• Establish strong relationships with HR Partners, business leaders, and employees to ensure benefits delivery meets employee needs across health, welfare, and retirement programs. • Function as a subject matter expert on all core benefit programs—including FSAs, HSAs, and retirement plans (e.g., 401(k), employer match, ETC.) . • Resolve benefits issues and escalations within set SLAs (48–72 hours for non-complex issues; five business days for complex cases). • Resolve complex issues by identifying root causes, completing impact analysis (financial and member impact), and evaluating resolution options. • Provide subject matter oversight on retirement plan operations , including eligibility, enrollments, contribution corrections, plan compliance, and payroll file accuracy. • Build and manage effective relationships with benefit vendors, including health/welfare and retirement recordkeepers. • Conduct ongoing vendor meetings (monthly, quarterly) to discuss service performance, participant satisfaction, website/admin experiences, and performance guarantees. • Monitor monthly invoices to ensure alignment with administrative fees, participant counts, and plan rules. • Actively participate in Annual Enrollment preparation and testing for medical, dental, vision, FSA/HSA, and retirement enrollment updates. • Partner with vendors to verify eligibility rules, contribution limits (including IRS retirement plan limits), imputed income, COBRA rates, ASO fees, and premium accuracy. • Review interface files between the benefits administration platform and all vendor systems—including retirement providers—to ensure precise data mapping, required fields, and testing. • Serve as the internal SME for retirement benefits, including 401(k), after-tax contributions, company match programs, and nonqualified deferred compensation (if applicable). • Work with payroll and technical teams to ensure accurate processing of contributions, loan repayments, catch-up contributions, and IRS limit monitoring. • Support annual retirement plan activities. • Assist with the evaluation of plan design changes, plan amendments, and implementation of new retirement features or enhancements. • Manage escalated retirement participant issues such as loan processing, hardship withdrawals, distribution timing, and rollover complexities. • Identify opportunities for process improvements and automation across all benefit programs—including retirement plan processes. • Manage implementation, documentation, and ongoing measurement of improvements. • Conduct or participate in benefits training for HR, payroll, partner teams, and external vendors, including training on retirement plan processes and updates. • Execute audit schedules for each major vendor, including retirement plan audits. • Review ERISA, IRS, DOL, ACA, CMS, and state-related regulatory requirements and support all required filings. • Monitor regulatory changes affecting health, welfare, and retirement programs; partner with ERISA counsel and vendors as needed to implement changes.