Director, Technology Lead

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

Job Description:

The Director, Technology Lead is a portfolio level technology leader responsible for enabling high quality delivery, engineering excellence, and operational reliability within a defined product or capability area.

Reporting to the AVP, Digital Journeys & Experiences, this role focuses on helping to shape and translate strategic technology and business direction into executable plans with a 1–2 year horizon.

The Director plays a hands-on leadership role across delivery teams, working closely with Architecture, Engineering, Operations, and Business partners to ensure consistent execution, stable platforms, and strong alignment to standards. They foster a high performing, collaborative engineering culture and ensure technology investments generate clear and measurable value.

The Director also leads domains specific delivery on Sun Life’s client-facing, secure website, execution stewardship, and day to day portfolio performance.

Key Responsibilities

1. Technology Strategy Execution

• Translate and help shape enterprise and technology strategy into actionable plans for the assigned portfolio.
• Partner with Business Leads, Architecture, Engineering and Enterprise IT to develop domain level roadmaps and support OKR achievement.
• Promote adoption of engineering best practices, contributing to decisions on build vs. buy vs. borrow within defined boundaries.
• Ensure solutions support reusability, scalability, security, and maintainability, escalating major architectural trade-offs.
• Identify and manage technical debt within the portfolio and support planning for higher quality digital experiences.

2. Product Delivery & Execution

• Lead end to end delivery for the portfolio, ensuring velocity, quality, reliability, and alignment with enterprise standards and controls.
• Oversee delivery team performance and vendor execution at the portfolio level.
• Track delivery metrics, identify bottlenecks, and implement productivity improvements.
• Serve as the first line of escalation for delivery issues.
• Coach teams for continuous improvement and Agile maturity. 

3. People Leadership & Talent Development

• Lead and mentor managers, team leads, and senior engineers, fostering a culture of collaboration, inclusivity, and continuous improvement.
• Partner with Chapter Leaders and Business Leads to support staffing decisions, workforce planning, and role design within the portfolio.
• Coach teams on engineering discipline, agile practices, and high-quality delivery execution.

4. Financial & Vendor Management

• Support portfolio level budget planning, cost tracking, and capitalization, operating within the financial guardrails set by the AVP.
• Manage day-to-day vendor selection and relationships, delivery oversight, and performance management. This also includes contract negotiations, drafting SLAs, pricing and invoice payments.
• Identify opportunities to optimize all technology spend including vendors and reinvest in productivity or modernization initiatives.

5. Operational Excellence & Risk Management

• Ensure operational stability, currency, and security for systems and applications within the portfolio.
• Support governance processes that help ensure delivery discipline, compliance, and risk mitigation.
• Partner with Application Operations to ensure effective incident management, change management, and disaster recovery preparedness.

6. Cross Functional Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement

• Build strong relationships with Product, Operations, Client Experience, Architecture, and Business partners.
• Communicate delivery status, risks, and dependencies across the portfolio, enabling transparency and alignment.
• Represent the portfolio in cross functional forums, sharing insights and reinforcing technology best practices.

Accountabilities

• Execute technology strategy within the defined portfolio to achieve shared outcomes.
• Maintain and deliver portfolio roadmaps, domain OKRs, and initiative sequencing.
• Drive day-to-day technology execution, ensuring on time, high-quality delivery.
• Monitor delivery metrics and implement team level productivity improvements.
• Manage portfolio level budgets and vendor performance.
• Build and sustain a high performing, engaged, inclusive team environment.

Typical Outputs

• Portfolio level technology roadmap and OKR contribution.
• Updated business cases, value realization inputs, and initiative plans.
• Delivery dashboards and productivity improvement actions.
• Technology currency and operational stability plans for the portfolio.
• Vendor performance summaries and cost management insights.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (advanced degrees an asset).
• 10+ years of experience in technology leadership roles within delivery or engineering.
• Demonstrated success delivering complex systems in a fast paced, continuous delivery environment.
• Experience leading technical teams and developing engineering talent.
• Strong understanding of delivery governance, agile practices, and operational excellence.
• Financial services or digital product experience preferred.

Mindset & Behaviors

• Collaborative and transparent; values trust, openness, and continuous learning.
• Strong coaching mindset with the ability to develop teams and individuals.
• Bias toward action, problem-solving, and experimentation.
• Committed to engineering excellence and challenging the status quo constructively.
• Pragmatic decision‑maker who balances speed with technical soundness.

What’s in it for you?

• Great Place to Work® Certified for Most Trusted Executive Team in Canada – 2025, 2024 and 2023
• Great Place to Work® Certified for Best Workplaces in Canada - 2025
• Canada Order of Excellence for Mental Health at Work® certification from Excellence Canada. Sun Life is one of only four companies in Canada to ever receive this certification – 2024
• Top Work Places® for Remote Work – Monster Canada - 2024
• Great Place to Work® Certified for Best Workplaces in Canada – 2024 and 2022
• Great Place to Work® Certified for Best Workplaces for Women in Canada - 2024
• Flexible hybrid work model. #LI-Hybrid
• Pension, stock and savings programs to help build and enhance your future financial security
• Work and professional development that is united by our Purpose: to help Clients and Employees achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives
• A friendly, collaborative and inclusive culture
• Be part of our continuous improvement journey in developing the next greatest digital enterprise experience.
• Competitive salary and bonus structure influenced by market range data
• The opportunity to move along a variety of career paths with amazing networking potential

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! Several work options are available and can be discussed throughout the selection process depending on the role requirements and individual needs.

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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