Senior Benefits Administrator

Description Darigold seeks a skilled and motivated Senior Benefits Administrator to join our team! The Senior Benefits Administrator serves as a strategic and operational partner in planning, administration and continuous improvement of the organization’s employee benefit offerings. Working closely with the Senior Manager – Total Rewards and cross-functional teams, this role helps drive the Total Rewards strategy by managing complex benefits programs, leading open enrollment, supporting vendor relationships and ensuring regulatory compliance across all offerings. The Senior Benefits Administrator is responsible for the day-to-day operations of health and welfare plans, retirement programs and wellness initiatives. They analyze benefits data, identify trends, recommend enhancements and serve as subject matter expert for internal stakeholders, while also supporting strategic projects and process improvements. This is a professional role requiring independent judgement and the ability to perform complex work with minimal supervision. The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in benefits support, strategy and operations, excellent analytical skills and a passion for delivering a best-in-class employee experience. This role is based at our Corporate Office in Seattle, WA. Darigold is the fifth largest dairy cooperative in the United States based on milk volume and one of the largest privately held organizations headquartered in the state of Washington. Since 1918, our producers have taken pride in producing dairy products with unsurpassed quality. Today, we are one of the nation's largest agricultural cooperatives, producing over 8.5 billion pounds of milk every year. Through innovative technology and our efficient, flexible production capabilities, we deliver value added products and customer-driven solutions. Darigold is now known throughout the world for bringing fresh, wholesome dairy products and ingredients from the Northwest to people all around the globe. What You Will Do: Benefit Systems & Support Maintains Benefit Inbox and vendor sites, acting as main contact for employee's benefit administration and support. Provides superb customer service, resolving benefit inquiries from employees, HR Business Partners and vendors in a timely manner. Monitors UKG File Transfers for completeness, addressing and resolving errors as needed or escalating and coordinating error resolution with UKG case management, as needed. Documenting details and providing case updates to team/vendors/manager. Gathers employee data, processes benefit invoices and performs monthly billing and enrollment audits. Helps to establish and deliver the annual benefits communication strategy, including maintaining and updating the Benefits SharePoint site, creating monthly content for all locations and communications avenues in partnership with Sr. Manager – Total Rewards. Supports the annual open enrollment process including preparing the open enrollment module in UKG, updating UKG benefit rate tables, coordinating updates to the benefit guidebook and open enrollment communication materials, coordinating open enrollment information sessions, tracking, implementing open enrollment changes, performing open enrollment audits and scrubbing data to prepare for the new year and partnering with benefits vendors, and HR Business Partners, as needed. Subject Matter Expert for Darigold benefits. Keeps abreast of federal, state and local laws affecting company benefit programs. Informs, updates and maintains programs for compliance. Ensures awareness of collective bargaining agreement provisions to aid with benefit related matters. Provides input to and develops content for employee benefits communications, including, a regular cadence of promotion and education materials that support building understanding and reinforcing the value of our benefits programs. Collaborates with Sr. Manager – Total Rewards on wellness programming and related events including benefit fairs, financial and wellness solutions, retirement education seminars and immunization clinics. Reporting & Compliance Facilitates annual 401k and financial audits by providing records and documentation to auditors. Responsible for completion of Darigold’s annual compliance filings including, but not limit to: ACA reporting, H&W 5500, RxDC, CMS, FSA Plan Non-Discrimination Testing and state and local required benefit-related reporting. Ensures accurate and timely processing of employee and employer 401k contributions (1st Reviewer and Submitter for Approval). Assists with 401(k) Plan administration by supporting plan non-discrimination testing, annual audit, financial statements, Form 5500 preparation and filing. Independently researches issues, gather data and advise on findings. Manages and maintains up to date procedural documentation for all job duties. Builds and maintains cross-functional relationships with stakeholders such as Benefits, Leave, HRBPs, Finance, Legal and Tax. Related work, as required. What You Will Bring: Bachelor’s degree in HR, Business or related field from an accredited college, or equivalent experience/combined education. 5+years in HR, Payroll, business systems administration or related experience required. Experience with UKG Pro, including HRIS administration, reporting and open enrollment configuration. Exceptional attention to detail and superior organizational skills. Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, including the ability to explain complex problems and maintain confidential HR work. Self-starter, able to work independently to resolve problems and implement new initiatives in support of team goals. Stays current on innovative practices and trends in HR, employee benefits and payroll. Strong analytical and problem-solving skills. Ability to effectively leverage HRIS Reporting, Excel & BI tools to manipulate large sets of data to identify trends, summarize data concisely and provide insights. Strong proficiency in MS Office, advanced Excel skills required including the ability to format data, utilizing formulas and pivot tables. Ability to leverage new technology to bring process efficiencies. Industry certifications such as CEBS, PHR/SPHR, SHRM-CP/SHRM-SCP or CBP/CCP coursework are a plus. Business Intelligence experience is highly desired. Benefits of Working at Darigold: We understand that as an employee, benefits that support you and your family in and out of work are important. We’re proud to offer eligible positions a competitive total rewards package that includes: 401k with competitive employer matching Comprehensive medical, dental & vision benefits Employer paid life & disability coverage Paid time off and paid holidays 8 weeks paid parental leave Education assistance Employee assistance program Flexible hybrid working arrangement where it applies (up to 1 day/week after initial 90 days and approval by hiring manager and HR) Compensation range: $87,561 - $131,341.59 (individual wage based on previous experience, knowledge and skills) Our Commitment to Diversity: Achieving our vision to Lead Dairy Forward requires cultivating and supporting a team with varying backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. We are committed to providing a workplace based on mutual respect where all employees feel included and can bring their best and authentic selves to work every day. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and Affirmative Action Employer. We welcome all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, national origin, sex, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, veteran status, disability, marital status, creed, religion, genetic information or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. As a condition of employment applicants offered a role will be required to successfully pass our pre-employment background screen, receive a negative drug screen result & confirm eligibility to work in the U.S. We participate in E-Verify - please follow the links for details, English / Spanish & view our Right to Work Statement, English / Spanish .