Avp, Talent and Culture Strategic Initiatives

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.

Sun Life's People and Culture team provides full Human Resources support to over 30,000 employees globally. The team is organized and delivers work via a HRBP and Centre of Expertise model with HR practitioners based in every Sun Life region. Activities across the global team enable the successful delivery of business imperatives through our people ensuring Sun Life continues to achieve sustainable long term growth.

Reporting to the VP, People, Strategy and Enablement, the AVP, Talent and Culture Strategic Initiatives provides bi-lateral advisory and strategy execution services across People and Culture. The role is responsible for end to end design and delivery of strategy projects and identifying, monitoring, and evaluating macro market trends. The AVP acts an integrator of broad Human Resources initiatives across the organization, can prioritize the topics of greatest impact and importance, appropriately size work efforts and delivers value by creating embedment and sustainment plans of key priorities.

**What will you do**:
People and Culture Strategy design, development and delivery
- Working in tandem with partners and under direction from the VP, PSE, organizes the preparation for the annual Talent and Culture plan for presentation to Executive Team and Management Resources Committee.
- Translates ambiguous strategic issues into clearly defined problem statements, hypotheses, and corresponding analyses
- Communicates findings and recommendations succinctly in a logical and coherent storyline that facilitates productive discussion and decision making amongst partners
- Once plan is authored, execute project plan and manage across multiple work streams, adapting and reprioritizing as necessary to meet project objectives while ensuring timely delivery and achievable scope
- Bring new perspectives, creative ideas, and practical approaches to problems and issues
- Prepare and present both formal and informal updates on analysis/recommendations
- Manage a diverse set of stakeholders to ensure effective collaboration in support for recommendations

Annual strategic planning
- Manage the planning process and provide support/coordination to various People and Culture teams
- Facilitate working sessions with People and Culture leaders to further strategy development
- Provide perspectives, strategic frameworks, and analysis support to help partner teams advance thinking on focus topics
- Ensure People and Culture alignment of strategic plans across teams by drawing linkages across common themes while advocating for cohesion across People and Culture

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, industry network)
- 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 across People and Culture to maintain an understanding of new developments in their areas and identify needs for strategy support.

**What do you need to succeed**:

- Minimum of 10 years relevant business experience, ideally within human resources, insurance, asset management, or financial services; experience in or knowledge of Sun Life's People and Culture practices and routines.
- Demonstrated experience analyzing and solving complex business problems and conducting in-depth secondary research, including collection and synthesis.
- University degree in business or related discipline; MBA or other relevant advanced degree is an asset.
- 3-5 years in top-tier management consulting or equivalent experience in a Corporate setting.
- Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Office products (Excel, PowerPoint, Word.)
- Deep understanding of the Human Resources function and ideally at least one of Sun Life’s business areas (i.e., asset management, ind