Director, PI Data Strategy & Design

Definity includes some of Canada’s most long-standing and innovative insurance brands, including Economical Insurance, Sonnet Insurance, Family Insurance Solutions, and Petline Insurance. With strong roots that date back to 1871, we’ve grown to become a digital leader in the insurance industry. We’re proud to help our clients and communities adapt and thrive in a world of constant change.

Our promise to you: It’s better here. Why? Because we CARE, and we provide an employee experience that’s collaborative, ambitious, rewarding, and empowering.

Our ambition is to be one of Canada’s leading and most innovative P&C insurers. Come be a part of our journey, and love what you do.

What can you expect in this role?

The Director, PI Data Strategy and Design provides strategic and technical leadership in identifying, solving and implementing data management solutions that enables data collection, consumption and analytics across the Personal Insurance teams, while collaborating and supporting with Enterprise Data Strategy. The Director will be accountable to understand the business strategy, solve problems, develop and establish a PI Data Strategy / Data Management practice to address the Personal Insurance data needs, including having ownership of our PI Data Centre, data governance, data literacy, data quality and data enablement across various internal functional areas to improve overall reporting, drive operating efficiencies and enable descriptive and advanced analytics projects.

This role will be instrumental in understanding the capabilities made available by the data platform and providing support for decision making to key organizational initiatives by applying a wide range of data management techniques to enable differentiated insights and business efficiencies.  You are passionate about conceptualizing creative solutions to problems and driving results using data, able to both provide the business requirements for data architecture initiatives and lead the implementation of solutions.  You are a self-starter with an engaging leadership style, and solid influencing and facilitation skills, who will quickly develop relationships across the organization

Your Responsibilities

• Leads collaboration with all PI teams and stakeholders to assess and develop business needs and develop a PI Data Strategy and roadmap with ownership for the delivery of this strategy (*this is not a developer role*)
• Support the build out of a net new PI Data Practice and team, including providing input into Organization Design, focused on organizing, transforming and aggregating data for use by all PI functions
• Exploration, definition, and transformation of data into an actionable environment, recommending on-going improvements to business and technology processes related to data integration and business intelligence needs
• Build and maintain a strong working relationship with Technology teams to ensure data platform  is designed and operated to support our strategic direction and BAU activities, including making the BAU activities as efficient as possible.
• Create strategic relationships beyond PI with key partners including the Enterprise Data Office, Claims and Advanced Analytics teams to ensure roadmap alignment and governance adherence
• Conduct preliminary analyses on data involving basic statistical approaches and provide solutions to treat various data deficiencies to support data integrity and governance
• Work closely with PI team and functions including Sonnet, Petline, Family and Economical, Pricing, Operations, BAC and Underwriting to develop and streamline data, models, tools and reports that help inform the business to make data-driven decisions
• Pivot and reprioritize resources to maintain continuous alignment with the organization as business objectives, opportunities and demands change
• Establish credibility and maintain strong relationships with key business partners.

What do you bring to the role?

• University degree in a related field
• Minimum 8 years of leadership experience in data management and delivery
• Experience and strong understanding of data solution design, design patterns and security frameworks on cloud for data with knowledge of relational and multi-dimensional modeling techniques.
• Experience moving data from application systems to data models for analytics use; experience with a variety of databases (Oracle, SQL Server) for data
• Strong knowledge of big data and cloud data platforms, querying languages and ecosystem (e.g., Impala/Hive, Spark, Oozie, Java, Python, R)
• Experience with data transformation tools such as SAS, Alteryx, and SPSS
• Strong understanding of data warehousing techniques, data mining, data management and  database development techniques.
• Credible experience with data visualization tools (e.g., IBM Cognos, Tableau)
• Experience with agile methodology for analytics; experience with JIRA & Confluence for project management and the ability to manage multiple tasks and changing priorities
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to build positive and productive relationships.
• Excellent communication and organizational skills; comfortable with ambiguity and ability to work independently with minimal supervision

We also take potential into consideration. If you don’t have this exact experience, but you know you have what it takes, be sure to give us more insight through your application and cover letter.

Go ahead and expect a lot — you deserve it, and we’ve got it: 

• 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

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 a background check (including criminal checks and leadership references).