Qantas Superannuation Plan is searching for a senior addition to its internal investment team, which will free up chief investment officer Andrew Spence to spend more time on overall investment strategy.

The manager of investment operations will liaise with Qantas Super’s custodian, asset consultant and funds managers to to ensure smooth "day to day" running of the scheme, said CEO Janet Torney, allowing Spence to devote more time to pure investment matters.

It is a crucial time for the investment teams at all defined benefit funds, given the pressure the market downturn has placed on their ability to meet what are usually generous pension obligations to members.

Unlike Telstra, however, Qantas is yet to break its lengthy contributions holiday to the super scheme of which 13,000 past and present employees are members.

Meanwhile, Torney said Qantas Super was yet to find a buyer for its 50 per cent stake in Australian equity manager Constellation Capital, a process which PricewaterhouseCoopers is assisting.

Torney said the sale was "not time dependent" and would be conducted in a manner "that seeks to do the best by us and the best by Constellation".