Associate Director, Operational Innovation

RBC • Toronto, ON

2d • Onsite

About The Position

The Associate Director, Operational Innovation is a hands-on role responsible for translating the group’s Operational Development roadmap into managed delivery programs and driving end-to-end outcomes for operational improvement initiatives across RBC CM COO. This role bridges strategic framework development and hands-on delivery through strong individual contribution, managing senior stakeholder relationships, and ensuring that operational development initiatives are executed with rigour, speed, and adherence to enterprise standards. The role also supports broader Operational Readiness activities where cross-mandate engagement is required.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in finance, Business administration or a related field.
• 7–10 years of progressive experience in operations, process improvement, program management, or organisational development, with at least 2–3 years in a people or program leadership capacity.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with proven ability to manage cross-functional stakeholder relationships and senior management.
• Strong program and project management capability with experience managing multiple concurrent initiatives, including milestone tracking, dependency management, risk escalation, and executive-level reporting.
• Data-driven approach to problem-solving.
• Expertise and fluency in the Microsoft Applications suite i.e. Excel, PowerPoint, Word.
• Building and maintaining operational dashboards and KPI reports using Tableau or Power BI.
• Experience in preparing, cleaning and integrating datasets from multiple sources using Excel, SQL and tools like Alteryx, DBT or Python.
• Data modeling and data mart design experience on platforms such as DataBricks or Snowflake to support high-volume analytics.
• Understanding of ETL/ELT pipelines and data quality principles to support analytics and automation workflows.
• Querying relational databases, data extraction, and supporting operational workflows with structured data.
• Workflow design and automation using Power Automate, Zapier, or enterprise equivalents for rapid solution delivery.
• Core scripting capability for automation logic, data transformation, and integration across operational tools and systems.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in financial services or a regulated industry, with capital markets knowledge a particular asset
• Exposure to continuous improvement methodologies such as Lean, Six Sigma, or equivalent.
• Experience contributing to business case development and ROI quantification.
• Familiarity with Git and CI/CD concepts for maintaining reproducible, manageable automation code.
• Proficiency in BPMN notation, swimlane diagrams, and flowcharts to document and communicate process design.
• Development using UiPath, Blue Prism, or Automation Anywhere, including deployment and performance monitoring.
• Working knowledge of RESTful APIs and webhooks to connect systems and data sources.
• Basic knowledge of AWS, Azure, or GCP, including infrastructure and managed services relevant to automation hosting.

Responsibilities

• Lead structured operational assessments and process discovery to identify and qualify operational development opportunities.
• Develop or support business cases and ROI models for operational development initiatives as required.
• Present recommendations to management for roadmap prioritisation.
• Apply standardised assessment criteria to rank and sequence opportunities by value, feasibility, and risk.
• Own end-to-end delivery of multiple concurrent operational development initiatives, managing scope, timelines, dependencies, risks, and executive reporting across the portfolio.
• Partner with business, technology, data, and architecture teams to translate solution designs into operational procedures, process maps, and supporting artifacts.
• Lead implementation planning, rollout sequencing, training delivery, and post-implementation monitoring, applying lessons learned to continuously improve delivery.
• Support establishment and ongoing requirements related to continuous improvement governance structures, including working groups and stakeholder forums.
• Ensure all initiatives are delivered in alignment with enterprise governance and operational standards.
• Enforce design patterns and change management processes across the team.
• Lead risk reviews for new initiatives and maintain audit-ready documentation.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for business partners on active operational development initiatives.
• Communicate delivery status, risks, and outcomes clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Build and maintain effective working relationships across business, operations, technology, data and risk functions.
• Mentor across a team of senior professionals, fostering a culture of rigor and delivery excellence.
• Own the development and maintenance of operational best practices repositories including process standards, templates, and tools.
• Codify lessons learned to drive consistency and quality across the function.
• Provide delivery support to cross-mandate workstreams where Operational Development and Operational Readiness activities intersect.

Benefits

• bonuses
• flexible benefits
• competitive compensation
• commissions
• stock where applicable
• Leaders who support your development through coaching and managing opportunities
• Ability to make a difference and lasting impact.
• Work in a dynamic, collaborative, progressive, and high-performing team.
• Flexible work/life balance options.
• Opportunities to do challenging work.
• Opportunities to take on progressively greater accountabilities.
• Access to a variety of job opportunities across business.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior