OUR COMPANY BACKGROUND & CULTURE

UPP is the first pension plan of its kind in Ontario’s university sector, proudly serving over 44,000 members across six universities and eighteen sector organizations. Our purpose is to bring greater retirement peace of mind to the university sector by investing with integrity and serving members with care. As a sector-wide plan designed for growth, our doors are open to all Ontario universities.

UPP is recognized as one of Greater Toronto’s Top Employers for 2026. Together, we’re a team of progressive thinkers and agile doers operating within a fast-paced culture of collaboration and respect. We believe in bringing smart and capable people together to create, solve, and grow with a clear shared vision and values of integrity, inclusivity, ingenuity, and impact.

Our culture is intentionally welcoming and purposefully rooted in equity, diversity, inclusion, and reconciliation (EDI&R). We believe diverse teams, perspectives, and lived experiences contribute to better decisions and a better workplace.

As a pension plan, UPP approaches investing through a long-term lens to generate and safeguard value. Our commitment to investing responsibly accounts for material risks that impact our investment portfolio to generate sufficient risk-adjusted returns to meet the pension needs of our members.

Join us in building a bright future for our members, our organization, and each other.

THE ROLE

The Associate Director, Employer & Employee Partner Experience is accountable for leading the day-to-day delivery and performance of employer and employee partner service experiences, ensuring that participating organizations and their faculty associations and union representatives receive timely, accurate, and high-quality support across all standard service interactions.

Reporting to the Director, Employer & Employee Partner Experience, this role is a key operational leader, accountable for translating service strategy into consistent execution. The Associate Director oversees service delivery operations, manages escalations, and drives service performance, while identifying opportunities for continuous improvement.

The role works closely with the Director to implement service experience priorities and enhancements, ensuring employer and employee partner needs are effectively reflected in processes, tools, and service interactions.

A core focus of this role is ensuring operational excellence, service consistency, and strong working relationships with employers and employee partners, while supporting service readiness and change adoption as UPP evolves.

This role is based in downtown Toronto in a hybrid work environment, allowing employees the flexibility to work remotely and in-office (minimum two days per week in-office).

This posting is for an existing vacancy.

SPECIFIC ACCOUNTABILITIES

The Associate Director, Employer & Employee Partner Experience will have responsibility for but not limited to the following:

• Lead the day-to-day operations of employer and employee partner support services, ensuring service standards for timeliness, accuracy, and quality are consistently met
• Execute service experience priorities established by the Director, ensuring alignment with broader service strategy and organizational objectives
• Develop and sustain trusted relationships with employers, employee partners and Faculty Associations to enable effective partnership models and enhance member service delivery through these key channels
• Act as the primary escalation point for complex or sensitive employer and employee partner issues, ensuring timely resolution and clear communication
• Monitor service performance metrics and operational insights, identifying trends, risks, and opportunities for improvement
• Manage and develop the service delivery team, providing coaching, direction, and performance oversight to ensure a high-performing, client-focused environment.
• Partner with Member Experience and Specialized Operations to ensure high-quality data is received from employers and available for transactions.
• Partner with Product Management to translate employer and employee partner needs into actionable requirements, product roadmaps, and service enhancements.
• Manage the implementation of new tools, processes, and service changes, ensuring operational readiness and effective adoption
• Act as the organizational champion for the employer and employee partner voice, ensuring clarity, responsiveness, and collaboration in all communications, engagements, and service interactions.
• Ensure consistency in service delivery practices, reinforcing standards for communication, responsiveness, and employer engagement
• Lead, coach, and develop the Employer & Employee Partner Experience team, setting clear expectations and fostering a high-performing, service-oriented environment aligned with UPP’s core values

Enablement & Controls

• Leads the implementation, maintenance, and continuous improvement of processes and controls within assigned areas, ensuring they are clearly documented, consistently applied, and aligned to risk and governance requirements.
• Engages proactively with Second- and Third-Line functions, welcoming challenge and feedback to strengthen control design and execution, and responding promptly to assurance and information requests.
• Promotes a culture of ownership, accountability, and constructive challenge, where feedback from oversight and assurance functions is actively sought and used to strengthen processes and controls.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor’s degree required; postgraduate degree is an asset.
• Minimum 8-10 years of progressive experience in employer services, pension administration, client experience, or a comparable regulated service environment.
• Demonstrated experience leading employer- or client-facing service delivery operations, including issue resolution and relationship management.
• Strong understanding of employer responsibilities in Canadian pension administration.
• Experience working with unions and unionized environments is highly desirable.
• Demonstrated ability to work cross-functionally with Product Management, Member Experience, Specialized Operations, Controls function, and Communications.
• Experience using service performance metrics and feedback to drive service improvement.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and data interpretation skills.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills.
• Professional designations such as CEBS or PPAC are considered assets.
• Bilingualism in English and French is considered an asset.

ATTRIBUTES

• Strong employer and employee partner-centric mindset with a focus on trust, clarity, and responsiveness.
• Relationship-oriented leader with a collaborative working style.
• Operationally disciplined and detail-oriented.
• Comfortable navigating sensitive issues and complex stakeholder dynamics.
• Calm and effective when managing escalations and service issues.
• Data-informed and improvement-oriented.
• High integrity and sound judgment.
• Commitment to transparency, consistency, and service quality.

LIFE AT UPP

Do work that matters. We are duty-bound to serve our members’ interests, and it’s a responsibility we don’t take lightly. That’s why we’ve ingrained sustainability in our work from day one—to ensure our members have a resilient future to retire into, both today and for generations to come.

Stronger together. Collaboration is how UPP was born, and it’s how we work with each other and our partners day in, day out. No one at UPP is just a number (even if they are excellent at math) and every win is a shared win.

Grow every day. You’ll have the opportunity to work on unique, once-in-a-career projects that maximize your skill set and probably teach you some new ones—at any stage in your career.

Prioritize wellness. At UPP, wellness takes many forms. Ultimately, it’s about ensuring our people are cared for in the ways that matter to them. Check out some highlights of our inclusive employee-focused benefits program including:

• Defined benefit pension plan
• Flexible hybrid work model
• Paid time off – vacations, personal days and wellness days
• Work remotely up to eight weeks/year
• Comprehensive group benefits including medical, dental, vision, etc.
• Extended paramedical and mental health service coverage
• Health care and lifestyle spending accounts
• Fertility treatments, paid parental leave, and gender affirmation coverage
• Education Assistance program

This posting will remain open for a minimum of seven (7) days and will remain open until a sufficient number of qualified applications are received or finalist candidates have been identified.

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools may be used to support certain stages of the recruitment process, including sourcing, screening, and assessment. All hiring decisions involve human review and intervention by UPP employees.

UPP enthusiastically welcomes applications from all qualified applicants and especially invites people with lived experience as an Indigenous person, a person with a disability or as a member of another Human Rights Code protected group that faces barriers to employment to apply. Our goal is to create a barrier-free experience for every candidate throughout the recruitment process.

UPP respects your privacy. For information on how UPP handles the personal information you provide during the application process, please see our Job Applicant Privacy Statement.