Analyst - Pension Benefit Investments

At Lilly, we unite caring with discovery to make life better for people around the world. We are a global healthcare leader headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. Our employees around the world work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them, improve the understanding and management of disease, and give back to our communities through philanthropy and volunteerism. We give our best effort to our work, and we put people first. We’re looking for people who are determined to make life better for people around the world.

Lilly’s Benefit Plan Investment Team provides critical investment, fiduciary, controllership and cash management oversight for $32 billion of assets and exposures residing in independent trusts that support employee pensions, savings plan accounts and retirement health benefits. The coordination of these activities is managed through relationships with over 70 external partners that provide investment management, consulting, custodian duties, reporting, accounting, legal and other services.

This analyst is the primary owner of operations, accounting, compliance and controllership activities for all transactions running through the trusts and contributes to middle office support to the investment directors. This analyst reports directly to the Chief Financial, Operations and Compliance Officer for the Lilly Benefit Plans.

Do you possess a high attention to detail and strong organizational skills while multi-tasking? Consider joining a dynamic team and dedicated company!

Specific responsibilities include:

• Maintain and anticipate financial operations, controllership and fiduciary governance activities in partnership with Lilly’s third-party custodian and record keeper for the trusts holding the benefit plan assets. This role is the ‘expert user of the third-party custodian’s accounting system for the benefit plan trusts. Maintain diligent records of invoices, fee agreements and payments made. Provide initial screening to settle appropriateness of any proposed charge to the plans or company accounts in compliance with both ERISA and GAAP requirements. Prepare any required journal vouchers and reconcile accounts quarterly.
• Deliver the annual financial statements for the benefit plans through coordination of multiple internal and external relationships. Facilitate the planning and response to the independent financial audits of these statements and prepare the regulatory filings with third party assistance. Lead and direct third-party accounting firm on the strategy and completion of federal and state tax returns for the plans. Leverage lessons and best practices to drive efficiency and accuracy through these processes. Actively participate in the response to any additional regulatory audit.
• Coordinate the reconciliation of benefit plan asset values at the Trustee to third party audit valuations, capital statements and Form K-1s as appropriate, and prepare recommendation for benefit plan annual financial statement entries as needed. Coordinate information with third party compilation accounting firm.
• Create reporting for Lilly company annual corporate year-end audit. This includes gathering, analyzing, investigating and summarizing information for the pension footnote. Provide support to key company financial control and reporting processes, including SOx compliance, external audit requests, and company financial reporting.
• Prepare the annual fiduciary review process for the benefit plan oversight committee. This includes gathering and organizing cost and performance data to submit to a third-party benchmarking firm to independently analyze. The analyst will coordinate the relationship and investigate any findings. Provide an annual historical cost analysis for the four trusts and review with management and oversight committee.
• Continually identify operations processes that are stable, repeatable, and transparent and investigate outsourcing/productivity opportunities.
• With management, evaluate new regulatory and accounting requirements and develop/propose/implement new procedures as necessary. Leverage third-party experts to develop subject matter expertise and ensure Lilly teams and service providers are trained and prepared to maintain compliance with evolving regulations.
• Assist and coordinate special projects as needed. Past examples include:
  • integration of a benefit plan from an acquired company,
  • renegotiation (RFI, RFP) of service provider contracts,
  • additional benchmarking of asset returns and/or fees,
  • evolution/streamlining of records retention practices,
  • assessment of market practices/developments (e.g., proxy voting, cyber security)
  • outsourcing of operational activities.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a business field (e.g., Accounting, Finance, Economics, Marketing, Business Administration)
• Minimum of 2 years of experience in accounting/finance related role, working with financial statements and expense accounts, and demonstrating basic knowledge of GAAP standards.
• Qualified applicants must be authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. Lilly will not provide support for or sponsor work authorization and/or visas for this role

Additional Skills/Preferences

• Proficiency in Excel, Microsoft Office skills and SAP experience.
• Experience working with internal and external auditors and financial management.
• Strong interpersonal communication skills and willingness to speak up and raise concerns.
• Sense of ownership, integrity and commitment.
• Exposure to ERISA, employee benefit plans, fiduciary practices, trustee and custodian management would be helpful.
• Familiarity and interest in learning about investment management operations (cash management, debits/credits, account ledgers, performance and fees, etc.) and key actuarial concepts.
• Experience working with external partners, particularly financial service firms.
• Comfortable working independently and across a team, and leading small projects.
• Proven problem solver and experience with basic financial analysis.

Additional Information

• Moderate travel may be required <5%.
• Role is based in Indianapolis, with at least 3 days a week in the office required.

Lilly is dedicated to helping individuals with disabilities to actively engage in the workforce, ensuring equal opportunities when vying for positions. If you require accommodation to submit a resume for a position at Lilly, please complete the accommodation request form (https://careers.lilly.com/us/en/workplace-accommodation) for further assistance. Please note this is for individuals to request an accommodation as part of the application process and any other correspondence will not receive a response.

Lilly is proud to be an EEO Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender identity, sex, gender expression, sexual orientation, genetic information, ancestry, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status.

Our employee resource groups (ERGs) offer strong support networks for their members and are open to all employees. Our current groups include: Africa, Middle East, Central Asia Network, Black Employees at Lilly, Chinese Culture Network, Japanese International Leadership Network (JILN), Lilly India Network, Organization of Latinx at Lilly (OLA), PRIDE (LGBTQ Allies), Veterans Leadership Network (VLN), Women’s Initiative for Leading at Lilly (WILL), enAble (for people with disabilities). Learn more about all of our groups.

Actual compensation will depend on a candidate’s education, experience, skills, and geographic location. The anticipated wage for this position is

Full-time equivalent employees also will be eligible for a company bonus (depending, in part, on company and individual performance). In addition, Lilly offers a comprehensive benefit program to eligible employees, including eligibility to participate in a company-sponsored 401(k); pension; vacation benefits; eligibility for medical, dental, vision and prescription drug benefits; flexible benefits (e.g., healthcare and/or dependent day care flexible spending accounts); life insurance and death benefits; certain time off and leave of absence benefits; and well-being benefits (e.g., employee assistance program, fitness benefits, and employee clubs and activities).Lilly reserves the right to amend, modify, or terminate its compensation and benefit programs in its sole discretion and Lilly’s compensation practices and guidelines will apply regarding the details of any promotion or transfer of Lilly employees.

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