Pension Accounting Analyst (14 Month Contract)

This is a 14 month contract with chance for permanent placement

Required experience: Pension plan / trust fund / asset management

Pay Rate: $80,000 - $90,000 depending on experience

About the job

Why you’ll love working here:

• Access to an annual wellness reimbursement program for health and wellness-related expenses for permanent employees
• High-performance, people-focused culture
• We offer a hybrid flexible work model that embraces remote work in Ontario for eligible roles
• The opportunity to make a difference and help take care of those who care for us, by providing a financially secure retirement for Ontario healthcare workers
• Competitive, 100% company-paid extended health and dental benefits for permanent employees with recent additions to promote inclusive coverage to a diverse employee population. These recent additions include gender affirmation and fertility drug and treatment coverage
• Virtual fitness, yoga and meditation classes, nutritional consultations and wellness seminars
• Learning and development initiatives, including workshops, Speaker Series events and access to LinkedIn Learning, that support employees’ career growth
• Membership in HOOPP’s world class defined benefit pension plan, which can serve as an important part of your retirement security
• Our commitment that equity, diversity and inclusion are fundamental to our work environment and business success, which helps employees feel valued and empowered to be their authentic selves

Job Summary: Reporting to the Manager, Pension Accounting – Operations, the Analyst, Pension Accounting – Operations acts as a subject matter expert (SME) on pension accounting operations such as processing contributions, benefit payments, death overpayment recovery, and refund to members. This role is primarily responsible for performing tasks of the team aimed towards operational effectiveness, and ultimately contributing to the consistent delivery of exceptional member experience by HOOPP. These tasks include analysis of operational monitoring reports and subsequent issue identification, investigation and resolution; ongoing operational risk assessment and reporting/escalation of operational risk items to management and other stakeholder teams as appropriate. The Analyst is also responsible for pension tax accounting activities such as the issuance of tax slips to members, filing of tax forms, preparing reports to tax authorities, and the completion of finance activities and coordinating these with the Plan Operations team.

What you will do:

Pension Accounting Operations:

• Create, update, and maintain business procedures relevant to the job function.
• Provide guidance, support or assistance to various Plan Operations teams in addressing operational issues on shared pension-related processes as well as member concerns or inquiries to ensure a positive member experience.
• Support the PA – Reporting and Analytics team on the monthly GL reconciliations such as the investigation and clearing of reconciliation items and preparation of appropriate journal entries.
• Review and analyze operational monitoring reports and metrics on a regular basis, investigate exceptions, work within the PA team and/or the appropriate teams in Plan Operations to address the exceptions accordingly, and report or escalate to senior management as necessary to ensure adherence to policies and procedures in support of operational effectiveness and management decision-making.
• Provide support, and training, and act as a backup in completing core operational processes such as the daily financial activities (DFA), employer/member contributions, death overpayment recovery, pension benefit payments, tax payments and refunds to members/employers and resolving day-to-day issues on these processes.
• Identify, analyze, and monitor operational issues, investigate with appropriate teams within HOOPP (IT, Plan Operations, etc.) and/or outside HOOPP (vendors), present options and provide recommendations on how to resolve as necessary, assist in the execution and documentation of resolution steps, and follow through with appropriate teams to ensure issues are addressed from the root cause.

Pension Tax Accounting:

• Provide support or assistance to management and other stakeholder teams and collaborate with appropriate Tax teams, as necessary, in addressing tax slip-related issues, requests or inquiries from members or next of kin/estate trustee/executor of deceased members.
• Assist with the preparation and maintenance of ongoing reconciliations between internal system records with CRA’s filing records and perform investigations on any variances as needed.
• Responsible for all pension tax accounting activities and reporting including the completion and coordination of finance tasks related to HOOPP’s annual tax slip production. These include the issuance of tax slips to members, filing of slips, forms, and other reports to CRA, Revenue Quebec and the Family Responsibility Office.
• Perform quarterly tax slips (T4A, RL1/RL2, NR4), buyback, and death overpayment reconciliations to ensure complete and accurate tax slips/receipts to members.
• Assist with the issuance of amended tax slips throughout the year due to payment cancellations.

Governance, Risk and Controls:

• Assist the divisional audit contact for Pension Accounting in responding to questions and providing information relating to pension accounting processes requested by internal and external auditors.
• Update pension process narratives and participate in the quarterly ICFR attestation on core pension processes in support of the ICFR program.
• Assist in the department business continuity program on assigned processes, as appropriate, and participate in the plan readiness as required.
• Identify and assess risks on pension accounting operational issues, report the implications to the Manager, and assist in the preparation of the Operational Risk Event reports as needed.
• Collaborate and support Plan Operations in identifying, assessing, and managing risks brought by system upgrades, enhancements, or defect fixes, exploring options to mitigate the risks, and documenting and implementing appropriate control steps on shared processes.

Process Improvement and Modernization:

• Establish new operational monitoring reports, work with PA- Reporting and Analytics to develop the reports, and assist in the testing, implementation, and maintenance of these reports.
• Assist the PA – Reporting and Analytics during the development, testing, implementation, and maintenance of process automation (such as Robotic Process Automation) on these pension accounting business processes.
• Recommend ways to improve business processes, lead initiatives within PA team as needed, or participate in special projects in collaboration with other teams to enhance workflow efficiencies while ensuring strong internal controls remain.

What you bring:

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office products (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Planner, Outlook).
• Experience in pension/trust fund operations
• Experience in large ERP with a full understanding of sub-ledger to General Ledger process flow.
• University degree in Finance or Business
• Degree/Diploma in Accounting
• Knowledge of SQL and other databases / Business Intelligence tools (MS Access, Qlikview).
• 3-5 years of finance industry experience
• Experience in an automated pension environment.
• Knowledge of tax accounting activities (remitting tax payments and filing of tax).