Health & Welfare Benefits Program Manager

PRIMARY DUTIES / RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Manage, and deliver employee health & welfare programs and education including, but not limited to medical, dental, vision, pharmacy, leave of absence, employee wellness, life insurance, savings accounts, voluntary benefits 2. Lead project management of acquired companies, oversee the project and implementation of competitive harmonized benefits

3. Partner with ERISA counsel and vendors to ensure compliance requirements meet or exceed for all retirement plans including providing guidance regarding new or existing regulations relating to plan financial reporting (e.g., ACA, Pcori fees), government form filings (e.g., Form 5500), notices (SAR) and reporting, SPD/plan amendments etc.

4. Lead the communication/marketing of benefits programs to ensure that the financial investment is optimized through employee understanding, attraction and retention

5. Serve as liaison and manage relationships with third-party benefits administrations including performance & metrics reviews, continuous quality improvement initiatives, troubleshooting performance &/or new program implementations.

6. Coordinate all compliance matters related to health & welfare benefit plans to ensure compliant plan management

7. Drives complex, high-risk projects; consults and partners with other team members as a subject matter expert to resolve technical issues, handles highly complicated, sensitive, and/or nuanced escalations (e.g., Tier 3).

8. Partner with HR, Benefits Administration, HR Operations & HRIS to provide guidance and support timely day to day matters &/or corrections

9. Provide leadership for projects and initiatives with cross functional areas, such as internal shared services, other members of the benefits’ team, and/or outside vendors.

10. Collaborate with HR partners to ensure a good understanding of programs and policies and to ensure coordination across groups 11. Ensure programs and processes are documented, appropriately administered and that the highest standards of service and compliance are regularly met

Qualifications:

● BA or BS in a related area or equivalent experience required; graduate degree preferred

● 8+ plus years of experience with a strong background in design, development, and delivery of health & welfare benefit programs for large (10,000+ employees) companies. Combination corporate & consulting experience preferred. Combined with 2+ years of M&A activities.

● Robust experience merging & managing complex medical, pharmacy, leave of absence & wellbeing programs for acquired companies is required. Experience working with multiple unions/plan designs required

● Experience with managing a self-funded healthcare plan including contracting, negotiation, audits, and day to day escalation management.

Demonstrated experience manage health & welfare benefits including developing annual

budget, ongoing cost management & partnership with finance on analysis & reporting

● Demonstrated experience with HRIS & Workday software experience required

● Experience in working in an environment with HR Shared Services or outsourced HR Operations

● Experience in administration of health & welfare, leave of absence & wellbeing plans

Skills:

Comprehensive knowledge of health & welfare benefit plan principles and practices, as well as state and federal government regulations, compliance & operations

● Strong analytical skills and understanding of health & welfare actuarial concepts and problem-solving skills, to assess, identify problems and escalate when necessary

● Ability to work both independently with minimal direction and collaboratively across multiple functions both externally and internally (Legal, HR & Benefits administration, HRIS)

● A track record of building strong relationships and people partnership skills

● Excellent verbal and written communication skills to participants, vendor partners and broad level of internal stakeholders

● High level of attention to detail

● Proven ability to develop and monitor processes to ensure plan management is of the highest quality

● Proven project management skills

● Excellent capability to utilize Google Suite products such as Google Doc, Google Sheets & Google Slides

● Excellent capability to utilize AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini)

● Strong ability to present information in an objective and logical manner for effective decision making as well as strong negotiation and influencing ability

● Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, team-oriented, hands-on large-company matrix environment

● Ability to maintain confidential information

● Knowledge of Canadian benefit plans an asset

Certification:

● Specialty health & welfare and/or benefits certification preferred.