Senior Specialist - Benefits

Wood Mackenzie

• $90K — $100K *
Business Services
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 4+ years of benefits administration experience across the Americas (US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil)
  • Strong interpersonal and communication skills
  • Ability to analyze situations and recommend solutions
  • Experience with HR systems, particularly Workday
  • Proven ability to manage multiple priorities and collaborate across teams

Responsibilities

  • Enter and validate employee benefit elections during onboarding or open enrollment
  • Process benefit cessation and ensure correct end dates for leavers
  • Review and approve life event requests and update benefit selections
  • Coordinate COBRA notifications and administration with vendors
  • Manage end-to-end leave cases and communicate status to payroll
  • Provide first-line guidance on benefit plans and processes
  • Serve as liaison between the company and benefit providers

Benefits

  • Comprehensive benefits package
  • Opportunities for professional development
  • Supportive work environment
  • Collaborative team culture
  • Flexible work arrangements
Full Job Description

Role Purpose


The Senior Specialist – Human Resources (Benefits) will support the delivery of benefits provision across the Americas region.


This role is responsible for benefits administration across the regions by managing our BAU activities, along with supporting annual renewals and projects. The successful candidate for this position must have experience and a thorough knowledge of benefits and payroll practices across the Americas region (US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil).


The ideal candidate will have experience working in a fast-paced, rapidly changing environment and be willing to guide, support, and engage with the wider HR and payroll/finance teams.


Key Responsibilities


Benefits Administration:

  • Enter and validate employee benefit elections during onboarding or open enrolment
  • Process benefit cessation and ensure correct end dates for leavers
  • Review and approve life event requests and update benefit selections accordingly
  • Coordinate COBRA notifications, enrolment, and continuation coverage administration with the vendor following qualifying events.
  • Manage end-to-end leave cases including approvals and employee/manager co-ordination
  • Communicate leave status and related changes to payroll to ensure accurate pay and benefit deductions.
  • Ensure benefits continue or adjust correctly during periods of leave

Employee Support:

  • Provide first-line guidance on benefit plans, enrolment, coverage, and processes. Send standard communications to employees.
  • Investigate and resolve complex benefit issues escalated from employees, managers, vendors, or HR teams.
  • Work with vendors to resolve denied or complex insurance claims
  • Advise employees on benefit options and coverage implications
  • Resolve benefit-related payroll issues, deductions, adjustments, and reimbursements in partnership with payroll
  • Guide employees on steps needed for benefit changes or compliance

Vendor Management:

  • Serve as day-to-day liaison between company and benefit providers/brokers
  • Manage complex vendor/service issues not resolved via standard channels

Compliance:

  • Monitor and ensure all benefits comply with relevant regulations
  • Produce and submit statutory filings and employee compliance communications
  • Provide documentation and responses during internal or external audits

Operational Excellence:

  • Continue supporting HR operations processes where needed
  • Ensure employee data accuracy in HR systems (e.g., Workday)

Workday Maintenance:

  • Perform system testing for benefit changes, upgrades, or renewals
  • Oversee system interfaces between HRIS, payroll, and benefit vendors
  • Monitor and reconcile benefits data across systems

Billing:

  • Validate carrier invoices against enrolment and eligibility data
  • Correct historical billing discrepancies and backdated changes
  • Manage employer contributions and funding processes for savings plans

Key Relationships


  • Principal Specialist – Reward
  • Payroll
  • External Vendors

About You

  • 4+ years of benefits administration, ideally across the US, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil.
  • Strong interpersonal and communication skills
  • Ability to analyze situations and recommend solutions
  • Experience working with HR systems such as Workday
  • Ability to manage multiple priorities and work collaboratively across teams


The salary range for this position is $90,000- $100,000, which represents base pay only and does not include short-term incentive compensation or commission. When determining base pay, as part of a final compensation package, we consider several factors such as location, experience, qualifications, and training. This base salary maps to the Boston Location.

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