AVP, Technology Lead, Digital Enablement

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.

Job Description:

Role Overview

The AVP, Technology Lead, Digital Enablement is a strategic technology leader responsible for enabling and scaling Sun Life's marketing technology platforms that support client and advisor experiences. This role is accountable for embedding a world-class digital enablement and engineering culture across delivery teams, with a strong focus on Adobe MarTech, identity, and experience enablement platforms.

The role combines strategic leadership, technical oversight, people leadership, as well as vendor and financial management, to drive technology excellence and business value delivery. The AVP Technology Lead partners closely with Product, Marketing, Architecture, Operations, and Business Leads to ensure integrated, end-to-end enablement of digital capabilities—rather than ownership of business processes themselves.

This role operates in a highly visible, complex, and vendor-heavy 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 digital enablement and MarTech 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, Marketing, Core IT / Infrastructure, and Enterprise Architecture to define platform roadmaps and OKRs for digital enablement capabilities, including MarTech, identity, and data integration layers.
• Provide thought leadership on how MarTech platforms (including the Adobe ecosystem) should be developed, adopted, and governed—moving beyond delivery execution toward sustainable enablement.
• Promote adoption of technology stack standards and modern engineering practices, balancing build vs. buy vs. partner decisions in a complex vendor ecosystem.
• Ensure design and engineering decisions account for reusability, scalability, security, and maintainability, actively managing technical debt in non-greenfield environments.
• Plan for exceptional digital experiences by enabling business teams with reliable, scalable platforms and capabilities.

2. Platform Delivery & Execution

• Accountable for end-to-end delivery of digital enablement platforms and capabilities, including oversight of internal delivery teams, total cost of ownership and system integrator partners.
• Drive delivery excellence by improving velocity, quality, and reliability across multiple agile squads that are at varying levels of maturity.
• Track delivery metrics and implement targeted productivity and delivery maturity improvements.
• Serve as the primary point of escalation for platform, delivery, and vendor-related issues, facilitating rapid resolution in a complex environment.

3. People Leadership & Capability Development

• Lead, mentor, and develop technology teams, fostering a collaborative, inclusive, and execution-focused culture.
• Partner with Business Leads and Chapter leaders to design team structures that evolve from vendor-led delivery toward internal enablement and platform ownership.
• Inspire and empower teams through coaching, continuous learning, and hands-on leadership
• Support succession planning and capability development for critical digital enablement roles.

4. Financial & Vendor Management

• Lead digital enablement and platform budget management, including annual budgeting, cost tracking, and capitalization.
• Manage strategic vendor and system integrator relationships, holding partners accountable for delivery quality, outcomes, and knowledge transfer.
• Ensure alignment between IT and business finance, identifying opportunities to optimize spend and reduce long-term dependency on external partners.

5. Operational Excellence & Risk Management

• Ensure platform stability, security, technology currency and end-of-life decommissioning for applications
• Establish governance processes that balance speed of delivery with risk management and regulatory requirements.
• Partner with 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 leaders across Product, Operations, Client Experience, and Operations.
• Collaborate with business and IT stakeholders to align digital enablement plans with business priorities and client outcomes.
• Represent the digital enablement function in executive forums, bringing external perspective and best practices from complex enterprise environments.

Accountabilities

• Align digital enablement and MarTech strategy with business objectives.
• Define and monitor platform roadmaps and OKRs.
• Oversee platform execution across delivery teams and vendors.
• Establish governance, track delivery metrics, and drive productivity improvements.
• Manage technology budgets and vendor relationships.
• Build and sustain a high-performing, engaged, and inclusive enablement-focused technology organization.

Typical Outputs

• Digital enablement strategy, platform roadmaps, and OKRs.
• Modernized technology and identity platforms aligned to business priorities.
• Initiative roadmaps and delivery plans for enablement capabilities.
• Delivery metrics, vendor performance insights, and productivity improvement plans.

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 Marketing Technology platforms, specifically in the Adobe ecosystem
• Strong experience operating in vendor-heavy environments
• Proven ability to lead technology teams through modernization and enablement-focused transformation.
• Strong financial acumen with experience managing sizable budgets and vendor portfolios.
• Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and leadership skills.
• Experience in regulated financial services is valuable; depth in digital enablement and MarTech platforms is prioritized over industry pedigree.

Mindset & Behaviours

• Decisive leader comfortable operating in ambiguity and complexity.
• 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.
• Collaborative leader who rebuilds 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.
• Strong coaching and problem-solving skills.

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. #LI-Hybrid
• Pension, stock and savings programs to help build and enhance your future financial security
• Work and professional development that is united by our Purpose: to help Clients and Employees achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives
• A friendly, collaborative and inclusive culture
• Be part of our continuous improvement journey in developing the next greatest digital enterprise experience.
• Competitive salary and bonus structure influenced by market range data
• The opportunity to move along a variety of career paths with amazing networking potential

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

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 Several work options are available and can be discussed throughout the selection process depending on the role requirements and individual needs.

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.

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