Description & Requirements The Retirement Senior Manager is a newly created role designed to build additional depth, structure, and strategic leadership within the firm's retirement programs as the organization continues to grow. This leader will own the strategy, administration, governance, and compliance of the firm's retirement programs, including 401(k) plans and profit-sharing, while serving as the firm's technical subject matter expert on retirement plan design, fiduciary oversight, operational controls, regulatory requirements, and participant experience. The Senior Manager will bring both deep technical expertise and innovative thinking to modernize retirement processes, leverage data and technology, strengthen governance, and ensure programs remain competitive, compliant, scalable, and aligned with the needs of a growing professional services and public accounting firm.
What You Will Do: - Serve as the firm's retirement plan subject matter expert, leading strategy, design, governance, administration, and continuous improvement for 401(k) and profit-sharing programs.
- Oversee retirement plan compliance, including census preparation, nondiscrimination testing, Form 5500 filings, audits, participant notices, regulatory updates, and correction processes.
- Own the annual profit-sharing calculation and allocation process, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and alignment with plan provisions through partnership with Finance, vendors, and auditors.
- Serve as the primary technical contact for recordkeepers, investment advisors, legal counsel, consultants, vendors, and plan auditors; manage service quality, issue resolution, reporting, and deliverables.
- Advance fiduciary governance by preparing committee materials, documenting decisions, tracking actions, and ensuring administrative practices align with plan, operational, and regulatory standards.
- Lead analysis and resolution of complex retirement plan issues, including operational errors, plan document interpretation, correction strategies, voluntary compliance submissions, and audit findings.
- Oversee complex retirement processes for managing directors, employees, and retirees, including eligibility, deferral elections, contributions, distributions, communications, transitions, and escalated participant matters.
- Translate complex retirement plan concepts into clear participant communications, education resources, compliance notices, and targeted campaigns.
- Conduct benchmarking, plan analysis, and emerging-practice research to evaluate competitiveness and inform strategic recommendations for senior leadership.
- Partner with HRIS, Payroll, Finance, Total Rewards, and vendors to ensure accurate data feeds, eligibility management, contribution processing, reconciliation, reporting, and Workday integration.
- Advise senior leadership on retirement plan strategy, fiduciary considerations, regulatory developments, operational risk, participant impact, and opportunities to strengthen plan effectiveness.
- Support firm growth, new entities, workforce changes, and M&A integration through retirement plan due diligence, design alignment, harmonization, vendor readiness, and participant transition planning.
- Identify and lead opportunities to modernize, automate, and scale retirement operations through process redesign, stronger controls, analytics, vendor capabilities, and system integration.
- Lead and develop retirement team members through technical guidance, prioritization support, coaching, and performance feedback.
Minimum Qualifications: - Bachelor's degree in a related field.
- 8+ years of relevant experience in retirement plan administration, governance, and operations.
- Hands-on experience managing defined contribution retirement plans, including 401(k) administration, compliance testing, plan audits, fiduciary governance, vendor management, participant communications, and issue resolution.
Preferred Qualifications: - Experience with profit-sharing plans, retirement plan correction programs, and M&A or new-entity integrations.
- Experience with Workday or similar HRIS and benefits administration systems.
- Experience with data reconciliation, process automation, and process improvement initiatives.
- Experience working in a complex professional services or public accounting environment.
- Professional certifications such as CEBS (Certified Employee Benefit Specialist), QKA (Qualified 401(k) Administrator), QPA (Qualified Pension Administrator), or CPC (Certified Pension Consultant) preferred.
- Advanced HR or compensation certifications such as CCP, PHR, SPHR, or SHRM-SCP preferred.
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