Investment Analyst AVP

The role provides the opportunity to become part of a highly effective in-house pension team of experienced pension professionals for the Barclays UK Retirement Fund (UKRF) pension fund (c220,000 members and c£30bn of assets covering defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC)).

The role holder will be part of the team providing pensions actuarial and investment governance support to the UKRF. This will include BAU, strategic and project activity. The role holder will support oversight of the UKRF funding and investment strategy, investment governance (including Responsible Investment policy), funding and investment disclosures, engagement with the internal investment team and management of external advisors.

Key Accountabilities

• Support and work within a team running the Trustee Board Investment Committee (IC) and Defined Contribution Committee (DCC) including:
• Drafting and planning agendas plus horizon scanning for future agenda items;
• Drafting of IC, DCC and Trustee Board papers;
• Working with team members and external advisors to commission and co-ordinate advice for the IC, DCC and Board.
• IC and DCC project and actions management, working with team members and external advisors.
• Develop working relationship with external advisors leading to effective relationship and provision of timely advice.
• Develop working relationship with in-house investment management team to co-ordinate IC, DCC and Trustee Board deliverables.
• Support on the oversight of the in-house investment manager, including performance monitoring and compliance with the Investment Management Agreement across both DB and DC sections.
• Support on the oversight of the DB and DC strategic investment advisors, including performance monitoring and measurement against agreed objectives.
• Ensure funding and investment governance documents are maintained in line with current strategy and regulations including Statement of Investment Principles, Responsible Investment and Stewardship Policies and TCFD reporting.
• Support on regular Trustee reporting on funding levels and other metrics.
• Flexibility to work and support various Trustee-led projects relating to the pension scheme.

Stakeholder Management and Leadership

• Initiate and sustain constructive effective relationships with a wide range of stakeholders including the immediate team, external suppliers, and other internal functional teams.
• Professional self-confidence and integrity together with experience of supporting internal stakeholders and working with external consultants to resolve queries and issues.
• Effective collaboration and team working with other team members to deliver excellence to stakeholders.

Decision-making and Problem Solving

• Apply critical thinking and logic to resolve problems within the team and the wider operational environment.
• Identify opportunities for continuous process and control improvements and work with team members and suppliers to implement solutions.
• Consider the differing requirements of various stakeholders and develop holistic solutions.

Risk and Control Objective

• Ensure that all activities and duties are carried out in full compliance with regulatory requirements, Enterprise Wide Risk Management Framework and internal Barclays Policies and Policy Standards.

Person Specification

• Self-motivated, proactive and resilient – able to organise and prioritise workload effectively from multiple sources.
• Strong attention to detail, decisive, speed with accuracy and commits to high standards.
• Analytical skills to deal with a wide variety of pension related requirements.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills to make complex issues clearly understood.
• Strong experience in project ownership and delivery in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to build and maintain stakeholder relationships with both internal and external stakeholders.

Essential Skills/Basic Qualifications:

• Experience of working with pension schemes with defined benefit and defined contribution arrangements.
• Good technical knowledge of investment strategy, investment markets, asset classes, investment governance documents, pensions funding regulations, actuarial techniques.
• Relevant professional qualifications e.g. Actuary, APMI, FIA (or equivalent), CFA.
• Knowledge and application of UK pensions legislation and up to date awareness of current pension industry initiatives and developments relevant to funding and investments.
• Analytical skills to deal with a variety and large quantity of data from various sources.
• Experienced with Microsoft Office applications.

Desirable skills/Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience of assessing regulatory changes for UK pension schemes.
• Experience of insurance transactions for UK pension schemes.
• Experience of integrated risk management approaches.

Purpose of the role

To develop, implement and provide governance to employee retirement plans and benefits programmes, and provide counsel to resolve any related issues.

Accountabilities

• Responsible for the development, implementation and delivery of the retirement plans and benefits programmes and processes aligned to the organisation’s strategy.
• Responsible for ensuring that retirement plans and benefit programmes are delivered in compliance with all applicable internal governance requirements and external regulation.
• Communication and engagement to educate employees and managers on the available retirement and benefit options.
• Market research and the development of appropriate retirement and benefits strategy, administration and compliance.
• Identification, engagement and management of external vendors/stakeholders to manage the administration and delivery of the retirement and benefits services.
• Oversight and governance to all cost elements relevant to the provision of the retirement and benefits plans.

Assistant Vice President Expectations

• To advise and influence decision making, contribute to policy development and take responsibility for operational effectiveness.
• Lead a team performing complex tasks, using well-developed professional knowledge and skills.
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive.
• Consult on complex issues, providing advice to People Leaders to support the resolution of escalated issues.
• Identify ways to mitigate risk and develop new policies/procedures in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Perform work that is closely related to that of other areas, which requires understanding of how areas coordinate to achieve the objectives of the organisation sub-function.
• Engage in complex analysis of data from multiple sources to solve problems creatively and effectively.
• Communicate complex information effectively.
• Influence or convince stakeholders to achieve outcomes.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive.