SVP, Defined Benefit Solutions

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:

Sun Life’s Defined Benefit Solutions (DBS) business provides a wide range of de-risking solutions to Defined Benefit (DB) pension plans, including annuity buy-outs, annuity buy-ins and longevity insurance.  

The DBS team understands every aspect of DB pension plan risk management, bringing a wide range of expertise from pension consulting and plan sponsorship. Their deep pension knowledge allows them to translate the needs of DB plans and plan sponsors into effective de-risking solutions.

The SVP & Head, DBS leads Sun Life’s Defined Benefit Solutions team, which helps some of Canada’s largest employers manage the risks in their DB pension plans with innovative, customized solutions that address the specific challenges of each plan sponsor.

The role is responsible to lead all aspects of the business including strategic planning, people leadership, client-facing functions of prospecting, business development, marketing, client relationship management, and for the pricing of DBS’ risk transfer products (within agreed risk/financial parameters) and ensuring that Sun Life’s pricing framework continues to define best practice.  The role will deliver sales, value of new business (VNB) and net income targets for the DBS business, including defining and delivering in-force optimization initiatives, and continually innovating Sun Life’s solutions to ensure that they meet clients’ needs.

The role will work closely with Sun Life Asset Management leadership including the Sun Life CIO and Heads of affiliated asset management businesses to optimize enterprise revenue and profitability. This includes the sourcing and deployment of strategic assets to help drive growth for both DBS and our global asset management businesses.

Along with the DBS team, the role will be responsible for the following.

Strategic Planning:

• Oversee the strategic direction for DBS to ensure that Sun Life remains the leading provider of Canadian de-risking solutions.
• Collaborate with global colleagues, particularly in the United States, to understand how Sun Life can best deploy its pension risk transfer (PRT) expertise into other markets, whether that is through direct market entry, partnerships or acquisition. Insofar as such opportunities present themselves, the SVP & Head, DBS will personally lead and drive execution.
• Be intimately familiar with the evolving global de-risking landscape, including new innovative strategies, use of financial instruments and creative reinsurance contracts.
• Advocate and liaise with pension and insurance regulators, as required.

People Leadership

• Lead an engaged, high-performing team with clear and ambitious goals that innovates to drive market leadership and deliver impactful results.
• Source, coach, and develop great talent with the skills and capabilities needed now and for the future.
• Inspire and empower teams by connecting their work to Sun Life’s Purpose – helping our clients achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives – and model and create an environment that demonstrates our values, being caring, authentic, bold, inspiring, and impactful.

Business Development:

• Achieve DBS’ ambitious annual sales and profitability targets.
• Personally lead on strategic accounts.
• Negotiate with plan sponsors and consultants on contract terms and pricing.
• Support the Marketing team activities and act as DBS’ main spokesperson.
• Work closely with senior colleagues across Sun Life to create and cultivate new DBS relationships.

Client Relationship Management:

• Support the DBS servicing team on strategic accounts, enabling an exceptional experience for both plan sponsors and plan members.
• Enable continuous collaboration with operations group in their delivery of servicing activities for PRT clients, including involvement with issues resolution and continuous improvements to unlock additional value from those teams.

Strategic Initiatives:

• Ensure that profitability is optimized for DBS’ inforce assets and liabilities.
• Support the Strategic Initiatives team in their effort to maintain a global innovation watch and develop new innovative solutions for the Canadian PRT business.

Longevity:

• Enable the Longevity team to stay abreast of current longevity research, shape Sun Life’s expectations of future longevity and translate these expectations into appropriate longevity assumptions.
• Oversee efforts to refine our longevity underwriting methodology using predictive analytics.

Pricing:

• Review/approve the pricing process for risk transfer solutions, such as annuity buy-outs, annuity buy-ins and longevity insurance.
• Oversee the continued appropriateness of pricing assumptions, such as those for investment return, longevity and policyholder behaviour.

Qualifications:

• We are seeking a strategic, innovative business leader who will create distance between Sun Life and our competitors in Canada and will also lead the potential expansion in other geographies, specifically the United States.
• Intimate knowledge on how to optimize the insurance/asset management flywheel driving value across all aspects of our global business.
• Relevant experience includes buy-out annuities, buy-in annuities, longevity insurance and de-risking DB pension plans.
• 15 or more years of working with DB pension plans.
• 10 or more years of team leadership experience
• Demonstrated experience of leading large teams.
• Very strong technical, analytical and problem-solving skills that allow for deep analysis.
• A deep understanding of investment and insurance risk and how to operate within a tightly regulated global insurance business.
• Excellent emotional intelligence in order to nurture and grow relationships with various stakeholders and coordinate large cross-functional teams.
• Exceptional communication skills (written, verbal, and presentation), with the ability to explain complex ideas to non-actuaries.
• FCIA or FSA designation preferred.

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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