Pensions and Benefits Specialist

Company Overview

Offering a complete ecosystem of maritime services, including broking, finance, port services and research, Clarksons is at the heart of global shipping. Our unrivalled reach, expertise, and depth of experience, combined with leading research, enables us to partner with clients across every sector to meet the demands of the world’s rapidly evolving maritime, offshore, trade and energy markets. Building on our unique heritage and harnessing our insights to see further, faster, we work with our clients and communities to create strategies that have a positive impact on the industry and the world around us. Dedicated to excellence, it’s our people that drive success for our clients. To understand more including day-to-day life at Clarksons, visit us at

Role Summary

This is a hands-on role reporting into the Head of Compensation and Benefits, where you will be responsible for owning the provision and delivery of UK pensions and for managing our suite of employee benefits and the operations for these on a day-to-day basis. You will be a UK Pensions specialist and SME with a comprehensive technical knowledge and understanding of UK governance and pension legislation. You will also have experience of managing a range of employee benefits with a desire to deliver exceptional service to contribute to an enhanced employee experience.

What you’ll be doing

Pensions Responsibilities

• Responsible for DC pension for UK and International Retirement Scheme for Singapore, Egypt and Japan.

• Maintain strict adherence to legislative frameworks, regularly reviewing processes and validating regulatory requirements.

• Control the invoicing process with suppliers and monitor scheme costs on behalf of the Company.

• Manage outsourced administration provider (ISIO), monitoring their performance against service level agreements.

• Drive key business-as-usual activities such as benefit statements, statutory returns, and cyclical projects.

• Ensure legislative deadlines are met for pension scheme returns to HMRC and the Pension Regulator as well as the publication of statutory documents (Annual Chair Statement, SIP etc) on a publicly available website.

• Monitor monthly contribution files to ensure deadlines are met. 

• Respond to complex member queries and manage the pension mailbox, ensuring timely and accurate resolution.

• Facilitate the member-nominated trustee appointment process, including communications and interview selection.

• Ensure all discretionary death benefit claims are handled sensitively and appropriately, and relevant supporting information is obtained for trustee decisions.

• Ensure full compliance with Auto-enrolment legislation, including member enrolment notifications, opt-out procedures, and submission of redeclaration of compliance returns. Work with external auditor for requests around the annual company accounts.

• Development and implementation of communication strategies to promote pension benefits and drive member engagement.

• Collaborate with HR colleagues to ensure pensions are integrated into broader HR strategies.

Benefits Responsibilities

• Responsible for managing several UK employee benefits (including but not limited to medical, life, gym, mental health and wellbeing) while aligning regional benefits strategy to global minimum standards.

• Coordinating the administration related to benefits for starters, leavers, changes and underwriting requirements, reconciliations, invoicing and internal recharges with support from the payroll team.

• Ensure all monthly tasks and cyclical processes are followed through before deadlines.

• Manage benefits operations processes by partnering effectively with local HR teams, HRIS and Payroll to ensure the smooth delivery of benefits administration and where possible, improve operational efficiency.

• Manage benefits billing, including obtaining and reconciling invoices, submitting and tracking payments and costs.

• Internal communications to inform, promote and engage employees on benefits offering.

• Maintain benefits documentation for all global offices ensuring procedures are accurately documented and updated to reflect changes to policies.

• Support and provide input into global benefits design, provider renewal and tendering processes.

• Additional / ad hoc duties as required to meet the needs of the business.

• Have regular catch ups with the regional HR colleagues to assist with benefit renewals (Singapore, US and Dubai)

What we’re looking for

We welcome applications from candidates who share our Company Values and key attributes, as follows:

• Integrity and respect – acting thoughtfully and ethically to do the right thing in accordance with Conduct Rules, and to promote and foster a respectful work environment for all.

• Drive – self-motivation and the desire and commitment to succeed, deliver excellence and make positive change.

• Relationship building – excellent communicator to effectively build strong, long-lasting relationships with colleagues, clients and others.

• Collaboration – working well with others across diverse backgrounds to share information, develop skills and deliver results.

• Resilience - persisting and adapting to changing or difficult situations and adopting a positive and focused approach.

• Smart - problem-solving and analytical abilities, with a curious and inquisitive mind, and an openness to new ideas.

Other requirements

• UK pensions SME with comprehensive technical knowledge of all aspects of UK pension schemes and legislation.

• Experience as a pension Secretary in a corporate environment.

• Knowledge and experience of Defined Contribution Pensions.

• Regulatory knowledge of The Pensions Regulator, The Financial Conduct Authority, The Pension Protection Fund and the Financial Assistance Scheme.

• Pension qualification from CII or PMI desirable.

• Demonstrable employee benefits knowledge and experience of administering a wide range of benefits including medical and life assurance plans.

• Proactive approach to pensions and benefits engagement, making connections between internal/external factors and how our offering can support the employee lifecycle.

• Experience of working within a fast-paced corporate/professional services environment.

• Strong communicator (both written and verbal), able to articulate complex information to a non-technical audience.

• Ability to draft communications with the right tone and messaging.

• Experience of drafting presentations and presenting data in a relevant format to key stakeholders.

• Strong presentation skills, able to confidently present to audiences at a senior level.

• Able to build and maintain effective working relationships with various teams and key stakeholders at all levels on an international basis as well as with vendors.

• Excellent organisation skills, with the ability to take ownership and drive tasks to completion.

• Ability to problem solve and demonstrate initiative.

• Strong attention to detail with a high level of accuracy.

• Highly numerate, analytical and data-oriented.

• Resourceful with an aptitude for continuous improvement.

• Highly proficient in MS Office packages (particularly Excel to run analytics and PowerPoint for presentations).

• Prior exposure to a multiple country benefit renewal and/or redesign program would be advantageous