Director, Canada Strategy and Enablement

You are as unique as your background, experience and point of view. Here, you’ll be encouraged, empowered and challenged to be your best self. You'll work with dynamic colleagues - experts in their fields - who are eager to share their knowledge with you. Your leaders will inspire and help you reach your potential and soar to new heights. Every day, you'll have new and exciting opportunities to make life brighter for our Clients - who are at the heart of everything we do.

At Sun Life, we're driven by our Purpose: helping our Clients achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives. Our values shape how we work: caring, authentic, bold, inspiring, and impactful.

When you join Sun Life, you'll work with passionate colleagues and empowering leaders who support your growth and celebrate your contributions, so you can make a meaningful difference in our Clients' lives.

Discover how you can make a difference in the lives of individuals, families and communities around the world.

Job Description:

Sun Life Financial is a leading international financial services organization providing a diverse range of insurance, wealth and asset management solutions to individual and corporate Clients. The Canadian Business is Sun Life's largest with over $1B in earnings (~1/3 of all Sun Life Financial globally). We’re a market leader across life, health and wealth in Canadian Individual and Group insurance and wealth.

The Canada Strategy and Enablement Team has a mandate to work with senior executives across the business to develop, and support the enablement of strategies to address opportunities and issues facing the Canadian business. The team leads a portfolio of strategy and transformation projects in partnership with stakeholders from the business, including enabling execution of Sun Life Canada’s top strategic priorities and cross-business initiatives.

Reporting to the AVP, Canada Strategy and Enablement, the successful candidate will be responsible for:

• Independently conducting quantitative and qualitative research and analysis,
• Preparing and delivering recommendations on priority strategic questions for the Canadian Business,
• Developing and syndicating board and public-facing strategy documents,
• Engaging executive stakeholders, and
• Working collaboratively with strategy team members and partners across the Business.

This role requires a blend of traditional strategy skills, such as strong problem-solving and analytical skills, strategic thinking and insight generation, and relationship-building, and board-level strategy reporting management, such as senior stakeholder engagement, deep understanding of financials, effective and simple communication, and cross-functional syndication management. It offers a unique opportunity to gain exposure to Sun Life Canada's different lines of business and learn from a diverse team of experienced strategy professionals.

The ideal candidate brings a minimum of 4 years of relevant business experience in roles demonstrating strong analytical, problem-solving, and strategic thinking capabilities. This may include management consulting, corporate strategy, operations, business development, product management, or related disciplines. Experience in the insurance, health, wealth or financial services industry is a plus but not required.

Please note this is a hybrid role requiring regular presence at our Toronto One York or Montreal office.

What will you do:

• Strategic project execution – Supporting the delivery of strategic projects, including workstream management, problem definition and structuring, collaboration with cross-functional teams, providing updates, and timely execution of deliverables.
• Problem solving and analytics – Conducting financial and business analysis, including employing business strategy frameworks, interpreting analytical results, generating insights and recommendations.
• Manage and deliver board-level and public-facing strategy documents, such as quarterly board reports, annual report MD&A.
• Support of Sun Life Canada's key strategic priorities may involve facilitating a central accelerator for critical digital initiatives and contributing to the identification and implementation of business efficiencies, including transformation of operations through AI technologies.
• Communication – Preparation and delivery of both formal presentations and informal updates for senior management; presenting results, and engaging partners in discussion on executing next steps and implementing the recommendations, as appropriate.

What do you need to succeed:

• University degree in business administration, finance, economics, engineering or related discipline.
• Experience in management consulting, a corporate strategy function, a startup, as a Chief of Staff or an equivalent role, ideally with some exposure to the insurance, health or financial services industry.
• Experience in managing and collaborating directly with very senior stakeholder groups (i.e., C-Suite, Senior Vice President, etc.)
• Experience in digital strategy and transformation is an asset
• Strong conceptual problem-solving skills, with a demonstrated ability to structure business problems, formulate and test hypotheses, and develop recommendations.
• Strong analytical skills, including proficiency in financial modelling tools and techniques (especially Excel), ability to conduct both quantitative and qualitative analysis, and an aptitude for interpreting and synthesizing results.
• Experience in conducting in-depth secondary research; experience with primary research (e.g., expert interviews) would be an asset.
• Excellent oral and written communication and presentation skills, including the ability to prepare formal business reports and presentations (PowerPoint).
• Strong interpersonal and stakeholder management skills, including ability to build and maintain relationships with business partners.
• Strong project management skills and the ability to prioritize and organize work effectively to deliver on tight timelines, with high attention to detail.
• Strong (preferably expert) knowledge of Microsoft Office products (Excel, PowerPoint, Word).

As this position is posted in several locations, we specify that bilingualism (French, English, both oral and written) is required for Quebec only for the frequent interactions with English and French-speaking colleagues or internal partners across Canada or worldwide.

The Base Pay range is for the primary location for which the job is posted. It may vary depending on the work location of the successful candidate or other factors. In addition to Base Pay, eligible Sun Life employees participate in various incentive plans, payment under which is discretionary and subject to individual and company performance. Certain sales focused roles have sales incentive plans based on individual or group sales results.

Diversity and inclusion have always been at the core of our values at Sun Life. A diverse workforce with wide perspectives and creative ideas benefits our Clients, the communities where we operate and all of us as colleagues. We welcome applications from qualified individuals from all backgrounds.

Persons with disabilities who need accommodation in the application process, or those needing job postings in an alternative format, may e-mail a request to [email protected].

We are proud to be a hybrid organization that offers our employees the choice and flexibility to work from both the office and virtually based on the needs of the business, our Clients and you.

We may use artificial intelligence to support candidate sourcing, screening, interview scheduling.

We thank all applicants for showing an interest in this position. Only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

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