Director, Agile Coach 2 Locations

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.

Job Description:

When you join Sun Life International

Sun Life International is on a transformative journey to become a scalable, nimble, and client-centric organization with a sustainable business model. This role is crucial in meeting both current client expectations and responding to future market demands.

Reporting to the Chief Transformation Officer, this role will leverage agile and design-led process optimization to drive meaningful change. If you thrive on the challenge of guiding impactful transformations, we invite you to apply to become our Director, Agile Coaching.

What you will be doing

• Build and scale agile culture and practices across the organization
• Work with agile squads on a day-to-day basis to provide coaching and feedback to agile squad members and Kanban teams
• Develop and implement coaching plans, governance structures and agreements
• Monitor the effectiveness and success of the agile coaching program
• Help teams and leadership measure the impact of agile transformation initiatives
• Track squad performance, flow efficiency and delivery outcomes
• Collaborate with product owners to refine backlogs, define MVPs, and prioritize customer-centric outcomes
• Facilitate workshops and training sessions on Agile, Lean, and Design Thinking
• Empower teams to self-organize, enhance collaboration and deliver high quality outcomes
• Demonstrate best practices through the facilitation of scrum events when required
• Facilitate retrospectives and other ceremonies to identify improvement opportunities and foster learning
• Develop skills across roles through coaching-led Communities of Practice
• Guide and advise on agile portfolio management and strategic delivery practices
• Research and assess organization’s agile capabilities; provide fact based recommendations to leadership teams to maximize impact of agile squads and Kanban teams
• Serve as a thought partner in establishing organizational value streams
• Lead Agile transformation innovation, particularly in AI Agile Coaching

You will be working with

This role is multi-faceted, involving collaboration across various regions, including Canada, Ireland, Bermuda, the US and Singapore. The successful candidate will work closely with Sun Life International's business platform and client journey agile squads. The role will also engage directly with teams and leaders across the company's main functional departments, such as Strategic Delivery, Technology, Product Development, Operations, Finance, Actuarial, Risk and Compliance. This position requires a versatile and adaptable individual who can navigate the diverse needs and perspectives of stakeholders in different countries and functions to drive the organization's strategic objectives and agile transformation.

What we are looking for

• 8+ years of relevant experience as an agile coach or similar role
• A bachelor's degree in business, technology, behavioural sciences or a related field
• Deep expertise in agile frameworks (scrum, kanban) and methodologies
• Relevant agile certifications (e.g. CSM, SAFe etc.)
• Excellent workshop preparation, facilitation and training delivery skills
• Ability to inspire and motivate teams while managing resistance to change
• Proven track record of guiding teams through agile transformations
• Expertise in coaching Agile Scrum, Kanban, and SAFe
• Experience scaling agile practices in multi-team environments
• Strong track record in coaching agile portfolio management
• In-depth knowledge of insurance products, processes workflows and customer needs
• Proficiency in coaching Lean and Design Thinking theory and practice
• Demonstrated ability to build effective relationships with teams and stakeholders
• Excellent communicator with experience in adapting communication and developing materials for audiences at all levels of the organization
• Act as a liaison between squads, business stakeholders and technical teams to ensure alignment on priorities
• Experience in using collaboration tools such as Jira, Confluence, Planview, Agile Place, Miro and Microsoft Teams
• Outcome-focused leader with strong change management experience, problem-solving skills and conflict-resolution abilities
• Demonstrates the highest standards of ethics, diversity, and inclusion as part of Sun Life's commitment

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 thebrightside@sunlife.com.

At Sun Life we strive to create a flexible work environment where our employees are empowered to do their best work. Several flexible work options are available and can be discussed throughout the selection process depending on the role requirements and individual needs.

We thank all applicants for showing an interest in this position. Only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

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