Senior HR Generalist - Benefits & Operations

ABOUT UE: United Educators (UE) is a liability insurance company that serves K-12 schools, colleges , and universities across the United States . UE focuses on long-term partnerships that help educational institutions identify , avoid, and manage risks . Guided by our mission to support education, we provide customized coverage, relevant risk management resources, and claims support grounded in education-sector expertise . At UE, you will join a collaborative, mission-driven team committed to delivering flexible insurance solutions, responsive service , and meaningful value to the institutions we serve. The Senior HR Generalist – Benefits & Operations is a senior individual contributor who provides broad People & Culture (P&C) support across the organization, with particular expertise and ownership in employee benefits and wellbeing programs. This role serves as the primary internal resource for employee benefits, including health and welfare plans, retirement programs, leave administration, wellness initiatives, benefits compliance, and vendor relationships. The Senior Generalist partners closely with employees, leaders, and internal and external partners to ensure programs and processes are administered effectively and provide a positive employee experience. As a senior member of the People & Culture team, this position also provides support across a range of P&C areas, including employee relations, performance management, compensation, compliance, policy administration, P&C operations, and other department and organizational initiatives. The role requires sound judgment, discretion, strong problem-solving skills, and the ability to independently manage responsibilities while collaborating across the organization. RESPONSIBILTIES: Benefits & Wellbeing • Administer UE’s employee benefits programs, including medical, dental, vision, life, AD&D, disability, flexible spending accounts, retirement plans, paid time off, and other voluntary benefits. • Serve as the primary employee point of contact for benefits questions, providing timely and accurate guidance and resolving complex benefit issues. • Lead the annual open enrollment process, including planning, system coordination, employee communications, education, enrollment, and implementation of plan changes. • Manage employee benefit enrollments, qualifying life events, terminations, and other benefit changes and coordinate accurate information and file feeds with carriers and vendors. • Coordinate leave administration and the interaction among employee leave, benefits, disability programs, and payroll. • Support administration of UE’s retirement plan, including contributions, employee inquiries, compliance activities, testing, audits, and coordination with external providers. • Partner with P&C leadership, brokers, consultants, and vendors on annual benefit renewals, plan design, cost analysis, utilization trends, and recommendations. • Support compliance with applicable benefits requirements, including ACA, COBRA, HIPAA, ERISA, and other federal and state requirements. • Coordinate wellness initiatives and programs that support employee wellbeing. • Develop employee communications and educational materials that help employees understand and effectively use UE’s benefit programs. Payroll Coordination & Support • Ensure new hires, terminations, salary changes, bonuses, benefit deductions, and other employee changes affecting payroll are communicated accurately and timely. • Reconcile benefit elections and deductions against payroll and carrier information and resolve discrepancies. • Support year-end compensation and payroll-related activities in partnership with P&C and Finance/Accounting. • Support payroll and benefits audits and provide documentation and rep