Pension-and-Benefits Integration Recovery Leader

The mandate

The acquired business uses different pension eligibility, insured benefits, leave, flexible allowances and employee contribution rules across six countries. Data conversion omitted historic service and dependent evidence, while payroll deductions and provider memberships do not reconcile. Employee complaints and one missed risk-benefit enrolment exposed immediate welfare and fiduciary risk before the benefits integration leader resigned.

The fifteen-month assignment begins within ten days and covers population recovery, eligibility, service, contribution, provider enrolment, payroll deduction, leave status, dependent coverage, beneficiary instruction, claim escalation, harmonisation, consultation and employee communication. It must protect current entitlements, complete one renewal cycle and establish future integration without offering individual legal, tax, pension or investment advice.

Permanent recruitment starts in month eight. Handover requires reconciled employee and dependent populations, provider and payroll bridges, protected-term register, resolved urgent cases, six country reviews, three controlled payroll cycles and three simulations. The successor must command an unseen provider outage plus missed enrolment during a seven-week overlap and communicate remedy without the interim leader’s private case log.

The role may require source correction, pause an unsafe migration, set enrolment and reconciliation controls, approve delegated employee remedies within policy, redirect the authorised EUR 25 million recovery budget and replace temporary benefits leads. The committee retains plan design, harmonisation, insurer appointment, employment decision, legal position, pension funding, workforce restructuring and permanent appointments.

Trustee decisions, individual financial advice, claim adjudication, legal or tax opinion, collective bargaining, medical determination and provider procurement remain outside scope. The leader may coordinate authorised owners but cannot reduce protected benefits to meet synergy or delay urgent coverage while records are repaired. The fixed term closes after renewal and tested succession.

Why this seat is open

Payroll sees deductions, providers see enrolled members, country HR sees employment history and central Rewards sees plan design. The conversion failure exposed that the departed leader’s case files were the only cross-population control. Temporary authority is needed to restore employee protection and transfer one complete renewal cycle to permanent ownership.

What you will own

• Reconcile employee, dependent, service, leave, eligibility, election, contribution, beneficiary, payroll and provider populations.
• Triage missed coverage, incorrect deduction, lost service, dependent omission, claim blockage and retirement-critical cases.
• Establish protected-term, migration, enrolment, evidence, reconciliation, correction and employee-notification controls.
• Connect pension and benefit decisions to payroll, tax coordination, finance, provider instruction and consultation dependencies.
• Lead scenarios for provider outage, missed enrolment, data loss, payroll error, long leave and urgent medical need.
• Govern remedy consistency, privacy, specialist referral, issue ageing, provider escalation and executive reporting.
• Transfer renewal, six countries, three payroll cycles and unseen outage-and-enrolment case to the permanent leader.

Candidate qualifications

• Held senior pension and benefits operations authority through a multi-country insurance or financial-services acquisition.
• Reconciled payroll, provider and HR populations across eligibility, service, contribution, dependants and leave.
• Recovered missed or incorrect coverage without giving unauthorised legal, tax, pension or medical advice.
• Preserved acquired rights while designing controlled harmonisation and required employee consultation.
• Managed providers, payroll, employee relations, trustees, Finance, Legal and Tax through urgent welfare cases.
• Completed succession through renewal and an unfamiliar combined provider and enrolment failure affecting vulnerable employee populations directly.

Non-negotiables

• Can start within ten days and complete six country residencies through one full renewal cycle.
• Will disclose relationships with insurers, pension providers, trustees, brokers, payroll firms, unions and advisers.
• Brings acquisition-related benefits population recovery; benefits strategy or vendor procurement alone is insufficient.
• Will not reduce protected rights, adjudicate claims, give personal advice, direct trustees or delay urgent coverage.

1. 49 words maximum. Describe an acquired benefit population you recovered after payroll and provider records diverged.
2. 49 words maximum. When would you stop a benefits migration despite an integration deadline?
3. 49 words maximum. What provider-outage and missed-enrolment case must the permanent leader resolve?