AVP, Technology Resilience and Recover Risk Oversight

Sun Life; Kitchener; Hybrid; CAD 140,000 - 225,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Internal mobility

Hybrid work model

Learning and development

Hybrid organization

Job summary

Sun Life in Canada seeks an AVP of Technology Resilience & Recovery, a senior 2LOD leader responsible for establishing and guiding Sun Life's enterprise resilience across critical operations. You will lead recoverability efforts, DR strategy, data resilience, and cloud/hybrid resilience with broad cross-functional collaboration.

The role demands 12+ years in technology risk and 5+ years in senior leadership, with executive communication skills and OSFI-aligned risk oversight.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience in technology risk, operational resilience, disaster recovery, or a related discipline.
• 5+ years of senior people leadership or enterprise program leadership experience.
• Professional certifications such as CBCP/MBCI, CRISC, CISM, CISSP, ITIL, PMP, AWS/Azure resilience, or equivalent are assets.

Responsibilities

• Establish and lead the enterprise 2LOD technology resilience capability within the ORCT Centre of Excellence.
• Provide independent oversight and challenge of DBTS and Business Group technology recovery capabilities.
• Set the 2LOD expectations for recoverability evidence, scenario testing credibility, DR adequacy, backup resilience, cyber recovery readiness, and technology resilience reporting.
• Chair or lead senior governance discussions on technology resilience posture, material gaps, issue escalation, risk acceptance, remediation adequacy, and closure readiness.
• Support regulatory responses, supervisory engagement, audit inquiries, and evidence readiness related to technology resilience and recoverability.

Skills

Technology risk

Operational resilience

Disaster recovery

Cyber recovery

Executive communication

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.

Job Description

The AVP, Technology Resilience & Recovery is a senior 2LOD leadership role accountable for establishing and leading Sun Life’s independent technology resilience challenge capability across critical operations. The role provides enterprise oversight of technology recoverability, DR strategy, backup and data resilience, infrastructure and application recovery, cloud/hybrid resilience, and alignment between business impact tolerances, RTO/RPO expectations, and actual technical recovery capability.

What will you do?

Enterprise Technology Resilience Leadership

• Establish and lead the enterprise 2LOD technology resilience capability within the ORCT Centre of Excellence, including operating model, standards, review cadence, escalation protocols, and evidence expectations.
• Provide independent oversight and challenge of DBTS and Business Group technology recovery capabilities supporting critical and significant operations.
• Set the 2LOD expectations for recoverability evidence, scenario testing credibility, DR adequacy, backup resilience, cyber recovery readiness, and technology resilience reporting.

Independent Challenge & Risk Governance

• Chair or lead senior governance discussions on technology resilience posture, material gaps, issue escalation, risk acceptance, remediation adequacy, and closure readiness.
• Challenge overly optimistic recovery claims where evidence does not demonstrate capability to operate within impact tolerances or RTO/RPO expectations.
• Ensure technology resilience gaps are formally captured, risk-rated, assigned owners, and tracked through remediation and closure validation.

Regulatory Alignment & Enterprise Reporting

• Ensure technology resilience oversight aligns with OSFI E-21 operational resilience expectations and OSFI B-13 technology and cyber risk management expectations.
• Develop enterprise insights on technology resilience posture, including risk appetite metrics, KRIs, thematic findings, systemic vulnerabilities, and management/Board-ready reporting.
• Support regulatory responses, supervisory engagement, audit inquiries, and evidence readiness related to technology resilience and recoverability.

People Leadership & Capability Build

• Build and lead a specialized 2LOD team across Technology Resilience, DR Strategy & Adequacy, Backup Storage & Data Resilience, and related recovery domains.
• Develop technical challenge standards, review playbooks, reviewer training, and quality assurance routines to increase consistency and coverage across critical operations.
• Partner with Operational Resilience, BCM, Crisis Management, TPRM, DBTS, Cyber, and Business Group Risk teams to deliver integrated resilience outcomes.

What do you need to succeed?

• Deep knowledge of technology resilience, disaster recovery, infrastructure/application recovery, cloud/hybrid environments, data resilience, cyber recovery, and enterprise risk oversight.
• Strong understanding of OSFI E-21, OSFI B-13, operational resilience, BCM/DR lifecycle, risk appetite, KRIs, issue management, and Three Lines of Defense expectations.
• Proven ability to influence senior technology, risk, business, audit, and regulatory stakeholders in complex global environments.
• Executive communication skills with ability to translate technical gaps into risk posture, business impact, investment needs, and governance decisions.
• 12+ years of experience in technology risk, operational resilience, disaster recovery, technology resilience, cyber recovery, operational risk, or a related discipline.
• 5+ years of senior people leadership or enterprise program leadership experience.
• Professional certifications such as CBCP/MBCI, CRISC, CISM, CISSP, ITIL, PMP, AWS/Azure resilience, or equivalent are assets.

What’s in it for you?

• Internal mobility is supported by leaders who are dedicated to fueling your professional growth.
• 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.
• An environment of continuous learning, development, and improvement.
• As a hybrid organization, you and your leader use business and Client needs to choose where you work, at home or in the office.

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

140,000/140 000 - 225,000/225 000

Job Category

Risk Management

Posting End Date

06/09/2026