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Welcome, and thank you for your interest in learning more about South Yorkshire Pensions Authority and this exciting role.

We are proud of the track record that South Yorkshire Pensions Authority has achieved over a long period. As we progress, we are seeking to build on this, whilst preserving the long-term stability of our pension fund.

As we continue our journey towards excellence and look to meet the challenges ahead, I am looking forward to recruiting a Service Manager of Technical Support who will help us realise our ambitions.

This role is vital to leading the Authority’s employer facing operations and the internal support and training for the whole Pensions Team. Whilst others may think of Pension Administration as a processing function, we see it as much more, crucial though that aspect of our work is. Your role is to make the best use of the talented individuals in your team and help them achieve their full potential.

We will require an individual who has experience of interpreting technical guidance and being able to apply it in practice along with working knowledge of Pensions Administration Systems. You’ll also bring extensive technical knowledge of the legislation governing pension schemes and specifically the Local Government Pension Scheme.

This is an exciting opportunity to join our small, friendly, and forward-looking Pensions team in this well-respected, award-winning organisation managing a £10 billion pension fund.

We are very proud to win the first ever Impact Investing Adopters Award (November 2021) from Pensions for Purpose and we were also re accredited by Customer Service Excellence in May 2022, having met this standard for over 20 years. In December 2022 we won the LAPF Investment Awards LGPS Fund of the Year (Assets over £2.5 billion).

More recently we added another award win to our collection in November 2023 when we won the Place Based Impact Investing Award at the annual Pensions for Purpose stakeholder event. The victory was a testament to our unwavering commitment to impactful local investments. The award-winning submission highlighted our extensive efforts in investing within South Yorkshire.

It really is an exciting time to be joining us.

About the role

As the organisation’s lead manager for Technical Support Services, you will be central to driving quality and the highly effective delivery of our corporate priorities.

The Technical Support Team has two primary functions, one is to provide (pensions) technical support to the Benefits, Customer Services and Pension Systems teams and the other is to provide leadership and direction to work to maintain and improve data quality.

You will provide technical pensions support to all teams within the Administration service and to pension fund employers and to ensure the Authority abides by the Pensions Regulators General Code and is fully compliant with the statutory provisions of the LGPS and wider pension legislation, providing guidance to internal teams and implementing measures to ensure compliance where required.

As a manager of around 7 FTE members of staff (which includes a Technical Support Manager) we are looking for a role model to support and encourage those individuals; to manage workloads, motivation and morale across the team.

The team is responsible for providing technical guidance, developing and maintaining training manuals and documentation, and maintaining an on-line reference library. They provide training to support other teams in respect of new legislative provisions and deliver training to staff progressing through the Authority’s career grade scheme as well as being responsible for ensuring the objective assessment of progress against the career grade scheme.

Why join us?

We have a culture that encourages work-life balance, and to recognise this for our employees, as of April 2024 we will be introducing a 35 hour (instead of 37 hour) working week with no impact on annual pay. We offer flexible working hours and hybrid office / home working (including a non-taxable allowance towards the cost of working from home). Our newly refurbished Barnsley office provides a state-of-the-art working environment; and with on-site parking and located within 10 minutes’ walk of both the train and bus stations, it makes us easily accessible. At SYPA we are big on your professional development, you’ll have a learning and development plan, and we’ll support you to keep your CPD updated. Perhaps most importantly you will be welcomed by talented teams.

Closing date: Midnight Sunday 17 March 2024

Please note, we are also looking to recruit for the position of Service Manager – Employer Services. For more information on this role or to apply for this role, please click Apply button.