AVP, Program Management and Transformation

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:

Reporting to the Vice-President, HR Business Partner, Digital, Client Experience and Operations Transformation, the AVP, Program Management & Transformation is a senior leadership role responsible for translating the people and workplace transformation agenda into coordinated, measurable execution across a complex portfolio of business, technology and operations teams.

The role is the central orchestration point for priority people and workplace transformations. It establishes the plans, governance, management routines and cross-functional accountability required to move work from strategy to sustained delivery, while connecting workforce planning, organizational effectiveness, employee experience, data, talent and change.

This is a high-impact role for a pragmatic executive leader who combines transformation expertise, disciplined program management, organizational judgment and strong influence without authority.

Please note this role requires regular presence at our Toronto One York office

What will you do:

Transformation Program Leadership & Enterprise Delivery

- Lead integrated execution across the portfolio's highest-priority workplace transformation programs, translating strategy into actionable plans with clear outcomes, ownership, milestones and value measures.

- Act as the drumbeat behind delivery, maintaining momentum week over week and proactively identifying risks, dependencies, resource constraints and decisions before they become barriers.

- Coordinate senior leaders, HRBPs, Centres of Expertise, Finance, Talent Acquisition, Data and Analytics, Technology and business workstream owners to align priorities and resolve blockers without direct authority.

- Establish fit-for-purpose governance, decision forums, risk registers, integrated roadmaps and escalation paths that accelerate execution while preserving appropriate people and risk considerations.

- Monitor progress against strategic commitments and provide executive-level recommendations on priorities, trade-offs and interventions required.

OKR Governance, Performance & Measurement

- Design and lead a connected OKR governance approach spanning Canadian business units, functions and HR, with clear standards, cadences, ownership and escalation mechanisms.

- Connect OKRs to the enterprise metrics agenda and performance culture, building the capability and tools leaders need to set high-quality objectives and use data to improve performance.

- Define value measures across workstreams, integrating workforce, organizational health, employee experience and business indicators into a trusted view of delivery.

- Develop executive dashboards, portfolio reviews and management routines that create transparency, surface root causes and drive timely corrective action.

Workforce Strategy & People Process Alignment

- Lead cross-business workforce planning grounded in labour supply and demand, capability gaps and build-versus-buy choices, with short-, medium- and long-term talent requirements.

- Partner with HRBPs, Talent Acquisition and Finance to assess hiring pipeline health, fill-rate risks and talent investment effectiveness, and sponsor targeted improvement initiatives.

- Align role, level, compensation and talent evaluation approaches to external technology and AI markets while maintaining enterprise consistency.

- Integrate workforce transition and capability-building plans into transformation roadmaps, connecting the work to enterprise Talent mechanisms.

Employee Experience, Change & Ways of Working

- Embed employee experience and data and analytics into program design, using evidence to understand workforce needs, anticipate friction and improve adoption and outcomes.

- Lead the change approach for complex transformations, including stakeholder segmentation, communications, readiness, transition support and sustained adoption.

- Assess the cumulative impact of change on leaders, teams and HR, and sequence work to protect delivery capacity, employee trust and business continuity.

- Advance new ways of working across the Canadian organization, simplifying how work moves across organizational boundaries and strengthening accountability, pace and collaboration.

Executive Partnership & Organizational Enablement

- Serve as a trusted advisor to the VP HRBP and senior business and HR leaders, bringing structured problem solving, sound judgment and a clear enterprise perspective to ambiguous issues.

- Define effective connection points with Strategy and Enablement, Employee Experience, Data and Analytics, Talent and other HR capabilities so accountability is clear and work is integrated end to end.

- Prepare concise, decision-oriented materials for the VP HRBP, CHRO, senior leadership and governance forums, translating complex work into clear implications and recommendations.

- Facilitate cross-functional working sessions that align leaders, accelerate decisions and convert insight into action.

- Lead and develop a high-performing team and project community while promoting collaboration, inclusion and continuous improvement.

What do you need to succeed

- 10+ years of progressive experience in transformation, enterprise program leadership, strategy execution, organizational effectiveness, consulting, HR transformation or a related field.

- Demonstrated success leading complex, cross-functional transformation programs in a large, matrixed organization, with measurable results and sustained adoption.

- Strong program and portfolio management capability, including integrated planning, governance, dependency and risk management, value realization and executive reporting.

- Experience shaping workforce strategy, organizational change and people transformation across business, technology and operations environments.

- Proven ability to influence VP- and SVP-level stakeholders, navigate competing priorities and drive accountability without direct authority.

- Experience with OKRs, performance measurement, employee experience and data-informed decision-making, combined with an understanding of AI-enabled transformation.

- Post-secondary education in a related discipline or equivalent experience.

Leadership Profile

The successful candidate will be:

- A pragmatic transformation leader who turns strategy into action, pace and measurable outcomes.
- A systems thinker who can connect strategy, workforce, performance, employee experience, data and change.
- A disciplined operator who creates clarity, anticipates dependencies and follows through on commitments.
- A trusted advisor with the judgment and executive presence to influence senior leaders and resolve difficult trade-offs.
- A data-driven decision-maker who uses evidence to diagnose issues, measure progress and recommend interventions.
- An exceptional communicator who simplifies complexity and creates clear, decision-oriented narratives.
- A collaborative people leader who develops talent and models accountability, inclusion and continuous improvement.

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.

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.

Salary Range:
140,000/140 000 - 225,000/225 000

Job Category:
Human Resources

Posting End Date:
05/10/2026