People & Culture Manager, Benefits

Overview

The Bronx Defenders (BxD) – an innovative, progressive, holistic defense office in the South Bronx – seeks a People & Culture Manager, Benefits to lead the administration and deployment of employee Benefits.

Founded in 1997, The Bronx Defenders is a public defender nonprofit that has developed a nationally recognized model of representation called holistic defense, which provides people with teams of lawyers, social workers, and advocates to defend them zealously in court as well as to address the underlying drivers and enmeshed penalties of legal system involvement.

Since opening our doors, we have grown into an organization of more than 400 staff members defending nearly 20,000 New Yorkers each year in criminal, family, civil, and immigration proceedings who face incarceration, family separation, eviction, and deportation, among other devastating consequences.

Today we are reimagining the role of public defense even further, using community organizing and engagement, legislative advocacy, and impact litigation to partner with the communities we represent to bring about long-lasting systemic change.

We also share our model and lessons learned with current and future public defenders. We run two legal clinics at NYC law schools and train public defenders from one end of the country to the next on how to move to a holistic model of representation.

Responsibilities.

Description

Reporting to the Director of People & Culture, the People & Culture Manager, Benefits is a key member of BxD’s People & Culture team, who is focused on the selection, implementation and administration of employee benefits, ensuring that our benefits offering is robust and effectively meets the needs of our employees.

The People & Culture Manager, Benefits is the designated benefits resource for BxDs’ employees; proactively engaging and delivering programming, information and resources as well as responding to inbound requests. Additionally, the People & Culture Manager, Benefits delivers and administers benefits events and activities throughout each year. The People & Culture Manager, Benefits also collaborates with BxD’s Director of Wellness in developing and delivering wellness programming.

The People & Culture Manager, Benefits is designated with establishing and managing partnerships with brokers, external vendors and industry partners; optimizing these partnerships so that our benefits offering is robust and adapts well to the evolving benefits needs of our employees.

Success in this role requires a skilled and experienced administrator with strong project management, interpersonal and presentation skills who is also resourceful; staying abreast of industry trends and resources and bringing these to the table to continuously elevate BxD’s benefits offering.

Benefits Administration

• Maintaining employee data including enrollments, terminations and life events
• COBRA administration
• Research, analyze, and recommend benefit plan enhancements based on market trends, utilization data, regulatory changes, and employee needs

Open Enrollment

• End-to-end administration and delivery of the annual open enrollment process

Vendor Management

• Ensuring productive partnerships with insurance companies and vendors for health benefits (Medical, Dental, Vision, FSA/HAS, EAP, COBRA) as well as brokers, industry and regulatory partners
• Lead the negotiation process to determine benefit offerings for BxD employees

Compliance

• Ensuring compliance with reporting; compiling and submitting relevant reports, and notices
• Ensuring accurate and up to date Summary Plan Descriptions and all benefits content on all platforms
• Conduct regular audits and make updates as necessary

Payroll Coordination

• Collaborate with Payroll to ensure accurate and efficient data and processing of benefit deductions, adjustments, invoicing, reconciliations and payroll feeds

Reporting

• Compilation and dissemination (internally and externally) of key reports and data on enrollment, carriers, benefits eligibility, leave, disability, workers compensation, cost and renewals

Leave Administration

• Administer all leaves including: FMLA, New York Paid Family Leave (NY PFL), Disability as well as ADA accommodations

Retirement Plan Administration

• Administer BxD’s 403(b) plan including; fielding inquiries, compiling and disseminating relevant content, facilitating participant loans as well as producing and delivering reports as necessary

HRIS & Systems

• Ensure consistently smooth and effective functioning of the benefits interface with the HRIS platform including carrier feeds, reporting and enrollment workflows
• Troubleshoot and resolve issues as necessary

Qualifications

The People & Culture Manager, Benefits must have:

• Minimum 5 years' experience in full cycle benefits administration
• 2 – 3 years’ experience leading at least one component of employee benefits

Applicants should demonstrate:

• Strong knowledge and experience navigating the employee benefits landscape, particularly in New York City and State; brokers, vendors, regulatory information, platforms, trends and resources
• A record of success partnering with internal and external stakeholders, ensuring that employee benefits support employee needs and organizational priorities
• Strong relationship building skills as demonstrated by success initiating and maintaining productive relationships with internal and external partners
• Excellent interpersonal and presentation skills to effectively engage and support a hightouch employee population and evolving benefits landscape
• Proficiency with contemporary benefits and related platform(s)
• Skilled in effectively communicating and collaborating with people with various identities, backgrounds and experiences
• Proficient in working independently and collaboratively
• Excellent organizational skills and meticulous attention to detail
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to exercise great judgment, discretion, and confidentiality around sensitive issues
• Ability to receive critical feedback constructively, reflect and shift behavior accordingly

The following qualifications are preferred, but not required:

• Written and oral Spanish proficiency, validated objectively

Salary is commensurate with experience. The salary range for this position is $110,000 - $125,000. Full-time employees are also eligible for a comprehensive benefits package including but not limited to medical, dental and vision coverage; a 403(b) plan with employer contribution; a generous vacation, sick leave, and parental leave policy.

To apply, please submit a cover letter and resume as a single document. Applications without both a resume and cover letter will not be considered.

The Bronx Defenders is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to maintaining a workplace that embraces staff with a diversity of backgrounds, identities, and experiences. We acknowledge the ways in which systemic oppression and injustice can undermine access to professional opportunities and are committed to conducting hiring and promotion processes that are equitable and accessible to those commonly excluded from the workforce. We do not discriminate against and in fact specifically encourage applicants from marginalized communities to apply, including those who identify as Black, Indigenous, people of color, queer, transgender, gender non-conforming, disabled, neurodivergent, and those directly impacted by criminal, civil, family, and immigration legal systems. We value lived as well as professional experience and particularly welcome applications from the Bronx community that we serve.