Associate Manager, Planning and Performance, Meeting and Event Management

The Canada Life Assurance Company•Toronto, ON

5d•CA$71,900 - CA$119,800•Hybrid

About The Position

The Meeting and Event Management team is looking for an Associate Manager, Planning & Performance. Reporting to the Director, Meeting & Event Management, the Associate Manager, Planning & Performance, is responsible for driving consistency, scalability, and operational excellence across the team. This role leads the development and optimization of planning processes, standards, tools, and best practices, while providing leadership, coaching, and oversight to a team of event planners and digital specialists. Working closely with partners across BMCI and key stakeholder groups, the Associate Manager, Planning & Performance ensures planning excellence and consistent delivery across a diverse portfolio of internal and external meetings and events. The ideal candidate is a dynamic, people-focused leader who builds high-performing teams through coaching, accountability, and a shared commitment to excellence. Strategic and results-oriented, they bring a continuous improvement mindset—assessing current practices, identifying opportunities, and implementing scalable solutions that strengthen consistency, efficiency, and team performance. With strong operational expertise and proven leadership skills, they will balance process discipline with a positive team culture to deliver exceptional event experiences and enhance the strategic impact of Meeting & Event Management across the organization.

Requirements

Excellent interpersonal skills in order to effectively gather process requirements, obtain approvals, build relationships and provide sufficient influence to achieve success
Willingness to understand the event planning industry, culture and nuances that impact processes
Curious and creative problem solver that can break down complex problems into meaningful parts to identify and solve improvement areas
Ability to analyze complex data to determine appropriate course of action towards the objectives
Strong execution skills to support robust deployment of improvement and transformation opportunities in a dynamic environment
Ability to work with a high degree of detail and accuracy in a fast-paced environment
Strong time management skills with the ability to prioritize competing projects
Demonstrated leadership experience with the ability to inspire, coach, and develop individuals and teams.
2+ years’ experience leading and delivering operational process improvements or initiatives
Experience with SAP, budgeting and financial systems
Experience in leading projects and Change Management
Excellent communication skills with experience creating and leading presentations to senior leadership
Skilled at building strong, collaborative relationships at all levels of an organization

Nice To Haves

Financial services/insurance business knowledge is an asset

Responsibilities

Model & promote a culture of continuous improvement within the business
Drives efficiency gains, quality improvements and consistency through new and improved processes aligned with business objectives
Collaborate with partners and key stakeholder groups o reengineer existing processes, apply technology where appropriate, design, test and evaluate new process models, formulate the business case, and operationalize/deploy the new model.
Manage the people side of change to achieve a desired state of operational excellence (through communication, coaching, transition and training
Communicate process impacts to stakeholders to ensure they understand process outcomes.
Works in helping to deliver the message as they relate to changes in process.
In collaboration with cross-functional teams, looks for continuous improvement opportunities based on best practices and strategic orientation
Assist in establishing team objectives
Provides input for annual expense budget for their team
Provides input to help prioritize and assign process initiatives
May develop training plans for new and existing employees to ensure continual growth
Responsible for direct reports’ performance management & compensation decisions
Assists in creation of department best practices

Benefits

Opportunities for career advancement
access to industry-leading learning programs
up to $2,000 annually towards education reimbursement
Flexible health and dental benefits
$5,000 mental health benefit
In addition to regular vacation and personal days, we support community involvement with a volunteer day.
Company-matching pension plan
share ownership program
additional investment options
Employee recognition programs
service milestone celebrations
employee discounts
Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)
mentorship programs
social clubs and events