Managing Director, Operations & Strategy

OMERS / Oxford Properties Group; New York (NY); On-site; USD 250,000 - 380,000; Full time

Job summary

OMERS Private Equity is seeking a Managing Director to join the Operations & Strategy team in Toronto or New York. This senior operator will drive value creation across portfolio companies, lead 100‑day plans, and scale operating improvements.

The role requires 15+ years of experience, executive presence with CEOs and boards, and a hands-on, change‑oriented approach. Travel to portfolio companies and both offices will be required.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of professional experience including leadership roles, operating experience, consulting, and private equity.
• Proven experience in strategic planning and strategy development.
• Track record of value creation through revenue and operational improvements.
• Transaction and due diligence experience.
• Strong influencing and collaboration skills with senior stakeholders and management teams.

Responsibilities

• Serving as an active Board member, board observer, or senior advisor where appropriate, focused on value creation through portfolio company management teams.
• Leading high-value engagements across a focused set of portfolio companies in a hands-on advisory capacity.
• Contributing an operational perspective to diligence through identifying value creation opportunities and assessing management's ability to capture them.
• Partnering with deal teams from diligence through post-close to translate investment theses into actionable 100-day plans and long-term roadmaps.
• Ensuring robust value-creation plans with KPIs, governance, and performance management routines.
• Engaging with senior management to ensure delivery of value-creation plans.
• Advancing 1–2 key value-creation initiatives in portfolio companies (revenue, margins, operating model, technology, etc.).
• Mentoring and developing junior colleagues.
• Modeling OMERS Private Equity's collaborative culture while challenging assumptions and driving pace.
• Building relationships internally at OMERS and externally with boards, executives, and advisors.

Skills

Strategy development

Program management

Value creation

Due diligence

Stakeholder influence

Leadership

Board interaction

Change management

Job description

Choose a workplace that empowers your impact. Join a global workplace where employees thrive. One that embraces diversity of thought, expertise and experience. A place where you can personalize your employee journey to be — and deliver — your best. We are a purpose-driven, dynamic and sustainable pension plan. An industry leading global investor with teams in Toronto to London, New York, Singapore, Sydney and other major cities across North America and Europe. We embody the values of our 665,000 members, placing their best interests at the heart of everything we do. Join us to accelerate your growth & development, prioritize wellness, build connections, and support the communities where we live and work. Don’t just work anywhere — come build tomorrow together with us.

OMERS Private Equity is looking for a Managing Director to join our Operations & Strategy team in Toronto or New York.

This role will work closely with OMERS Private Equity’s investment team and portfolio companies to drive operational and strategic improvements in specific portfolio companies as well as enhance our capability to do so repeatably and at scale across the portfolio.

The successful candidate will be a senior operator and strategic problem-solver with significant experience identifying measurable value creation opportunities, structuring and executing analysis, and leading implementation and change in organizations.

They will bring executive presence and credibility with CEOs, CFOs, boards, investment committees, and senior investment professionals, with the ability to influence without direct authority.

This role requires in‑office presence as well as travel to portfolio companies and Toronto/NewYork as needed.

In this position, you will be responsible for:

• Serving as an active Board member, board observer, or senior advisor, where appropriate, focused on creating value through our portfolio company management teams
• Leading high‑value engagements across a focused set of portfolio companies at any given time. Engagements will be targeted in nature, operating in a hands‑on advisory capacity for a discrete time period, and, if needed, take on interim roles in our portfolio companies
• Contributing an operational perspective to Diligence through identifying and quantifying value creation opportunities and assessing the management team’s ability to capture those opportunities, including organizational capabilities, leadership effectiveness, and talent gaps that may impact execution
• Partnering with deal teams from diligence through post‑close to translate investment theses into actionable 100‑day plans, long‑term value‑creation roadmaps, and an operating cadence with management teams
• Ensuring that a robust value‑creation plan is in place in all portfolio investments by providing direction on key areas of focus, such as idea generation, alignment facilitation, plan execution, support and resource planning, and relationship management with management teams and other stakeholders, with clear KPIs, governance mechanisms, and performance management routines to create transparency, accountability, and pace around execution
• Engaging with senior management as a trusted thought partner and problem solver to ensure they deliver the value‑creation plan
• Frequently and directly advancing the 1‑2 most important value‑creation initiatives in your portfolio companies, including opportunities related to revenue growth, margin expansion, operating model improvement, commercial effectiveness, and technology, data, automation, or AI‑enabled transformation
• Partnering with other members of the Operations and Strategy team to play an active role in advancing the portfolio and asset‑management model for OMERS Private Equity
• Serving as a change agent who is always looking for the next level of performance and leading initiatives to ensure best practices are employed across the portfolio
• Mentoring and developing junior colleagues
• The Managing Director will be expected to model OPE’s collaborative, partnership‑oriented culture while bringing the confidence and judgment to challenge assumptions, push for pace, and hold teams accountable for results
• Building and maintaining effective relationships internally at OMERS, and externally across boards, executive teams and third‑party advisors

Required Capabilities

15+ years of professional experience including leadership roles, relevant operating experience, management consulting, and private equity, as well as an understanding of multiple industries reflective of our portfolio

• Proven experience in strategic planning and strategy development
• Experience managing multiple projects and working with a diverse range of internal and external stakeholders
• Track record of value creation through executing revenue and operational improvement initiatives, with demonstrated ability to deliver measurable impact such as growth acceleration, margin expansion, productivity improvement, or other EBITDA‑relevant outcomes
• Transaction and due diligence experience
• Strategic and results‑oriented mindset, takes a proactive, hands‑on approach
• Strong influencing and collaboration skills, and the ability to effect change through advice, counsel and action, including influencing senior stakeholders and management teams in situations where the role may not have direct authority

Preferred Capabilities

• An ability to constructively challenge the status quo
• Strong commercial acumen, understands multiple business drivers
• Comfort moving between board‑level strategy and hands‑on execution. You should be able to diagnose an issue, size the value opportunity, align stakeholders, establish a workplan, and drive implementation through the organization
• Experience in Healthcare operations and/or the Finance function is valued, including finance transformation, FP&A, performance management, working capital, pricing, CFO advisory, or other relevant functional transformation experience

About OMERS Private Equity

OMERS Private Equity is the private equity investment arm of OMERS, one of Canada’s largest defined benefit pension plans, with approximately C$145 billion in net assets. Established in 1962, OMERS administers pensions for over 665,000 members from over 1,000 employers, including municipalities, school boards, emergency services, and local agencies across Ontario. With a global presence and offices in Toronto (headquarters), NewYork, London, Sydney, and Singapore, OMERS manages a diversified portfolio spanning public markets, private equity, infrastructure, and real estate, with the majority of capital invested directly.

OMERS Private Equity is a thesis‑driven private equity sponsor with a flexible mandate to pursue control buyouts and opportunistic structured or minority investments, with approximately C$25B in AUM. The team typically targets initial equity investments of $200–500million in companies generating $25–50million of EBITDA, focusing on high‑quality businesses in large, scalable markets with recurring or re‑occurring revenue models. OMERS Private Equity’s sector focus includes business and tech‑enabled services, industrials, and healthcare.

OMERS Private Equity strives to:

• Partner with Management collaboratively and respectfully
• Focus on building long‑term, sustainable growth
• Bring selective external expertise where and when needed
• Support ongoing growth via the OMERS capital base
• Reinvest to accelerate sustainable success versus “stripping out” capital for returns based purely on financial engineering

At its core, OMERS Private Equity is relentlessly focused on generating consistently compelling risk‑adjusted returns for its 665,000 plan members.

The annualized base salary ranges for the primary location and any additional locations are listed below. The base salary that is ultimately offered to the successful candidate will consider a wide array of factors including but not limited to the individual’s skill set. You may also be eligible to receive an annual Incentive Award pursuant to our Short‑term Incentive plan and our Long‑Term Incentive plan (if applicable), and to participate in our group benefits and retirement plans – details on these elements of compensation are included within OMERS & Oxford offer letters.

As one of Canada’s largest defined benefit pension plans, our people‑first culture is at its best when our workforce reflects the communities where we live and work — and the members we proudly serve. From hire to retire, we are an equal opportunity employer committed to an inclusive, barrier‑free recruitment and selection process that extends all the way through your employee experience. This sense of belonging and connection is cultivated up, down and across our global organization thanks to our vast network of Employee Resource Groups with executive leader sponsorship, our Purpose@Work committee and employee recognition programs.

We're committed to

• We are passionate about inclusion and advocate for I&D across our network of employees, members and partners
• We are proud of our commitment to developing a best in class approach to complete wellness for our employees and members
• We invest in our people, providing them with opportunities so they can develop and grow