Director, Strategic Initiatives - Montréal, Canada - Sun Life

Sun Life

Verified Company

Montréal, Canada

3 weeks ago

Posted by:

Sophia Lee

beBee Recruiter

Description

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 Defined Benefit Solutions (DBS) business develops and implements innovative de-risking solutions for defined benefit pension plans. The Director, Strategic Initiatives, DBS supports this growing business and reports to the Assistant Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, DBS.

The Director, Strategic Initiatives, DBS is responsible for staying abreast of global innovative trends in pension risk transfer solutions and for driving DBS' solution development priorities forward.

The role also oversees efforts in identifying and coordinating opportunities to better manage DBS' approximately $17 billion of inforce group annuities.

What will you do?
The Director, Strategic Initiatives, DBS has the following accountabilities:

Innovation and solution development

Maintain a global innovation watch related to emerging trends in pension risk transfer solutions, through building and activating a robust network of global contacts and partners (e.g., reinsurers, direct writers and consultants in Canada and other countries).
Partner with the Client Relationships and Structuring teams to identify, prioritize and support development of new pension risk transfer solutions.
Host the DBS Innovation Lab
Manage the creation of 8 to 12 feasibilities studies each year and own the development of a subset of these studies;
Oversee the implementation of promising feasibility studies.
Partner with key stakeholders (e.g, Investments, ALM, Portfolio managers) to continually test and assess new asset classes to optimize DBS' asset mix.

Inforce management

Partner with the Structuring, ALM, Valuation, Risk and Operations teams to identify opportunities to
Create optimizations with DBS' inforce group annuities;
Enhance member experience;
Use inforce data to deepen data and analytics.
Host the DBS Inforce Lab and work with DBS and GRS senior management to prioritize key opportunities.
Own the implementation of the prioritized opportunities by partnering with internal and external teams and stakeholders, with an aim to achieve the financial and member experience objectives related to inforce initiatives.
Support Operations with development and maintenance of actuarial tools, including reviewing complex calculations and special situations.

Reinsurance

Support efforts related to the DBS' reinsurance strategy.
Maintain reinsurers relationships through regular touchpoints.
Execute on exploration of initiatives / opportunities that arise.

Strategy

Support the strategic planning process for DBS.
Coordinate strategic activities, presentations and reporting with GRS partners.
Collaborate with GRS and Canadian Strategy partners to ensure timely delivery of all strategic planning deliverables.
Support Head, DBS on broader GRS initiatives and requests.

Leadership

Build, develop and lead a high performing team of actuaries to execute on the role's mandate.
Influence key stakeholders to create support for DBS' innovation and inforce management priorities.
Navigate the broader organization to implement new governance structures for priorities, as required.

What do you need to succeed?

Undergraduate degree in actuarial science, mathematics or statistics or FCIA designation
Minimum of 5 years of insurance or pension experience in an actuarial role
Very strong technical, analytical and problem solving skills
Excellent communication skills (written, verbal, and presentation) with the ability to explain complex ideas to nonactuaries
Strong influencing skills
Proven ability to manage multiple competing priorities
Excellent people skills to manage relationships with DBS stakeholders and coordinate large crossfunctional teams
Previous knowledge of reinsurance structures, securitization, group annuities or Canadian pension plans is an asset
Previous knowledge of actuarial pricing, valuation or ALM is an asset
Ability to work independently, as well as collaboratively, challenge the status quo and promote new solutions
Highly motivated, proactive, conceptual thinker who is able to take a leadership role in a wide variety of assignments
As this position is posted in several locations, we specify that bilingualism (French, English, both oral and written) is required for Quebec only for the frequent interactions with English and Frenchspeaking colleagues or in