Client Manager - Governance & Secretarial - #2180541

Client Manager - Governance & Secretarial

Our client, Spence & Partners, a leading UK pensions consultancy, is seeking a Client Manager to join their team in Glasgow. 

The Client Manager (Governance & Secretarial) role is responsible for the strategic leadership, retention, growth, and overall satisfaction of a portfolio of clients for whom Spence provide multiple pensions services (for example administration, actuarial, investment, secretarial, governance).

Acting as the relationship lead, the Client Manager (Governance & Secretarial) role serves as the first point of contact to clients, ensuring high-quality delivery across all service lines, regulatory compliance, and commercial value. The role requires close collaboration with administration, actuarial, investment, projects, systems, and business development teams to deliver excellent client outcomes and achieve Spence’s growth objectives.

Responsibilities & Criteria

Client Relationship Management

• Build and maintain strong, long-term relationships with trustees, corporate sponsors, advisers, and key stakeholders.
• Serve as first contact point for a portfolio of clients.
• Develop a deep understanding of client objectives, scheme requirements, and emerging challenges.

Service Delivery and Oversight

• Create and manage pension scheme annual business plans and calendars.
• Effectively deliver governance and secretarial services in line with contractual commitments, including organising client meetings, taking of minutes and actions, management of other stakeholders (for example auditors, legal advisors, other professional service providers)
• Manage budgeting and billing across client portfolio
• Monitor service performance, KPIs, and client satisfaction metrics.
• Work with operational teams (i.e. administration, actuarial, and investment) to identify and address risks, service issues, and process improvements.
• Support the successful delivery of projects including; GMP equalisation, pension dashboard readiness, benefit rectification exercises, buy-ins, buy-outs, scheme mergers, and data cleansing activities.

Commercial Management

• Manage cost and provide necessary financial information for business and audits.
• Operate as a commercial lead for assigned clients.
• Retain and grow revenue across the client portfolio.
• Monitoring and improving client profitability
• Lead contract renewals, fee negotiations, and commercial discussions.

Legislation, Governance, and Risk

• Ensure services are delivered in accordance with regulatory requirements and industry best practice.
• Maintain awareness of developments from The Pensions Regulator (TPR), Pension Protection Fund (PPF), DWP, FCA, HMRC, and pension legislation.

Leadership and Collaboration

• Provide insight and leadership to administration, actuarial and investment teams supporting the client portfolio.
• Foster a culture of service excellence, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Strategic Contribution

• Contribute to the organisation's strategic planning and growth objectives.
• Represent the business at industry events, conferences, and client forums.

Essential Experience

• Significant experience within UK pensions industry.
• Experience working with trustee boards, corporate sponsors, and professional advisers.
• Strong knowledge of DB pension schemes.
• Experience understanding commercial contracts and service agreements.
• Experience influencing multi-disciplinary teams.

Essential Knowledge

• UK pension legislation and regulatory framework.
• The Pensions Regulator (TPR) requirements.
• Scheme governance and trustee operations.
• Emerging industry initiatives including pension dashboards and digital transformation.

This role balances service delivery, strategic client management, commercial growth, governance oversight, and operational service excellence.

Circumstances

Working hours: Monday to Friday, 37.5 hours per week with additional hours as and when required.

The role holder may be at times required to travel to other UK locations.

All roles are subject to a six-month probationary period and all prospective employees are required to complete background screening to cover all locations.

As part of the pre-hire process the successful candidate will be subject to reference checking and background security vetting.

Applying with a disability or long-term health condition?

As part of our belief that we benefit from the differences among us we are committed to increasing the representation of disabled colleagues and want to remove any barriers or challenges that get in the way of candidates with a disability or long-term health condition from applying to work with us. As part of this commitment, we guarantee to automatically interview anyone with a disability who meets the minimum criteria.

If there is support or an adjustment that we can provide to enable you to be at your best during the recruitment and selection process, we encourage you to advise us in good time so that we may make suitable arrangements. We understand that being open with us may feel uncomfortable so please only share with us the information that you are comfortable to share, and rest assured that we will use this only to provide you with the right support. Any information you give us will be treated completely confidentially. To discuss this further please call (phone number removed) and ask to speak to a member of the People & Culture team.

About Spence

Our primary aim is to provide interesting, worthwhile and healthy careers for all our people; we believe that this emphasis sets us apart from our competitors.

We are defined by our ethos and by our goal:

Our ethos is an individual and collective commitment achieved through carefully balancing responsibility with freedom and flexibility, all of which is underpinned by a willingness to work interdependently. When we get this balance right, it is how we do our best work.

We look after our staff first and foremost, but for a commercial purpose, which is to deliver great service profitably. By focusing on our goal, we provide the best outcomes for pension scheme members, trustees and employers.

We have clients throughout the UK, serviced from offices in London, Belfast, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, and Leeds.

3173 is an Equal Opportunity Employer.