Operation Excellence Lead

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:

Job description (heading) /  Description du poste (titre)

• Lead the Operations Excellence function to transform Operations into best-in-class, customer-centric, data-driven, and digitally enabled organization. The role translates Operations priorities into an executable transformation roadmap, monitor project governance, drive process optimization, automation, innovation, advanced analytics, and artificial intelligence adoption across Life and Health Insurance Operations. It is accountable for delivering measurable improvements in customer experience, service levels, operational efficiency, employee productivity, risk management, and business outcomes.

Preferred skills (heading) / Compétences particulières (titre)

• Deep knowledge of insurance operations and health strategy, including underwriting, policy administration, claims, contact center, servicing, quality assurance, and operational support functions.
• Strong expertise in enterprise transformation, portfolio and project management, operational excellence, process optimization, continuous improvement, and benefits realization.
• Practical knowledge of workflow digitization, automation, system integration, straight-through processing, advanced analytics, artificial intelligence use cases, and adoption measurement.
• Strong command of governance, performance management, dashboards, management information, key performance indicators, objectives and key results, operational risk, and audit issue tracking.
• Executive-level skills in strategic planning, business case development, board and steering committee materials, change management, stakeholder engagement, and cross-functional leadership.

Qualifications (heading) / Compétences (titre)

• Bachelor's degree in business, operations management, engineering, information systems, finance, or a related discipline; a master's degree is preferred.
• Minimum 10 years of relevant experience in operations, transformation, operational excellence, consulting, project or portfolio management, or digital change, including significant experience in insurance or financial services.
• Demonstrated experience leading enterprise-scale, cross-functional transformation portfolios and influencing senior executives and functional leaders.
• Relevant professional certification in project management, Lean, Six Sigma, change management, agile delivery, or a comparable discipline is preferred.

Responsibilities (heading) / Responsabilités (titre)

• Lead the Operations Portfolio Governance by monitoring operational performance, coordinate and monitor delivery of Operations goals, KPIs, and OKRs, Track and drive closure of strategic initiatives, benefit realization and action items across Operations, including audit resolution commitment, if any. The role is responsible in preparation of executive presentations, management reports, board papers, and steering committee materials of Operations Transformation.
• Lead Operations Project Management for the portfolio of operational transformation initiatives by translating business priorities into executable plans, managing the strategic roadmap and transformation agenda, monitoring delivery, managing risks and dependencies, and ensuring projects are completed on time, within budget, and with expected business outcomes.
• Drive operational excellence and continuous improvement by simplifying and standardizing processes, eliminating waste, reducing turnaround time, improving service quality, and using customer and advisor feedback to address pain points in partnership with Customer Experience and Distribution teams.
• Lead the Health Strategic Forum by governing Health Taskforce and Health Council meetings to monitor initiative progress, drive stakeholder alignment, and support timely decision-making. Lead the taskforce in planning, monitoring, and delivery of health initiatives to ensure objectives and timelines are achieved. Collaborate with taskforce members to identify risks, issues, and dependencies, and develop effective mitigation and contingency plans. Escalate critical risks, challenges, and decisions to appropriate stakeholders, providing recommendations to ensure timely resolution. Health Taskforce consists of Product, Distributions, Actuarial, Marketing and Comms (Customer Experience) and Operations.

At Sun Life, we cultivate a High-Performance, Caring Culture that empowers our people to achieve outstanding results, embrace continuous growth, and create meaningful impact. We succeed together by fostering an inclusive environment where wellbeing, collaboration, and accountability are equally valued.

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