline Opportunity to move away from BAU admin into a more technical, project-based role Clear progression into senior technical or leadership roles

We have an opportunity for a Development Manager to join a global fintech business and consultancy firm. They have an impressive track record delivering solutions into top organizations across pensions, wealth management, investments and insurance businesses. This opportunity gives you the chance to manage the Development team of around 10 people that are responsible for building the solutions they provide to external clients. You would get to look at implementing new strategy for future solutions, create product roadmaps and come up with innovative ways to drive efficiencies in development. You would be responsible for managing the team on a day to day basis including driving delivery and increasing productivity as well as looking at areas for improvement and upskilling. Externally, you would be able to deal with their clients to talk through new builds and product requirements. The environment is mainly .net based and you should have good exposure to these sorts of technologies/languages, as you would still maintain some hands on work at times. On offer is the chance to build solutions for the UK's best known Financial Services business as well as a competitive salary of up to £70k + excellent benefits. It can be partly home based with 1-2 days in their office each week after Christmas