Director Strategy & Operations Jobs in Kitchener, ON

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 Canada is accelerating a bold transformation to deliver on our purpose: to help Clients achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives.

Canadian Operations is at the heart of that ambition-bringing together over 5,000 team members across Canada and SL Global Solutions in Asia to deliver critical onboarding, processing, and service experiences. We enable more than 130 million interactions annually, shaping how Clients, plan sponsors, and advisors experience Sun Life every day.

As we elevate our transformation agenda, we are seeking a visionary leader to redefine how change is delivered at scale.

The Opportunity

Reporting to the AVP, Transformation & Key Initiatives, the Director, Change Management will build and lead a world-class, enterprise change capability-shifting from fragmented, project-based execution to a strategic, integrated discipline that accelerates transformation outcomes across Canadian Operations.

This is not a traditional change role. You will architect and embed a leading-edge change management function, influence senior leadership, and drive enterprise-wide adoption across a complex transformation portfolio.

What will you do?

Establish a Best-in-Class Change Capability

• Define and stand up a centralized Change Management function, including operating model, governance, frameworks, and standards that scale across Canadian Operations

• Position Change Management as a strategic enabler of transformation outcomes, embedded from strategy through execution

• Build an integrated, enterprise approach that ensures consistency, speed, and measurable impact

Lead Change Across Enterprise Transformation

• Drive change across a highly complex, multi-year portfolio spanning technology, process, and business transformation

• Orchestrate enterprise-wide alignment, prioritization, and management of cross-functional impacts and dependencies

• Ensure change strategies are data-driven, outcomes-focused, and tightly linked to business value realization

Drive Adoption, Outcomes, and Accountability

• Embed rigorous practices to measure readiness, adoption, and sustained behavioral change

• Define and operationalize clear success metrics tied to business outcomes (e.g., productivity, experience, risk reduction)

• Hold leaders accountable for visible sponsorship, engagement, and results

Influence at the Executive Level

• Act as a trusted advisor to senior leaders and executives, shaping how change is sponsored, communicated, and sustained

• Elevate leadership capability in change to create a culture that embraces and accelerates transformation

Build and Scale a High-Performing Team

• Develop, and lead a team of top-tier change practitioners operating in a consulting model

• Foster a culture of innovation, continuous improvement, and external best-practice adoption

• Establish repeatable, scalable tools and methodologies that position Sun Life at the forefront of change excellence

Embed Change into the Fabric of Delivery

• Integrate change management into strategy development, portfolio governance, and delivery lifecycles

• Ensure early engagement and seamless alignment across strategy, product, technology, and operations

What do you need to succeed?

• 10+ years of progressive experience in enterprise change management, transformation, or organizational effectiveness

• Proven track record leading large-scale, enterprise-level change within complex, matrixed environments

• Demonstrated success building or transforming a change management function or capability

• Deep expertise in change strategy, operating model design, and governance at scale

• Exceptional ability to influence and partner with senior executives to drive accountability and results

• Strong commercial acumen with a focus on outcomes, value realization, and measurable impact

• Experience leading and scaling high-performing, consulting-oriented teams

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Communications, or related field; Prosci, ACMP, or equivalent certification preferred

• 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.

Why this role?

This is a rare opportunity to shape the future of change at scale-to build something enduring, elevate how transformation is delivered, and leave a lasting impact across Canadian Operations.

If you are a builder, influencer, and enterprise change leader who thrives in complexity and is driven to create meaningful, measurable impact-we want to hear from you.

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 thebrightside@sunlife.com.

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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