Director, Programs & Project Delivery in London

As Canada Life continues to advance its strategic priorities, the Business Project Management Office (BPMO) within COBE plays a critical role in enabling successful business transformation. The Director, Project Management is a senior delivery leader responsible for mobilizing and executing complex initiatives that span multiple business areas, systems, and stakeholder groups.

Working in partnership with executive sponsors and cross-functional leaders, this role establishes governance, drives alignment, manages risks and dependencies, and ensures initiatives remain focused on delivering measurable business outcomes. The Director brings disciplined project delivery practices, strong business acumen, and enterprise-wide influence to support strategic change across the organization.

What you will do:

• Oversee the planning and delivery of assigned strategic initiatives; navigate ambiguity, identify risks and issues, and drive mitigation across multiple domains.
• Lead integrated project management practices including schedule management, RAID management, dependency management, change control, and release/readiness planning.
• Develop and maintain executive-level status reporting, dashboards, and materials that provide an integrated view of progress, decisions, risks, and outcomes.
• Partner with stakeholders across the organization to refine the project charter, define the problem-to-solve, and translate objectives into a clear delivery approach and high-level requirements.
• Define milestones, dependencies, assumptions, and resource needs; proactively surface trade-offs and options.
• Establish fit-for-purpose governance and operating cadence (forums, decision logs, escalation paths), ensuring timely decisions and transparent progress.
• Coordinate with leaders to engage the right subject matter experts and maintain role clarity and accountability across workstreams.
• Build strong cross-functional relationships and influence outcomes through facilitation, structured problem solving, and executive-ready communication.
• Support development of initiative-level business cases, including value drivers, costs/effort estimates, and key assumptions - tracks deployment of project budgets across multiple projects, including forecasting, variance analysis, and financial reporting.
• Assess impacts to people, processes, and systems; ensure appropriate consideration of controls, audit practices, risk, and compliance requirements.
• Act as a change leader by supporting stakeholder engagement, communication planning, and adoption/sustainment activities across the delivery lifecycle.
• Contribute to annual planning by consolidating roadmaps, estimates, capacity/resource needs, and key risks across the initiative portfolio.
• Partner with senior stakeholders to shape strategic and operational plans, ensuring initiatives remain aligned to business value and organizational strategy.
• Drive benefits realization practices: define expected outcomes, establish baseline metrics, track delivery against targets, and support post-implementation reviews.
• Promote continuous improvement by identifying opportunities to simplify governance, improve delivery discipline, and leverage automation and best practices.
• Advise and coach PMs on practical implementation of PMO practices and standards.

What you will bring:

• 15+ years of experience in program/project management, and/or business transformation (financial services/operations experience is an asset).
• Post-secondary degree or equivalent combination of education and experience; PMP, PgMP, PRINCE2, Lean/Six Sigma, or Agile certification(s) are assets.
• Demonstrated ability to lead through influence as a senior individual contributor, facilitating alignment and decisions across diverse stakeholders.
• Strong governance and delivery discipline: scope, schedule, dependency, risk/issue, and change management.
• Excellent communication skills with experience creating executive-ready updates, presentations, and concise written recommendations.
• Analytical and metrics-oriented; able to define outcomes, establish baselines, and track benefits/OKRs/KPIs.
• Agile mindset with a demonstrated ability to work through ambiguity and manage multiple time-sensitive concurrent deliverables.
• Strong planning, organization, and attention to detail with a bias for action and follow-through.
• Credibility to build trusted relationships across businesses and functions, provide sound advice, and challenge constructively.
• Understanding of technology-enabled change and the impacts to operations, customers, and advisors.
• Advanced proficiency with Office 365 applications (e.g., PowerPoint, Excel, Teams, SharePoint); experience with reporting/dashboard tools is an asset.

The base salary for this position is between $128,200 - $178,200 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.

We’re united by a shared purpose: to improve the financial, physical and mental well-being of Canadians. Our company is trusted by 1 in 3 Canadians and contributes to the strength of communities across the country. We’re looking for people who live our values every day: we step up, we do the right thing, and we deliver – for our customers, communities and each other. Are you someone who always strives to do the right thing, who steps up for themselves and others, and who delivers with impact? Then we want to hear from you!

What we offer:

• Career Development: Opportunities for career advancement, access to industry-leading learning programs and up to $2,000 annually towards education reimbursement.
• Health & Wellness: Flexible health and dental benefits, plus a $5,000 mental health benefit to support your well-being.
• Time Off: In addition to regular vacation and personal days, we support community involvement with a volunteer day.
• Financial Security: Company-matching pension plan, share ownership program and additional investment options.
• Rewards and Recognition: Employee recognition programs, service milestone celebrations, employee discounts and more!
• Emphasis on Community: We provide a workplace where employees feel connected and supported through Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), mentorship programs, social clubs and events.

We’re committed to removing barriers and ensuring equal access to employment. Applicants requiring reasonable accommodation during the application process may contact talentacquisitioncanada@canadalife.com. All information provided will be handled in accordance with applicable laws and Canada Life policies. Canada Life would like to thank all applicants, however only those who qualify for an interview will be contacted.