Senior Manager, Workforce Financial Optimization & Strategic Insights

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BMO is hiring a Senior Manager, Workforce Planning & Strategic Insights to lead a high-impact workforce team focused on helping senior leaders make better decisions about how work is organized, prioritized, resourced, and executed. This is a meaningful growth opportunity for a leader who wants to shape the future of workforce planning by turning data into actionable insights, driving adoption of workforce tools and reporting, and helping leaders identify opportunities to improve efficiency, capacity, and execution across the organization.

The successful candidate will play a key role in advancing the team’s change agenda — moving beyond traditional reporting to build stronger workforce insights, improve decision-making discipline, and support leaders in using workforce data to drive measurable business outcomes. This role is ideal for someone who is highly analytical, comfortable operating in ambiguity, and energized by influencing change across teams, functions, and senior stakeholder groups.

The Senior Manager will lead the development, adoption, and continuous improvement of workforce planning, workforce analytics, and strategic insights capabilities. They will partner closely with business, finance, technology, and operations leaders to identify workforce trends, assess capacity and demand, surface efficiency opportunities, and support strategic decisions related to resource allocation, productivity, and organizational effectiveness.

This role requires a strong mix of strategic thinking, people leadership, analytical capability, stakeholder influence, and change leadership. The candidate will be expected to translate complex workforce data into clear insights and recommendations, build trusted relationships with senior leaders, and help embed new ways of working across the team and broader stakeholder community.

• Lead the development of workforce planning insights that help leaders better understand capacity, demand, productivity, role mix, cost drivers, and opportunities to improve execution.
• Act as a trusted advisor to senior leaders by translating workforce data into clear recommendations that support business planning, resource allocation, and efficiency objectives.
• Identify emerging workforce trends, risks, and opportunities, and provide forward-looking insights to support strategic decision-making.
• Partner with leaders to define and monitor workforce-related key performance indicators, ensuring metrics are meaningful, actionable, and aligned to business priorities.
• Support strategic workforce planning activities, including analysis of current workforce composition, future demand, capability needs, and opportunities for optimization.
• Help leaders use workforce insights to make better decisions about how work is delivered, where capacity is required, and where efficiencies can be created.

• Drive adoption of workforce tools, reporting, dashboards, and insights across stakeholder groups.
• Lead change efforts that shift the team from producing reports to delivering actionable insights and advisory support.
• Develop clear narratives, executive materials, and recommendations that help stakeholders understand workforce opportunities and take action.
• Partner with business leaders to embed workforce data into regular management routines, planning discussions, and performance reviews.
• Champion continuous improvement in how workforce information is captured, analyzed, governed, and used for decision-making.
• Influence stakeholders across functions to adopt consistent workforce practices, definitions, and performance measures.

• Lead, coach, and develop a team responsible for workforce reporting, analytics, planning, and insights.
• Build a high-performing team culture focused on accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement, and business impact.
• Support the career development of team members by strengthening analytical, advisory, storytelling, and stakeholder management capabilities.
• Prioritize team capacity against the highest-value activities and ensure resources are aligned to strategic business needs.
• Foster an inclusive environment where team members are empowered to challenge the status quo, bring forward ideas, and contribute to the broader change agenda.

• Oversee the design, production, and enhancement of workforce reports, dashboards, and executive-level insights.
• Integrate workforce, financial, operational, and organizational data to create a more complete view of performance and opportunity areas.
• Improve reporting processes to reduce manual effort, increase consistency, and enhance the quality and timeliness of insights.
• Define business requirements for workforce reporting and analytics solutions, ensuring outputs are practical, scalable, and aligned to stakeholder needs.
• Monitor workforce performance indicators and proactively identify issues, trends, and areas requiring leadership attention.
• Support ad hoc analysis, business cases, and strategic initiatives where workforce data and insights are required.

• Ensure workforce reporting and analysis is produced with appropriate controls, consistency, and attention to data quality.
• Support the development of methodologies, definitions, and governance practices that improve confidence in workforce insights.
• Apply sound judgment and risk-informed decision-making in line with BMO’s Risk Management Framework, Risk Culture, and approved Risk Appetite.
• Ensure recommendations and insights are balanced, practical, and aligned to business strategy, enterprise priorities, and applicable policies.

• Typically 7+ years of relevant experience and a post-secondary degree in business, finance, analytics, workforce planning, human resources, technology management, operations, or a related field; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Experience leading workforce planning, business performance, financial planning, transformation, analytics, or strategic advisory work.
• Strong people leadership experience, including coaching, developing talent, setting direction, and building team capability.
• Demonstrated ability to turn complex data into clear insights, recommendations, and executive-ready narratives.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to structure ambiguous problems and identify practical solutions.
• Experience working with senior leaders and influencing stakeholders across functions.
• Strong communication and storytelling skills, including the ability to simplify complex information for executive audiences.
• Proven ability to drive adoption, lead change, and improve business processes or management routines.
• Strong collaboration skills, with the ability to work across business, finance, technology, operations, and corporate functions.
• Comfort working in a fast-paced environment with competing priorities and evolving requirements.
• Experience with workforce analytics, financial analysis, resource planning, productivity analysis, dashboards, or performance management is an asset.
• Advanced skills in Excel, PowerPoint, data visualization, and workforce or financial reporting tools are considered an asset.

The ideal candidate is a strategic, data-driven leader who can operate at both the executive advisory level and the operational execution level. They are comfortable leading a team, building trusted relationships, challenging existing ways of working, and helping stakeholders make better decisions using workforce insights.

They will bring curiosity, structure, and influence — with the ability to connect data, people, process, and business priorities into a clear workforce planning and strategic insights agenda. They should be energized by transformation and motivated by the opportunity to build a capability that helps leaders improve efficiency, strengthen execution, and make more informed decisions.

This role offers the opportunity to shape an evolving workforce planning and strategic insights capability at BMO and play a meaningful role in how leaders use data to manage capacity, prioritize work, and drive efficiencies. The successful candidate will have visibility to senior stakeholders, the opportunity to lead a high-impact team, and the ability to influence how workforce insights are used to support business decisions.

This is a role with growth opportunity for someone who wants to expand their leadership impact, build enterprise-relevant capabilities, and help drive a significant change agenda within the team.

The above represents BMO Financial Group’s pay range and type.

Salaries will vary based on factors such as location, skills, experience, education, and qualifications for the role, and may include a commission structure. Salaries for part-time roles will be pro-rated based on number of hours regularly worked. For commission roles, the salary listed above represents BMO Financial Group’s expected target for the first year in this position.

BMO Financial Group’s total compensation package will vary based on the pay type of the position and may include performance-based incentives, discretionary bonuses, as well as other perks and rewards. BMO also offers health insurance, tuition reimbursement, accident and life insurance, and retirement savings plans. To view more details of our benefits, please visit: https://jobs.bmo.com/global/en/Total-Rewards

About Us

At BMO we are driven by a shared Purpose: Boldly Grow the Good in business and life. It calls on us to create lasting, positive change for our customers, our communities and our people. By working together, innovating and pushing boundaries, we transform lives and businesses, and power economic growth around the world.

As a member of the BMO team you are valued, respected and heard, and you have more ways to grow and make an impact. We strive to help you make an impact from day one – for yourself and our customers. We’ll support you with the tools and resources you need to reach new milestones, as you help our customers reach theirs. From in-depth training and coaching, to manager support and network-building opportunities, we’ll help you gain valuable experience, and broaden your skillset.

To find out more visit us at https://jobs.bmo.com/ca/en.

BMO is committed to an inclusive, equitable and accessible workplace. By learning from each other’s differences, we gain strength through our people and our perspectives. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process. To request accommodation, please contact your recruiter.

Note to Recruiters: BMO does not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than directly from a candidate. Any unsolicited resumes sent to BMO, directly or indirectly, will be considered BMO property. BMO will not pay a fee for any placement resulting from the receipt of an unsolicited resume. A recruiting agency must first have a valid, written and fully executed agency agreement contract for service to submit resumes.