Director, Corporate Technology HR

Definity is the parent company to some of Canada’s most long-standing and innovative insurance brands, including Economical Insurance, Sonnet Insurance, Family Insurance Solutions, and Petline Insurance. Our ambition is to be one of Canada’s leading and most innovative property and casualty insurers. We can’t do that without our people, so we embrace and encourage a culture that’s collaborative, ambitious, rewarding, and empowering.

We offer a flexible, hybrid work experience where employees work from the office and virtually depending on the type of work they are doing and who they are working with. Bring your true self and be a part of our journey. It’s better here.

The Director, Corporate Technology HR role serves as a technology and strategy partner to our HR business leadership, is also a conduit to product and technology organization and a bridge to our technology capabilities and functions. - Partner with HR leadership to influence, optimize and incorporate HRIS capabilities provided by Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM.

What can you expect in this role?

• The role serves as a technology and strategy partner to our HR business leadership, is also a conduit to product and technology organization and a bridge to our technology capabilities and functions.
• Partner with HR leadership to influence, optimize and incorporate HRIS capabilities provided by Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM.
• You can lead, direct, and drive a customer focused culture throughout the entire Solutions & Applications Delivery team to deepen business relationships and leverage broader relationships, systems, and knowledge.
• You build a high-performance environment and able to implement a people strategy that attracts, retains, develops, and motivates their team by fostering an inclusive work environment and using a coaching mindset and behaviors; communicating vison/values/business strategy; and as well, managing succession and development planning for the team.
• You will be responsible for delivering projects/programs. In the context of managing a program delivery, the position requires: 
  • Identification and management of dependencies between projects and other cross-organizational programs
  • Identification and management of the overall critical path.
  • Ensure solutions meet the security, scalability, reliability for business critical systems which includes leading priorities and balancing demand.
  • Expert & in-depth understanding of the business environment to assess the impacts on multiple businesses and then, establish project sequence and priority accordingly.
  • Comprehensive understanding the technical environment to assess operational risk associated with various solution and implementation options and facilitating identification of the most cost effective and efficient solution.
  • Managing direct reports in the execution & delivery of assigned programs.
  • Responsible for Corporate portfolio deliverables (time, cost, quality).
  • Responsible for Operational Readiness of all projects.
  • Facilitate transitioning of projects to steady state support.
  • Coordinate maintenance/change windows / timing.
  • Facilitate and support the change management process for project delivery.
• Support all the above in a fast-paced, exciting and evolving environment while supporting regular release rollouts into the Production environment.
• Work with business subject matter experts, technical leads, and business analysts to design and develop an approach for the configuration, effort estimation and build of design documents.
• You must be hands-on in your approach and leadership style.

Portfolio Management

• Provide oversight, direction, and guidance to the Portfolio Management team in the delivery of initiatives that will enable the enterprise to achieve its overall strategic mandate of being the leader in client relationships while meeting regulatory requirements. Develop work plans for a variety of projects. Ability to introduce new process and procedures. This may involve working with business units to incorporate new tasks or processes. Manage the flow of business cases through their required governance lifecycle and report on the portfolio initiatives.
• Relationship Management - Build and manage strong relationships with a diverse group of stakeholders across the organization at all levels to support portfolio management and program delivery against whitepaper vision.
• People Management - Lead, motivate and coach on an on-going basis direct and indirect team members. Identify gaps and remove obstacles to performance, develop action plans to align with business priorities. Create a positive work environment and role model by championing Definity’s mission, vision, and values. Comply with policies, standards, guidelines, and controls by applying the policies and controls fairly and consistently so employees understand what to expect. Hire the right people in the right jobs to align individual capabilities with job requirements and business unit goals.
• Own the implementation of project designs, standards, and processes.
• Consult on enterprise technologies in the digital platform space.
• Support the development and documentation of high-level technical designs such as architectural diagrams.
• Contribute to organic business development, research, and requirement gathering.
• Assist in development and maintenance of technical standards.
• Evaluate performance of Technology department.
• Work with senior leadership to set technological roadmap and associated budgets
• Oversee the deployment of new technical solutions and services that align with organizational goals
• Plan and direct project activities and recommend resource needs for ongoing and new requirements
• Ensure that project plans are developed, communicated, and monitored, and that projects are delivered as per the business requirements
• Work directly with vendors and service providers on the creation of contracts and fostering relationships
• Ensure the delivery process and technology strategies are coherent and optimized
• Work with business owners and analysts to find solutions to manage business process activities
• Plan and implement process re-engineering or process improvements
• Oversee the operational maintenance of implemented solutions
• Manage a diverse team of Technical Leads, Business Analysts, and Developers assigning, directing and reviewing work and ensuring all members follow the direction provided as it relates to a specific project or initiative
• Ensure appropriate technical standards, procedures and best practices are defined and adhered to
• Identify and eliminate security vulnerabilities with strategic solutions that increase data security
• Stay abreast of innovative trends to identify and recommend new technology solutions
• Maintain an ongoing partnership with senior management and the business to apply in-depth knowledge of the business operations, strategies, priorities and information requirements to establish the technical direction and an enterprise view

Leadership Responsibilities

• You will provide technical guidance for Oracle Fusion Cloud specifically related to Human Capital Management (HCM)
• You will lead technical projects relating to Oracle Fusion Cloud, pushing best practices to the team.
• You will develop partnerships with the business and our partners
• Gain understanding of boundary systems and processes and the HR and IT ecosystem
• You will ensure a focus on the employee experience
• You will manage the team and will mentor, guide and actively share knowledge across all team

Application Management Responsibilities

• Drive projects from inception to implementation; provide expertise, guidance, and delivery of projects.
• Manage and track all enhancement requests; prioritize and manage a timeline for delivery
• Manage incoming enhancements and which need to be escalated to the project level.
• Stay up to date on vendor strategy, new functionality and how we can evolve our investment to improve the experience and functionality
• Stay versed in the marketplace of other competing technology, where the industry is moving
• Develop partnerships with outside vendors.
• Remain up to date in the technology and become an expert in Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, ERP & EPM.
• Identify problems, propose solutions, implement.
• Establish best practices; provide governance for the platform.
• Analyze our processes, Oracle configurations, and operational issues to identify potential solutions or gain process efficiency and improve data integrity.
• Keep up to date with Oracle’s quarterly releases and ensure you have a solid understanding of the release changes, changes are discussed with business, successfully tested, and implemented.

Application Support Responsibilities

• Ensure Routine Tasks, maintenance, and audits are being executed.
• Develop and execute or assign new routine tasks and audits to keep the application performing optimally.
• Respond and resolve system issues and escalations.
• Support end user training, communications, intranet presence – collaborating with our business partners.
• Ensure the security of the application, ensuring careful security administration and compliance.
• Understand health of application; provide metrics and meaningful information for application use.
• Understand work effort and time management of the team; ensure a backup strategy.
• Proactively plan for and execute routine work (shutdowns; holidays; annual events).
• Evolve our support model, continually tuning it and taking the best advantage of the team and organizational structures.
• Provide a high SLA and customer satisfaction with clients for L3 Support.
• Monitor and audit Oracle license usage to ensure compliance.

What do you bring to the role?

• You must have at least 10+ years’ experience in HRIS, preferably Oracle HCM, and Talent Acquisition systems.
• You have at least 10+ years in a leadership role within or serving a large enterprise organization, in which you have managed large complex technology projects and programs that have significant IT and operational components.
• At a minimum have 5+ years of experience with SaaS Cloud products, Oracle Fusion would be an asset and preferred.
• You have at least 5+ years of people management experience.
• Experience with HCM and Payroll core business processes and operations.
• Exceptional analytical reasoning and problem-solving capabilities with proven abilities to think creatively and strategically to solve and answer key business problems.
• You can demonstrate critical thinking & thought leadership on project and/or program management.
• You can demonstrate a successful track record in utilizing your influencing & interpersonal skills to drive change, consensus and provide direction while delivering solutions to tackle sophisticated business challenges.
• Completion of a post-secondary education in a business or technology related field.
• Working knowledge of the financial services industry, which includes its regulatory and compliance requirements (i.e., OSFI) is a strong asset.
• Working experience in Portfolio Management (a combination of projects and programs) is an asset
• Working knowledge of the human resources industry is a strong asset.
• A PMP designation is an asset.
• Highly comfortable with SQL, PL/SQL, and Java.
• Sound knowledge writing mapping rules and other business logic.
• Experience configuring operational parameters such as roles / permissions, user attributes, regions, and so on.
• Excellent troubleshooting skills for solving complex application, data and infrastructure issues.
• Outstanding collaborative drive to work with others, within team and with other teams, on application design, configuration, and performance requirements with a passion for customer experience excellence.
• Strong verbal and written communications skills
• A self-starter with a “can-do” mentality who engages in challenging situations with a sense of ownership and urgency, while being comfortable adapting to changing priorities and juggling concurrent activities to drive results that exceed business expectations.
• Experience with Production & Operations Support.
• Experience working in agile settings.
• Experience creating UML diagrams and business process mapping.

 

Interested in this role, but don't meet every requirement? We encourage you to apply! We know from experience that a candidate doesn't need 100% of the qualifications listed to bring incredible value to our team. We're actively seeking diverse backgrounds and perspectives to help us make insurance better. At Definity, inclusion, diversity, and equity aren't just "nice to have" — they're essential to our success.

What's in it for you?

• Hybrid work schedule for most roles
• Company share ownership program
• Pension and savings programs, with company-matched RRSP contributions
• Paid volunteer days and company matching on charitable donations
• Educational resources, tuition assistance, and paid time off to study for exams
• Focus on inclusion with employee groups, support for gender affirmation surgery, access to BIPOC counsellors, access to programs for working parents
• Wellness and recognition programs
• Discounts on products and services

Actual salary for the role may vary depending on work location of the successful candidate and other factors including but not limited to, skills, education, experience, working conditions and the local labour market.  In addition to base pay, eligible employees may participate in various incentive plans which are paid out at the discretion of the company and subject to individual and company performance.

Go ahead and expect a lot — you deserve it.
It's better here — but don't take our word for it. Definity was named by Great Place to Work® as one of the Best Workplaces™ in Canada for women, for youth, and for inclusion.

Our inclusive work environment welcomes diversity and supports accessibility. If you require accommodation at any time during the recruitment process, please let us know by contacting [email protected].

Background checks
This role requires successful clearance of background checks (including criminal checks and leadership references).

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