Associate Director, Actuarial Solutions

Why you’ll love working here:

• high-performance, people-focused culture

• our commitment that equity, diversity, and inclusion are fundamental to our work environment and business success, which helps employees feel valued and empowered to be their authentic selves

• learning and development initiatives, including workshops, Speaker Series events and access to LinkedIn Learning, that support employees’ career growth

• membership in HOOPP’s world class defined benefit pension plan, which can serve as an important part of your retirement security

• competitive, 100% company-paid extended health and dental benefits for permanent employees, including coverage supporting our team's diversity and mental health (e.g., gender affirmation, fertility and drug treatment, psychological support benefits of $2,500 per year, parental leave top-up, and a health spending account).

• optional post-retirement health and dental benefits subsidized at 50%

• yoga classes, meditation workshops, nutritional consultations, and wellness seminars

• the opportunity to make a difference and help take care of those who care for us, by providing a financially secure retirement for Ontario healthcare workers

Job Summary

he Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) is a defined benefit pension plan serving members and employers in Ontario's healthcare sector. The Pension Services division supports the delivery of HOOPP's pension promise through accurate and reliable service to members and employers.

Reporting to the Director, Actuarial Solutions, the Associate Director provides technical leadership to ensure the accuracy and integrity of pension calculations and pension-related data across HOOPP's administration system, member-facing solutions, and off-system tools.

The Associate Director is a senior resource for pension calculations, pension data, system functionality, testing, defect management, and modernization of calculation capabilities. The role helps ensure that on- and off-system solutions using pension data or calculations are accurate, well controlled, and aligned with HOOPP's administration practices and member service objectives. The Associate Director works with various teams to translate plan provisions, legislation, policy, and administration practices into practical solutions through requirements, testing, implementation, and operational controls.

What You Will Do

1. Calculation Accuracy and Technical Leadership

• Provide leadership to ensure the accuracy of pension calculations and member-facing pension information across HOOPP’s administration system, digital services, and off-system tools.

• Act as a senior subject matter expert for complex pension calculations and pension administration concepts, including escalated, precedent-setting, and high-risk cases.

• Identify inconsistencies among plan provisions, policy, administration practices, system logic, member communications, and calculation tools, and lead their resolution or escalation.

• Advise senior leaders on calculation risks, member impacts, and recommended courses of action while balancing calculation integrity, efficiency, and member experience.

• Promote consistent, explainable, and sustainable calculation logic across member-facing solutions.

2. Cross-Functional Delivery and Strategic Initiatives

• Act as the actuarial lead for cross-functional initiatives, coordinating stakeholders, influencing project direction, identifying risks and dependencies, and helping ensure solutions involving pension calculations or pension data are delivered successfully.

• Ensure calculation- and data-related considerations are incorporated early in discovery, design, requirements, delivery, testing, and implementation.

• Assess proposed solutions for calculation accuracy, appropriate use of data, alignment with plan provisions, and member impact.

• Lead or support implementation of plan, legislative, policy, or administration-practice changes affecting calculations or pension data.

• Build effective relationships and influence decisions without direct authority, including challenging proposals where calculation integrity may be at risk.

3. Calculation Requirements, Tools, and Modernization

• Lead the development of calculation requirements, implementation planning, testing strategies, and business readiness activities for calculation engine capabilities and other calculation solutions.

• Establish standards for and develop calculation requirements, including business intent, formulas, data inputs, dependencies, exception handling, auditability, and outputs.

• Ensure requirements are complete, maintainable, and sufficiently detailed for business analysts, developers, and end-users.

• Identify and lead opportunities to automate exception processing and recurring activities while maintaining appropriate controls and human oversight.

• Set standards for calculation tools and other off-system solutions, including testing, approval, version control, access, monitoring, and change management.

4. Release Delivery, Testing, and Calculation Quality

• Lead the Actuarial Solutions team’s work on calculation-related changes to HOOPP’s pension administration system, from early design and requirements through to testing, implementation, and production monitoring.

• Set and execute testing approaches, ensuring they cover regression testing, complex cases, and data storage.

• Assess release readiness and ensure identified defects and required controls are documented and escalated.

• Coordinate and participate in production validations of calculation functionality, rate tables, and calculation controls after a release is deployed.

• Lead the review and resolution of calculation defects and production incidents, including impacted-member analysis, interim controls, correction methods, and validation of fixes.

• Act as the point of contact for external vendors and stakeholders as it relates to discussions involving calculations or pension data storage. Lead discussions and find resolutions that prioritize calculation and data accuracy in HOOPP’s pension administration system.

• Lead audits of HOOPP’s pension administration system and related tools to ensure consistent quality.

5. Pension Data and Calculation Controls

• Provide oversight for the interpretation and appropriate use of pension administration data in calculations, member-facing solutions, and internal processes.

• Ensure the correct data fields and transformations are used where the results could affect pension amounts or related information shown to members, employers, or internal staff.

• Define data requirements for initiatives involving pension calculations, reporting, or the presentation of pension information.

• Partner with Pension Technology, Product & Delivery Management, Member & Employer Services, and other Pension Services teams to ensure pension data is used consistently and accurately across solutions.

• Recommend new pension data health checks, calculation controls, or monitoring activities where issues are identified.

• Recommend updates to existing pension data health checks based on changing needs.

• Assess and communicate risks arising from pension data quality issues or control gaps.

What You Will Bring

• University degree in actuarial science

• An ASA or ACIA designation is required; progress towards FCIA designation is preferred

• Ten or more years of progressively responsible experience in pensions consulting, actuarial work, pension administration, pension systems, or a related field.

• Several years of experience leading complex technical initiatives, establishing standards, making or recommending high-impact technical decisions, and influencing cross-functional project delivery.

• Deep knowledge of defined benefit pension administration, pension calculations, applicable legislation, plan provisions, and administrative policy.

• Demonstrated ability to interpret complex pension provisions and translate them into clear calculation requirements and business rules.

• Experience leading calculation-related system implementations, testing strategies, and defect resolution

• Ability to understand, review, and challenge complex system calculations, Excel-based calculation tools, and other off-system calculations.

• Ability to communicate complex actuarial and technical matters clearly to various teams and senior leaders.

• Strong judgment and decision-making ability where errors could affect member benefits, financial outcomes, regulatory compliance, or member experience.

• Demonstrated ability to set technical direction, prioritize competing demands, manage dependencies and risks, and deliver outcomes through influence rather than direct authority.

• Demonstrated ability to resolve complex technical issues and influence decisions across various teams and initiatives.

• Strong relationship-building skills, with the ability to influence across various teams and leaders.

The actual base salary offered to the successful candidate may vary based on multiple factors including, but not limited to, individual's expertise and level of experience applicable to the role they are being offered.  

This role is eligible to participate in discretionary incentive plan(s), subject to the terms and conditions of the applicable incentive plan text.  

HOOPP may use artificial intelligence tools to assist in screening, assessing and selecting applicants for this position. These tools support our recruitment process but do not replace human judgment and decision-making.