Senior Strategic RFP Project Manager (Procurement Specialist)

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:

About the role

Are you ready to take on a unique and dynamic role that combines big-picture thinking with meticulous attention to detail? We're seeking a Senior Strategic RFP Project Manager of Procurement to join our team. This position offers a blend of excitement and routine, requiring someone who can seamlessly navigate between high-level strategy and granular specifics. As our ideal candidate, you'll have a proven track record of managing complex RFP processes, developing winning strategies, and collaborating across multiple departments. You'll be responsible for leading proposal efforts from start to finish, including organizing, writing, editing, and overseeing the production of final deliverables. This role demands a versatile professional who can thrive in a fast-paced environment while maintaining precision and consistency. If you're ready to leverage your expertise in procurement and proposal management to drive our organization's success, we want to hear from you.

The role is accountable to lead, project manage and write our largest strategic proposals for Sun Life’s Group Benefits business.  The role is mainly remote, in office days either out of the Montreal, Toronto or Waterloo offices.  The role reports to the Director, Sales Enablement and Strategy and will be a key member of the Group Benefits Sales Enablement Proposal Leadership Team.

What will you do:

Project Management Lead

• Lead our most strategic new business and at-risk strategic cases, from project managing all stakeholders & timelines to strategically positioning Sun Life as top choice.

• Lead and write complex, procurement RFPs.

• Ability to read the sales opportunity specifications and multiple agreements and come up with a strong workback schedule, identify internal key subject matter experts and lead this group to meet the RFP requirements.

• Ensure quality and timely delivery of proposals; reviews and assesses (pre and post submission) to ensure an ongoing quality standard.

• Ability to lead meetings with multiple stakeholders and drive for execution.

• Support the Director and sales teams to develop and execute pitch strategies for key clients.

Strategic Sales Writer

• We’re looking for a communications or sales professional who works closely with our sales executive, senior leaders and subject matter experts to deliver custom responses on most strategic cases.

• We’re looking for a professional with strong research, writing and editing skills to ensure the RFP responses are customized to the specific sales opportunity, appealing, understandable, concise and differentiates us from our competitors.

• You’ll be responsible for ensuring the content follows Sun Life’s branding, writing and tone of voice principles.

• Ability to think strategically and creatively to work with Graphic Design Team to ensure our RFP delivery stands out and is customized to the sales opportunity.

• Proficient in MS Word and Excel an asset

Procurement Expertise, Insights and leadership

• Develop strong procurement response framework to be leveraged across the entire Proposal Writing team.

• Develop and create reporting insights and trends to service up to leadership team to showcase  the trends we’re seeing from the market and solutions we can implement in future.

• Accountable to connect with Procurement resources internally and externally to learn more about Procurement process and how to increase our win rates.

• Support training of team where required.

• Back up team managers where required.

What do you need to succeed?

• Deep Group Benefits knowledge and experience.

• A minimum of five years of professional writing experience.

• Project-management skills expert with the demonstrated ability to create a strong project plan and manage multiple workstreams to meet the client’s RFP requirements.

• Procurement-based proposal writing experience with the ability to read & understand RFP specifications, mandatory requirements, and statement of work.

• Experience writing Federal Government contracts will be a differentiator

• Understanding of the procurement or purchasing process for organizations in regulatory environments

• Able to effectively prioritize and manage multiple initiatives and deadlines for multiple stakeholders

• Strong and effective relationship builder with the ability to motivate others to collaborate effectively and meet service standards and timelines

• Incorporates excellent time management and organization skills to meet many priorities, deadlines and frequent interruptions.

• Self-motivated, self-starter, outcomes and execution-focused.

• Strong problem solver and critical thinker.

• Experience in leveraging data and insights to support problem solving.

• 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 French-speaking colleagues or internal partners across Canada or worldwide.

• A language and strategic business writing test will be required during the interview process.

What’s in it for you?

• 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 caring, supportive, and inclusive culture.

• Pension Plan participation starts immediately, and you are automatically enrolled. We help you save more with Sun Life automatic and matching contributions and by including both your salary and bonus when making contributions.

• Stock Ownership Program gives you the chance to invest in Sun Life and get a company match.

• Flexible Benefits from the day you join to meet the needs of you and your family.

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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