Program Manager

Permanent Full Time 

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Given the size and scope of our organization, we have the flexibility for this position to be located in the following head office locations: London, Toronto, Winnipeg.

Reporting to the Director, Programs & Project Delivery, the Manager, Operations Programs will play a pivotal role within Canada Operations on the planning and execution of strategic projects and initiatives. This individual will lead a team and provide business guidance and expertise on integrating people, process, and technologies in support of meeting objectives and fully realizing results associated with Canada Operations priorities.

Success in this role will include providing a preliminary assessment on initiatives, ensuring that business impact, needs and features are properly understood, with an eye for automation of value-added features. This will require engagement from strategy ideation and initial analysis, through to execution. In addition, this role is a change agent responsible for working with cross functional teams, with a view on the end-to-end experience of our products, processes, and procedures to order to improve customer and advisor experience, as well as internal processes. Finally, this position will lead and manage operational issues with the goal of determining the root cause, remediation plans, and guiding teams to resolve and close out issues.

What you will do

• Leadership:
  • Recruit, train, develop, and lead a high performing team strategic implementation leads  
  • Manage resources of all work assigned (projects, initiatives, day to day tasks) considering Canada Operations priorities
  • Provide leadership, coaching, mentoring and development to staff
  • Develop a culture that is progressive, customer focused, performance driven, and fun
  • Drive excellence by empowering staff to perform at their best 
  • Assess performance management
• Program Management:
  • Act as the first point of contact for Canada Operations initiatives that impact clients, advisors, or operations teams
  • Lead strategic initiatives’ intake, planning, delivery and governance based on business goals and organizational strategies
  • Partner with various stakeholders across Canada Operations to understand the project charter and help define preliminary requirements to deliver business results
  • Define scope and resource requirements, along with project dependencies
  • Collaborate with Canada Operations leaders to align subject matter experts to support projects
  • Foster dynamic and collaborative relationships with leaders across Canada Operations
  • Be responsible for collecting and providing program roadmaps, estimates and resource needs for annual planning
  • Oversee and govern planning and delivery of the assigned strategic initiatives, provide expert knowledge towards ambiguous situations, identify and resolve problems across multiple domains, and perform risk assessment, planning and analysis across the entire program
  • Lead the implementation of solutions that may require the modification of business processes, systems, products, and can require significant departures from traditional approaches
  • Manage senior stakeholder relationships, partnering with management in the development of strategic and operational plans
  • Develop and manage an effective delivery network across project managers and other leaders
  • Assess impact on people, processes and systems; understand the importance of and adheres to control standards, audit practices, compliance, etc
  • Support development of initiative-level business cases
  • Define the governance structure and ensures work is completed with an appropriate level of detail and quality, optimizing resource usage
  • Provide team leadership towards the achievement of strategic objectives, including feedback to people leaders on performance, development, resource assignment, etc
  • Oversee the coaching and mentorship, lifecycle and development of resources, providing guidance on complex issues
  • Oversee the management of resourcing over a large body of work crossing multiple projects or initiatives
  • Communicate with and report to stakeholders to provide an integrated perspective on all program activities
  • Actively promote and influence the need for continuous improvement
  • Act as a change leader ensuring effective implementation and sustainable success of solutions engaging teams and stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle to deliver results

What you will bring:

• Workplace Benefits and Retirement expertise
• 5+ years of proven project delivery and stakeholder management experience, ideally within a financial institution
• Strong project management tool-kit, certification in project management (e.g., CAPM, PMP)
• Motivation and drive to deliver while remaining organized and prioritizing multiple tasks and deadlines
• A proactive approach to collaboration with business partners and stakeholders
• Clear and confident communication, facilitation and influencing skills
• An innovative, self-starter mindset that is accepting of and open to learning new ideas
• Comfort with technology to enable engagement and discussion with technology partners and understand risks

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The base salary for this position is between  $84,900 - $155,700 annually.  This represents base salary only and does not represent other variable compensation components of our total compensation ( i.e. annual bonus, commission etc).  If you are selected to move forward in our recruitment process, your recruiter will be able to discuss additional details of our total rewards program with you.

Career opportunities will be open a minimum of 5 business days from the date of posting, closing dates will vary depending on the search activity. All applications received will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Be your best at Canada Life- Apply today!

Being a part of Canada Life means you have a voice. This is a place where your unique background, perspectives and talents are valued, and shape our future success.

You can be your best here. You’re part of a diverse and inclusive workplace where your career and well-being are championed. You’ll have the opportunity to excel in your way, finding new and better ways to deliver exceptional customer and advisor experiences.

Together, as part of a great team, you’ll deliver on our shared purpose to improve the well-being of Canadians. It’s our driving force. Become part of a strong and successful company that’s trusted by millions of Canadians to do the right thing.

Canada Life serves the financial security needs of more than 13 million people across Canada, with additional operations in Europe and the United States. As members of the Power Financial Corporation group of companies, we’re one of Canada’s leading insurers with interests in life insurance, health insurance, investment and retirement savings. We offer a broad portfolio of financial and benefit plan solutions for individuals, families, businesses and organizations. 

We are committed to providing an inclusive, accessible environment, where all employees and customers feel valued, respected and supported. We are dedicated to building a workforce that reflects the diversity of the communities in which we live, and to creating an environment where every employee has the opportunity to reach their potential. 

It is our priority to remove barriers to provide equal access to employment. A Human Resources representative will work with applicants who request a reasonable accommodation during the application process. All information shared during the accommodation request process will be stored and used in a manner that is consistent with applicable laws and Canada Life policies. To request a reasonable accommodation in the application process, contact talentacquisitioncanada@canadalife.com.

Canada Life would like to thank all applicants, however only those who qualify for an interview will be contacted.

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