Retail Pensions Manager, Technical & Third Party Relationships

About the UK Business

Fidelity's UK Retail & DC business manages or administers £10bn of customers' assets. The business supports the investment needs of more than one million UK customers across four channels: Personal Investing; Retail Funds; FundsNetwork and DC & Workplace. Already a leading provider in the mutual funds, advised platform, direct-to-consumer and DC pensions markets, the business has ambitious growth plans. By combining its distribution strengths with the investment expertise of the Fidelity group, the business is ideally positioned to fulfil its goal of becoming a leading UK provider of retirement solutions.

Department Description

The Retail Pension Department is currently one of the fastest growing areas of the business; it is part of the wider Global Distributions Operations and responsible for a broad range of operational processes. The team is responsible for processing the core element of SIPP administration including transfers in and out, benefit calculations and payment, death, divorce cases, investment transactions and the day to day management of the SIPP. You will also liaise with the India based ISA/GIA team on technical matters.

Purpose of your role

You will lead the Retail Re-Reg/Transfers Operations technical function for both SIPP and ISA/GIA. You will be expected to demonstrate and maintain a high level of personal understanding of the HMRC, FCA, and other relevant industry organisations regulations, guidelines and legislation and how these impact the product, systems and processes. You will provide technical support for both the the SIPP teams in the UK and India. In addition managing a very small group of individuals, that will support you in achieving your objectives.

A big part of the role will be attending industry meetings such as STAR and TEX, representing Fidelity and feeding back to senior stakeholders on discussions and initiatives that come from these meetings. You will need to already have a strong knowledge of the Re-Reg and Transfer process and be aware of systems such as Altus, ORIGO and SWIFT.

You should be able to identify risks and issues within with the procedures and training gaps within the team and work closely with other Technical, Training and Quality functions so they can be effectively managed, mitigated or escalated.

The role will include working closely with team managers to have oversight, control and reporting on the technical aspects of the product and ensuring that the SIPP and/or ISA/GIA operation is fully compliant. You will be expected to lead and direct problem solving and incident resolution related to regulatory issues.

Key Responsibilities

• Can do attitude reflected in pro-active internal problem resolution
• Open to change - managing change initiatives within the team, gaining buy-in from key stakeholders and developing and managing practical strategies to achieve the best outcome
• Demonstrate in-depth knowledge of the Pension / SIPP & ISA/GIA products and operational processes. Provide quality control function to other members of the team.
• Provide technical process support to the team, escalating where necessary and in a timely manner.
• Provide and collate information for regulatory reporting. Work in conjunction with Legal and Compliance to ensure regulatory obligations and standards are met and provide the business with regular management information
• Where required support team with meeting urgent deadlines and continually assess service risks
• Ensure appropriate recruitment, training and development of the team members to cover all tasks across the teams.
• Responsible for development of team members
• Act as a role model deliver strong results in the right way, build, develop and lead empowered and diverse teams; and motivate others with a vision for the future that can be implemented.
• To fully support the Retail Pension Operations& India based Re-Reg and Transfers team and deliver on strategic initiatives. This will entail end-to-end ownership of process design reviews, procedural changes, risk identification and mitigation strategies, staff training, data cleansing and migration activities, ensuring a seamless implementation into production with no detrimental client impacts.
• Responsible for overall quality within the team, ensuring close collaboration with the team in India and also with customer services to support good quality across all processes.

• Work with internal and external stakeholders to ensure regulatory obligations and standards are met and influence the business and operational requirements.

Experience and Qualifications

• Excellent knowledge of HMRC, FCA and other relevant organisations regulations, guidelines and rules which govern the SIPP
• Excellent understanding of the Retail Pension / SIPP & ISA/GIA products and the various operational, legal, regulation and customer requirements
• Good understanding of the retail fund market and structure of financial instruments within SIPP & ISA/GIA
• Flexible and adaptable, responds rapidly to changing agendas. Able to re-prioritise and organise effectively
• Ability to build strong relationships and credibility at all levels.
• Decision-maker - effective problem solving and solution orientated.
• Experience of Fidelity's systems, project governance and organisational structure
• Demonstrates a high level of commitment to customer service
• Experience of working in a customer focussed, dynamic, commercially driven environment, able to train, coach and develop team members
• The ability to question internal processes and encourage improvement.
• Communicator - effective written and verbal skills, good attention to detail.
• To have a good understanding of the FCA's Treating Customers Fairly regime to ensure that each customer receives the highest level of customer service and that this is applied on a consistent basis. In addition, it is essential that any TCF issues identified are fed back to line managers or TCF champions so the appropriate actions and decisions can be considered.
• FA1 & CF2 qualified.
• QPA, MDPSA, DPA, CFA, CPC, DPC qualifications beneficial