Senior Manager, BMO Rewards Loyalty Program

BMO•Toronto, ON

5d•CA$86,000 - CA$160,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Senior Manager, BMO Rewards Loyalty Program is accountable for the end-to-end strategy, governance, financial performance, customer experience, operational stability, and continuous improvement of BMO’s proprietary BMO Rewards program. BMO Rewards is the rewards currency and program supporting multiple Mastercard and VISA products across Consumer, Small Business, Wealth, and Commercial client segments. This individual leads the BMO Rewards program team and is responsible for translating program strategy into an executable roadmap, prioritizing enhancements, managing partner and vendor relationships, overseeing the program P&L, and ensuring the program delivers compelling customer value while meeting business, risk, compliance, and operational objectives. The role also provides centralized oversight of BMOR-related NARP priority projects, ensuring effective intake, allocation, execution support, and downstream readiness across marketing, rewards, promotions, operations, customer support, and platform enablement activities. This role reports into the Director, North American Proprietary Reward Programs. Accountability Includes: 1) End-to-end BMO Rewards program strategy, roadmap, and performance management 2) Program design, rewards value proposition, customer engagement, and enhancement delivery 3) BMOR team leadership, prioritization, talent development, and cross-functional coverage 4) Vendor, partner, contract, operational, risk, compliance, and customer support governance 1. End-to-End BMO Rewards Program Strategy and Management Effective management of the BMO Rewards proprietary reward program is critical to delivering a differentiated customer experience, supporting business growth objectives, managing costs and profitability, and maintaining strong risk and operational controls. This role is accountable for the overall management and performance of the BMO Rewards program, including: • Ensure that our program is a best-in-class customer program, that puts customer experience at the heart of what we do • Manage the Reward Program P&L, and achieve program KPI’s • Manage risk, including rewards fraud, and ensuring compliance with all laws, rules and BMO policies • Ensuring effective policies, procedures and processes are put in place to support BMO Rewards • Lead and/or participate in initiatives across the bank related to BMO Rewards and resolving issues • Make strategy and new initiative recommendations to senior leaders based on an in-depth understanding of the business/group. • Oversee NARP project intake, prioritization, and allocation across the BMOR team, ensuring marketing, rewards, promotions, operational, customer support, and MRS platform enablement impacts are assessed and managed before launch. 2. Program Design, Customer Engagement, and Rewards Value Proposition The loyalty landscape is evolving quickly, driven by changes in customer expectations, technology, personalization, and partner value models. This role is accountable for ensuring BMO Rewards remains competitive and customer-centric by shaping the program roadmap, strengthening the earn-and-burn experience, improving catalogue and redemption value, and enabling campaigns, offers, triggers, and personalized communications that drive engagement and financial performance. This accountability includes: • Designing, building, and enhancing BMO Rewards Loyalty Program to deliver exceptional customer experience • Continually monitoring the competitive environment and anticipating customer needs in the next 12 months • Working with the Director, Proprietary North American Reward Program, Proprietary Card Product Managers, Canadian Small Business and Corporate Product Managers, and other key stakeholders to develop the strategy and roadmap for the BMO Rewards Loyalty Program based on deep customer insights • Continually finding ways to enhance customer engagement and the loyalty experience through innovative new value-added services and engagement tools like gamification and personalization • Ensure alignment across marketing and engagement, rewards catalogue and promotions, and operational readiness so program enhancements are delivered with clear ownership, measurable KPIs, and minimal post-launch customer or call centre impacts. 3. BMOR Team Leadership and Operating Model • Building, leading, managing, and coaching a strong, diverse, high performing team and sustaining a “One BMO” culture while delivering an excellent employee experience Work with the Director, North American Proprietary Reward Programs to set strategic direction, establish team priorities, balance BAU and project work, and create a high-performing operating model across marketing and engagement, rewards and promotions, operations and customer support, and shared NARP-enabled initiatives. Lead a team of execution-focused professionals and leverage relationships and influence across the Bank to inform strategy, process, procedures, platform readiness, customer communications, and operational execution that impact BMO Rewards delivery. • Maintain and Grow Loyalty knowledge across Loyalty Team and the NARP organization • Attracts, retains, and enables the career development of top talent. • Build cross-coverage and knowledge-sharing practices across the team to support vacation coverage, succession planning, business continuity, and consistent execution across BMO Rewards priorities. 4. Partner, Vendor, Contract, Operational, and Customer Support Governance Manage supplier, vendor, and partner relationships, including contract obligations, performance metrics, pricing, profitability, due diligence, issue resolution, and day-to-day relationship governance. Ensure contractual, partnership, financial, risk, compliance, and operational governance obligations are understood, monitored, and effectively managed across the program. Liaise with product, operations, technology, legal, compliance, risk, call centre, finance, marketing, and other lines of business across BMO to resolve issues, support customer and operational readiness, and deliver program priorities. • Oversee operational management activities, including process improvements, procedure updates, quality control, compliance monitoring, reject management, call centre escalation oversight, and forecasting of customer support impacts.

Requirements

Strong track record delivering results in ambiguous and challenging situations
Strategic partnership management & FI payments experience
P&L accountability
Leadership and people management potential (ability to motivate, engage and support)
Minimum undergraduate university degree, an MBA or other post-graduate degree, or equivalent industry related experience preferred
5+ years loyalty/rewards program management and experience
Experience leading complex cross-functional initiatives, operational governance, vendor accountability, financial oversight, and customer-impacting change in a regulated environment.
2+ years of direct people management experience; leading a team
Strategic thinker who can develop and execute near-term and long-term strategies and roadmaps
Proven ability to build relationships with external partners and colleagues across different business units and groups
Proven ability to influence without authority and drive change
Able to think like a customer and design the right customer experience
Proven ability to manage multiple facets of a complex business and effectively prioritize most important business levers and initiatives
Excellent business acumen and financial, analytic, and business casing skills
Very strong communication skills (oral and written) with ability to frame and effectively communicate complex problems
Excellent problem-solving skills
Team-oriented, collaborative and flexible
Strong time management and project management skills
Risk management capabilities

Nice To Haves

MBA or other post-graduate degree, or equivalent industry related experience preferred

Responsibilities

End-to-end BMO Rewards program strategy, roadmap, and performance management
Program design, rewards value proposition, customer engagement, and enhancement delivery
BMOR team leadership, prioritization, talent development, and cross-functional coverage
Vendor, partner, contract, operational, risk, compliance, and customer support governance
Ensure that our program is a best-in-class customer program, that puts customer experience at the heart of what we do
Manage the Reward Program P&L, and achieve program KPI’s
Manage risk, including rewards fraud, and ensuring compliance with all laws, rules and BMO policies
Ensuring effective policies, procedures and processes are put in place to support BMO Rewards
Lead and/or participate in initiatives across the bank related to BMO Rewards and resolving issues
Make strategy and new initiative recommendations to senior leaders based on an in-depth understanding of the business/group.
Oversee NARP project intake, prioritization, and allocation across the BMOR team, ensuring marketing, rewards, promotions, operational, customer support, and MRS platform enablement impacts are assessed and managed before launch.
Designing, building, and enhancing BMO Rewards Loyalty Program to deliver exceptional customer experience
Continually monitoring the competitive environment and anticipating customer needs in the next 12 months
Working with the Director, Proprietary North American Reward Program, Proprietary Card Product Managers, Canadian Small Business and Corporate Product Managers, and other key stakeholders to develop the strategy and roadmap for the BMO Rewards Loyalty Program based on deep customer insights
Continually finding ways to enhance customer engagement and the loyalty experience through innovative new value-added services and engagement tools like gamification and personalization
Ensure alignment across marketing and engagement, rewards catalogue and promotions, and operational readiness so program enhancements are delivered with clear ownership, measurable KPIs, and minimal post-launch customer or call centre impacts.
Building, leading, managing, and coaching a strong, diverse, high performing team and sustaining a “One BMO” culture while delivering an excellent employee experience
Work with the Director, North American Proprietary Reward Programs to set strategic direction, establish team priorities, balance BAU and project work, and create a high-performing operating model across marketing and engagement, rewards and promotions, operations and customer support, and shared NARP-enabled initiatives.
Lead a team of execution-focused professionals and leverage relationships and influence across the Bank to inform strategy, process, procedures, platform readiness, customer communications, and operational execution that impact BMO Rewards delivery.
Maintain and Grow Loyalty knowledge across Loyalty Team and the NARP organization
Attracts, retains, and enables the career development of top talent.
Build cross-coverage and knowledge-sharing practices across the team to support vacation coverage, succession planning, business continuity, and consistent execution across BMO Rewards priorities.
Manage supplier, vendor, and partner relationships, including contract obligations, performance metrics, pricing, profitability, due diligence, issue resolution, and day-to-day relationship governance.
Ensure contractual, partnership, financial, risk, compliance, and operational governance obligations are understood, monitored, and effectively managed across the program.
Liaise with product, operations, technology, legal, compliance, risk, call centre, finance, marketing, and other lines of business across BMO to resolve issues, support customer and operational readiness, and deliver program priorities.
Oversee operational management activities, including process improvements, procedure updates, quality control, compliance monitoring, reject management, call centre escalation oversight, and forecasting of customer support impacts.