US Senior Manager, Benefits & LOA ADA Operations

About the role

As the US Senior Manager, Benefits & LOA/ADA Operations, you will lead the end-to-end administration of U.S. benefits, retirement and pension, leave of absence, and workplace accommodation programs supporting approximately 22,000 employees and their families. You will manage a team of five specialists and analysts, oversee critical retirement plan funding and vendor performance, and partner across Total Rewards, Payroll, HR technology, Employee Relations, Legal, and People Solutions. This role is focused on compliant, accurate, and employee-centered delivery, with a strong emphasis on process improvement, data quality, operational consistency, and an exceptional people experience.

How you will contribute

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of five Benefits and LOA/ADA specialists and analysts, building clear accountability, cross-training, and strong service delivery.
• Manage U.S. benefits operations end to end, including health and welfare, retirement, pension, leave of absence, and ADA accommodation programs.
• Oversee critical retirement plan funding, including approximately $12 million weekly for the 401(k) plan and approximately $130 million annually for the Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan.
• Oversee pension administration, including eligibility and participant data, benefit calculations, funding, reconciliations, audits, regulatory filings, vendor performance, and escalated participant issues.
• Lead daily LOA and ADA case operations, including intake, determinations, extensions, recertifications, return-to-work activities, case closure, ownership, handoffs, and escalation pathways.
• Partner with Total Rewards, Payroll, Employee Relations, Legal, People Experience Partners, Regional Leads, HCM, and DD&T to support compliant administration, accurate deductions and funding, reliable data interfaces, and timely case decisions.
• Manage vendor relationships and service performance through stewardship meetings, service-level expectations, metrics, issue resolution, and continuous improvement plans.
• Define and monitor operational dashboards and key performance indicators for case volume, aging, cycle time, quality, service levels, return-to-work outcomes, and escalation trends.
• Drive process standardization, automation, documentation, audits, system testing, data quality improvements, and a prioritized improvement roadmap across benefits, retirement, pension, LOA, and ADA operations.
• Ensure employees and managers receive clear, timely, and consistent support and communications throughout benefits, leave, accommodation, and return-to-work processes.

What you bring to Takeda

• College degree and 8-10 years of U.S. benefits experience, including retirement, pension, leave of absence, and ADA programs; a high school diploma is required.
• Experience leading benefits operations for a large employer in a complex, matrixed environment, with strong people-management, coaching, and team-development capability.
• Strong knowledge of employee benefit plan administration and applicable requirements, including ERISA, COBRA, HIPAA, FMLA, and ADA.
• Experience with retirement and pension plan administration, funding, reconciliations, audits, regulatory requirements, and vendor oversight.
• Strong analytical and process-improvement skills, including experience working with large data sets and intermediate Excel capability such as pivot tables and VLOOKUP.
• Experience with HR, payroll, and case-management technology such as Workday or Oracle Cloud, ADP Vantage or a comparable payroll solution, and ServiceNow or a comparable case-management platform.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, organization, time management, customer service, cross-functional collaboration, and project-management skills.