Advisor Journey Innovation Manager

Sun Life Financial; Toronto; Hybrid; CAD 80,000 - 128,000; Full time

Job summary

Sun Life Financial is seeking an Innovation Journey Innovation Manager for a contract through July 2027, with a hybrid work arrangement in Toronto or Waterloo. You will oversee discovery, business design, and capability enablement, guiding the team from problem framing to delivery while aligning with strategic objectives.

Collaborate with Finance, Technology, and sponsors to validate assumptions, develop business cases, and translate insights into actionable recommendations that drive value for

Qualifications

• Significant experience in strategic discovery, business design, journey or service design, product management, business analysis, or related disciplines.
• Experience leading ambiguous, cross-functional initiatives from problem definition through recommendation and delivery.
• Strong knowledge of Advisor or business journeys, digital and operational capabilities, Agile concepts.

Responsibilities

• Lead research and discovery activities to understand Advisor, business, operational, and stakeholder needs.
• Frame ambiguous requests into clear problem statements and outcomes with hypotheses and discovery plans.
• Translate validated findings into capability definitions and high-level requirements for delivery.

Job description

Job 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. 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.

This is a contract until end of July 2027. Hybrid work environment (once per week in office: Toronto or Waterloo)

Innovation Journey Innovation Manager

The Advisor Journey Innovation Manager leads complex and ambiguous opportunities from problem framing through discovery, recommendation, business casing, prototyping, and transition into delivery. The role combines innovation discovery with business strategy, analysis leadership, and investment decision support across the Advisor journey. Working with the Director, Journey Owner, the Innovation Manager helps the Innovation Team understand user and business needs, visualize current and future experiences, evaluate opportunities, and translate evidence into practical recommendations and capabilities. The role operates with broad direction, applies strong judgment, and provides functional guidance to Business Systems Analysts and cross-functional contributors while having no direct reports.

What will you do?

Innovation discovery and experience definition

• Lead research and discovery activities to understand Advisor, business, operational, and stakeholder needs.
• Analyze existing evidence and identify gaps that require additional research, validation, or stakeholder input.
• Collaborate on current-state and future-state journey maps, service blueprints, opportunity maps, capability views, and other fit-for-purpose discovery artifacts.
• Design and facilitate workshops focused on problem framing, understanding needs, identifying assumptions, exploring opportunities, prioritizing risks, and establishing next steps.
• Synthesize qualitative and quantitative information into clear insights, themes, hypotheses, experience implications, and opportunity areas.
• Ensure discovery work remains grounded in user needs, business outcomes, operational feasibility, technology considerations, and enterprise journey context.

Business design and investment recommendations

• Frame ambiguous or solution-led requests into clear problem statements, desired outcomes, hypotheses, assumptions, decision questions, and discovery plans.
• Act as a business advocate by ensuring recommendations remain anchored to Advisor and stakeholder needs, business strategy, expected outcomes, and measurable value.
• Lead options analysis and develop evidence-based recommendations that clearly explain tradeoffs, risks, dependencies, and unresolved questions.
• Lead or coordinate business cases, including cost-benefit analysis, expected benefits, success measures, risks, dependencies, delivery-cost assumptions, and recommended courses of action.
• Partner with Finance, Technology, business sponsors, and subject-matter experts to validate assumptions, estimated costs, expected benefits, feasibility, and value-realization logic.
• Translate complex analysis into concise executive decision materials that communicate business value, options, costs, benefits, risks, dependencies, and recommended next steps.

Capability and team enablement

• Translate validated discovery findings and approved recommendations into capability definitions, high-level requirements, success measures, delivery guardrails, and transition materials.
• Support effective transition from discovery into delivery by ensuring decisions, assumptions, risks, dependencies, ownership, and measures of success are clearly documented and understood.
• Provide business and journey continuity where required so that delivery remains aligned to the intended experience, approved recommendation, and expected outcomes.
• Provide direction, guidance, and mentorship to Business Systems Analysts as they frame ambiguous problems, sequence analysis, resolve conflicting inputs, and progress toward clear recommendations.
• Review and strengthen problem statements, discovery plans, process maps, options analyses, requirements, recommendations, and leadership materials.
• Contribute to reusable discovery practices, templates, standards, knowledge sharing, and improvements to the Innovation Team’s ways of working.

Stakeholder management

• Identify the business, Advisor-facing, operational, technology, finance, risk, legal, compliance, change, and delivery stakeholders required to understand an opportunity and make informed decisions.
• Build alignment across groups with different objectives, constraints, or perspectives by presenting evidence, clarifying tradeoffs, and identifying decisions required.
• Build and maintain trusted relationships with senior leaders, Journey Owners, Product Owners, Business Systems Analysts, Technology Leads, Architects, CXO partners, and delivery teams.
• Proactively identify and communicate key issues, assumptions, risks, dependencies, ownership gaps, and decisions requiring escalation.
• Escalate material scope, priority, funding, risk, compliance, stakeholder, or delivery-ownership issues to the Director, Journey Owner.

Communication and relationship management

• Tailor written and verbal communication to working teams, subject-matter experts, business sponsors, and senior leaders.
• Facilitate discussions and workshops that move stakeholders from ambiguity to shared understanding, recommendation, ownership, and action.
• Present findings and recommendations in clear, concise, and decision-oriented language.
• Maintain awareness of developments across relevant business and technology areas and identify opportunities for collaboration, reuse, or integration.

What do you need to succeed?

Significant experience in strategic discovery, business design, journey or service design, product management, business analysis, management consulting, innovation, digital transformation, business architecture, or a related discipline. Demonstrated experience leading ambiguous, cross-functional business initiatives from problem definition through recommendation, business casing, and transition into delivery. Strong knowledge of Advisor or business journeys, digital and operational capabilities, Agile delivery concepts, and the relationship between business outcomes, user needs, technology feasibility, operational readiness, compliance, risk, and value realization. Experience conducting or directing user and stakeholder research, producing discovery artifacts, and translating findings into business recommendations. Experience coaching or providing functional guidance to Business Systems Analysts or other analysis professionals. Experience in financial services, insurance, wealth, distribution, Advisor channels, or another regulated environment is preferred. Strong problem-framing and structured problem-solving skills, with the ability to distinguish evidence from assumptions and determine the level of analysis required to support a sound decision. Ability to lead options analysis and business-case development by integrating financial, operational, strategic, experience, risk, technology, and delivery considerations. Ability to synthesize qualitative and quantitative information into clear insights, recommendations, and decision materials. Ability to balance user desirability, business viability, technical feasibility, operational readiness, risk, and strategic alignment. Strong facilitation skills, with the ability to guide diverse stakeholders from ambiguity to alignment, recommendation, and action. Sound judgment and comfort making progress when information is incomplete, priorities are evolving, and accountability is distributed across teams. Strong written, verbal, presentation, and executive storytelling skills. Ability to influence senior business and technology stakeholders without formal authority. Ability to constructively challenge assumptions, surface tradeoffs, and advocate for business and Advisor outcomes. Ability to establish clear guardrails, give practical direction, and enable others to move work forward. Post-secondary education in business, design, research, technology, product management, strategy, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience. Relevant certifications or education in product management, business analysis, design thinking, service design, business design, Lean UX, Agile, research, strategy, or finance are considered assets. Demonstrate curiosity, a growth mindset, and a willingness to challenge the status quo. Take ownership for moving work forward while enabling others through coaching, clear guardrails, and timely decisions. Work collaboratively in a non-hierarchical environment grounded in transparency, trust, learning, and shared accountability. Remain effective in a fast-paced environment with changing priorities, multiple stakeholders, and frequent context switching. Demonstrate a bias toward evidence, practical recommendations, measurable value, and action.

Why join Sun Life?

Being a member of the Sun Life family, a group of people united by our Purpose: to help Clients and Employees achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives. A friendly, collaborative and inclusive culture. A collaborative and interactive team environment. Being part of our journey in developing the next greatest digital experience. Working together, sharing common values and encouraging growth & achievement. Joining a reputable organization with over 150 years of history. Certified Great Place to Work in Canada in 2026. 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 [e-mail]. 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. 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.

Salary Range

Salary Range: 80,000/80 000 - 128,000/128 000

Job Category

Project Management - Process

Posting End Date

28/09/2026

Verbiage

Shine together At Sun Life, you can be your most brilliant self. Our supportive, flexible, and inclusive work environment is one where you – and your career – can thrive. Whatever your aspirations, collaborative leaders and colleagues are ready to help you learn, grow, and succeed. Make life brighter We’re a global company with a passion for people. Our purpose is to help Clients achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives. As a team of 30,000 across 26 countries, our impact is far-reaching, and locally relevant There’s power in numbers. As part of Sun Life’s growing team, you have an impact on people in your community and around the world. Shape the future With an optimistic eye on a brighter future, we drive to innovate. Be part of leading change, push boundaries and try new ways of working. Use data to drive bold actions. Be agile and pivot as we test and learn. At Sun Life, we’re driving transformation, sustainability and innovation for our Clients, employees, partners, and communities. Join us. Together, we can make the future brighter. Join a top employer for a brighter future. Visit Sun Life Careers