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

Job Description:

The Corporate Strategy & Enablement Team supports Sun Life in achieving and maintaining a position of sustainable strategic advantage and growth in the long term. It has a broad focus of strategy topics that span all businesses, functions, and geographic markets where Sun Life operates. The team provides support on high priority strategic issues and projects for Sun Life's Executive team, Corporate Functions, and Business Groups (BG), and is responsible for actively monitoring and analyzing external trends shaping the markets in which Sun Life operates.

What will you do:

The Corporate Strategy & Enablement team works in a dynamic, collaborative, and collegial team-based environment. Team members are provided with stretch opportunities to work on many of Sun Life's most interesting and challenging problems, exposure to senior executives, and the opportunity to diversify knowledge of Sun Life's businesses and markets. Specifically, the team has four main responsibilities:

• Shape and support strategy design and advancement of strategy execution

• Run the annual strategic planning process

• Support facilitation and planning of Board and Executive Team strategy discussions

• Monitor external trends and draw linkages to Sun Life's businesses

The Director, Corporate Strategy & Enablement reports to the AVP, Corporate Strategy & Enablement. The Director works effectively with teams across Sun Life to deliver strategy and enablement projects, supports the annual strategic planning cycle, and proactively monitors and analyzes trends. The successful candidate will work in a team-based collaborative environment where roles can vary from project to project, engage regularly with senior leaders across Sun Life, effectively manage strategy projects and processes, and structure and lead quantitative and qualitative analysis to solve critical strategic questions.

Responsibilities:

Strategy design and development

• Translate ambiguous strategic issues into clearly defined problem statements

• Decompose problem statements into a set of hypotheses and validating these by performing both quantitative (e.g., financial analysis, market sizing, analytics) and qualitative analyses (e.g., competitor benchmarking and case studies, sourcing and synthesizing expert perspectives)

• Bring new perspectives, strategic framework, and practical approaches to problems and issues

• Develop and execute analysis plan, including identifying and gathering relevant data and information from both internal (e.g. Finance, Business Units) and external sources (e.g. industry research reports, news articles, competitor data) for analyses

• Synthesize qualitative and quantitative analytical results to guide recommendations and inform strategic decision making

• Communicate findings and recommendations succinctly in a logical and coherent storyline that facilitates productive discussion and decision making among senior executives

Strategy and enablement project delivery

• Define scope, design approach, and develop and monitor plan for strategy and enablement projects

• Execute project plan and lead work streams, adapting and reprioritizing as necessary to meet project objectives while ensuring timely delivery and achievable scope

• Manage coordination of project delivery across team members (from Corporate Strategy team and from BGs/Functions)

• Prepare and present both formal and informal updates on analysis/recommendations for senior management

• Present results and facilitate discussions on findings and next steps, including implementing recommendations as appropriate

Annual strategic planning

• Manage the planning process and provide support/coordination to Business Groups and Corporate Functions (e.g. Finance, IT, HR) to develop and deliver their strategic plans

• Provide perspectives, strategic frameworks, and analysis support to help BGs and functions advance thinking on focus topics

• Contribute to development of the Enterprise Strategic Plan by owning analyses, communications, and content development of specific components

• Ensure enterprise alignment of strategic plans across BGs by drawing linkages across common themes

Competitive and market awareness and intelligence

• Actively build and maintain awareness of market trends and developments through various sources (e.g., secondary research, competitor actions, industry developments)

• Curate external market information, translate into relevant insights and surface patterns/themes that are relevant for Sun Life

• Identify implications for Sun Life and proactively communicate/share with appropriate stakeholders

Communication and relationship management

• Effectively communicate insights, ideas, and strategies to an executive level audience in a clear, compelling, and concise manner

• Tailor written and verbal communication based on audience and situation to facilitate productive discussions, foster buy-in, and establish productive working relationships

• Proactively maintain relationships with stakeholders in BGs and Corporate Functions, to maintain an understanding of new developments in their areas and identify needs for strategy support

• Contribute towards practice development including the learning and development and coaching of team members

What do you need to succeed:

• Minimum 8 years' experience in financial services, consulting, or other Fortune 500

• 2+ years of in-house or external consulting or strategy experience
  University degree in business or related discipline; MBA or other relevant advanced degree is an asset CFA, CPA, Actuarial designation is an asset

• Deep understanding of at least one of Sun Life's business areas (i.e., asset management, individual life insurance, group benefits, group retirement solutions, wealth management, asset management) and geographic markets (i.e., Canada, US, Asia)

• Resourceful and rapid learner, able to work across many topics and domains

• Excellent oral and written communication and presentation skills

• Strong interpersonal skills; able to effectively collaborate with multiple stakeholders across multiple teams

• Strong creative and analytical problem solver, with a solid background working with data, conducting quantitative and qualitative analysis, interpreting results, and writing reports/presentations

• Demonstrated ability and history of managing / delivering complex programs with executives across the organization

• Able to work independently on assignments with appropriate judgment

• Able to manage junior team members on projects, providing guidance on analysis and coaching on deliverables

• Experience analyzing and solving complex business problems; management consulting experience is an asset

• Experience in conducting in-depth primary and secondary research, including collection and synthesis

• Experience in financial analytics, including using modelling tools and techniques, is an asset

What's in it for you:

• Flexible hybrid work model

• 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

• A common sense dress code, where you decide how you dress based on your day

• 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 thebrightside@sunlife.com.

At Sun Life we strive to create a flexible work environment where our employees are empowered to do their best work. Several flexible work options are available and can be discussed throughout the selection process depending on the role requirements and individual needs.

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

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