Assistant Vice President, Technology Lead, Group Retirement Services

Job Description

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Role Overview

The AVP, Technology Lead, Group Retirement Services (GRS) is a strategic technology leader responsible for running and building Sun Life’s wealth / retirement technology platforms to support sponsor and advisor experiences at scale. This role is accountable for embedding a world-class design and engineering culture across delivery teams, with a strong focus on digital experiences, stable core systems and critical capabilities that build and maintain an industry-leading wealth business.

The role combines strategic leadership, technical oversight, people leadership, as well as vendor and financial management, to drive technology excellence and business value. The AVP Technology Lead partners closely with Product, Architecture, Operations, Enterprise Technology and Business Leads to ensure technology platforms, data and digital front-end experiences enable sustained, profitable business outcomes.

This role operates in a highly visible, complex environment and requires a leader who can drive momentum, make clear decisions, and bring strong technical credibility.

Key Responsibilities

1. Technology Strategy, Digital Enablement & Engineering

• Shape, communicate, and align technology and strategy across the business unit and the organization, ensuring it supports both near-term delivery commitments and longer-term modernization objectives.
• Partner with Business Leads, Operations, Core IT / Infrastructure, and Enterprise Architecture to define platform roadmaps and OKRs for technology capabilities, including data, integrations, applications, mainframe systems of record and digital user experiences.
• Provide thought leadership on how technology platforms should be developed, adopted, and governed. Promote adoption of technology stack standards and modern engineering practices, balancing build vs. buy vs. partner decisions in a complex technology ecosystem.
• Ensure design and engineering decisions account for reusability, scalability, security, and maintainability, actively managing technical debt in non-greenfield environments. Seek opportunities to scale capabilities across wealth businesses.
• Plan for exceptional digital experiences for sponsors and advisors by enabling business teams with reliable, scalable platforms and capabilities.

2. Platform Delivery & Execution

• Accountable for end-to-end delivery of technology platforms, including oversight of delivery teams, total cost of ownership and system integrator partners.
• Ensure platforms are intuitive, transact with ease and deliver automated operational processes that reduce friction and drive sponsor and advisor satisfaction.
• Drive delivery excellence by improving velocity, quality, and reliability across multiple agile squads that are at varying levels of maturity. Leverage AI-driven development capabilities and automated processes to deliver faster.
• Track delivery metrics and implement targets for productivity and delivery maturity. Gain commitment of partners, remove barriers to speed up execution and drive outcomes.
• Serve as the primary point of escalation for platform, delivery, and vendor-related issues, facilitating rapid resolution in a complex environment.
• Use experimentation and test-and-learn approaches to continuously improve.

3. People Leadership & Capability Development

• Lead, mentor, and develop technology teams, fostering a collaborative, inclusive, and execution-focused culture.
• Design and optimize team structures that achieve business and delivery outcomes.
• Inspire and empower teams through coaching, learning, and hands-on leadership. Empower your teams to test new ideas and solve problems.
• Develop your team’s resilience and agility during times of change and uncertainty.
• Support succession planning and capability development for critical roles.
• Provide honest constructive feedback that enables individual development and builds capability for career movement.

4. Financial & Vendor Management

• Manage platform financials including budgeting, cost tracking, and capitalization.
• Govern strategic vendor and system integrator relationships, holding partners accountable for delivery quality, outcomes, and knowledge transfer.
• Drive technology platform efficiencies such that savings can be reinvested in system capabilities as appropriate.

5. Operational Excellence & Risk Management

• Ensure platform stability, security, and technology currency of applications.
• Establish governance processes that balance speed of delivery with risk management and regulatory requirements.
• Partner with Technology Operations to ensure effective incident management, change management, and disaster recovery for enablement platforms.

6. Cross-Functional Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement

• Act as a strategic technology partner to value stream leaders across Product, Client Experience and Business Operations.
• Collaborate with business and IT stakeholders to align technology plans with business priorities and client outcomes.
• Represent the GRS technology function in executive forums, bringing external perspective and best practices from complex enterprise environments.

Accountabilities

• Clearly communicate priorities that inspire commitment to business outcomes. Align technology strategy with those business objectives and shared outcomes.
• Define and monitor platform roadmaps and OKRs. Set clear actionable goals based on the strategies, prioritizing our Clients and business outcomes.
• Establish and execute automation roadmaps that enable Canadian Operations to seamlessly scale as our business grows.
• Deliver leading digital capabilities for sponsors and advisors that differentiate Sun Life from our competitors.
• Oversee platform execution across delivery teams and vendors.
• Establish governance, track delivery metrics, and drive productivity improvements.
• Manage technology budgets and vendor relationships. Take ownership of all technology expenses (applications, infrastructure, security, etc.) and continually develop plans to reduce non-development technology expenses.
• Create and sustain a high-performing, engaged and inclusive technology culture.

Typical Outputs

• Technology strategy, platform roadmaps, and OKRs.
• Competitive analysis and benchmarking as inputs to technology roadmaps.
• Modernized technology roadmaps that align to business priorities and emphasize re-use, scale, and simplicity.
• Initiative roadmaps and delivery plans for enablement capabilities.
• Delivery metrics, vendor performance insights, and productivity improvement plans.
• Strategic workforce management plans.
• Opportunities for delivery team improvements to ways of working and agile maturity.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (advanced degree or MBA is an asset).
• 10+ years of experience in senior technology leadership roles, with demonstrated success delivering complex mission-critical systems.
• Experience leading the modernization and enablement of wealth management platforms, including sponsor and advisor web/mobile digital platforms.
• Proven ability to lead technology teams through modernization and transformation.
• Strong financial acumen with experience managing sizable budgets and portfolios.
• Strong understanding of wealth, retirement, and investment products
• Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and leadership skills.
• Experience in regulated financial services is valuable.

Mindset & Behaviors

• Decisive leader comfortable operating in uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.
• Strong technical credibility, with the ability to challenge architecture, delivery practices, and CI/CD approaches.
• Builder mindset with equal focus on fixing, scaling, and enabling.
• Pragmatic, outcomes-driven decision-maker and problem-solver.
• Collaborative leader/coach who builds trust and drives momentum.
• Critical thinker with a passion for challenging the status quo and driving innovation.
• Believes in a non-hierarchical culture of collaboration, transparency, and trust.
• Experimental mindset to drive continuous improvement.

As this position is posted in several locations, we specify that bilingualism (French, English, both oral and written) is required for Quebec only as the position includes managing both French and English-speaking staff (Quebec and outside Quebec) and providing daily support to the team.

What’s in it for you?

• Great Place to Work® Certified for Most Trusted Executive Team in Canada – 2025, 2024 and 2023
• Great Place to Work® Certified for Best Workplaces in Canada - 2025
• Canada Order of Excellence for Mental Health at Work® certification from Excellence Canada. Sun Life is one of only four companies in Canada to ever receive this certification – 2024
• Top Work Places® for Remote Work – Monster Canada - 2024
• Great Place to Work® Certified for Best Workplaces in Canada – 2024 and 2022
• Great Place to Work® Certified for Best Workplaces for Women in Canada - 2024
• Flexible hybrid work model.