VP, Global Brand and Growth Marketing

Sun Life • Waterloo, ON

1d • CA$195,000 - CA$270,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Vice President, Global Brand and Growth Marketing will play a critical leadership role in driving the advancement of Sun Life’s global brand, digital marketing, Client-facing AI, and marketing technology capabilities across geographies, including Corporate and Business Group teams. Reporting to the SVP and Global Chief Client Experience & Marketing Officer, this individual will bring a seasoned, innovative, and enterprise-minded approach, with deep expertise in brand strategy, digital marketing, data, AI-enabled Client experiences, and measurable business outcomes. As a senior member of the Global Client Experience & Marketing team, this leader will oversee and guide multi-disciplinary teams that advance Sun Life’s positioning as a digitally modern, active and trusted partner for Clients, Advisors, Employees, and partners. The mandate includes Global Digital Marketing & Global Shared Digital Services, Enterprise Marketing Technology, Client-facing AI strategy and enablement, Brand strategy/management/activation, Sponsorships and Partnerships, and Creative Excellence.
As a key member of Sun Life’s Senior Marketing Leadership Team, this role will work in close partnership with senior marketing colleagues across North American and Asia markets, as well as Technology, Compliance, Risk, Corporate Communications, HR, Finance, and other Enterprise teams to advance marketing discipline, integrated execution, responsible innovation, and measurable impact for the business and Clients.
In addition to the technical skill set, the ideal candidate will possess a strong and mature leadership style, leading by example and demonstrating broad and strong influencing skills across the Enterprise. They will provide critical support and discipline to a transforming organization, bringing a demonstrated history of managing teams through strategic and tactical complexity, matrixed working relationships and critical decision-making.

Requirements

• 10-15 years of experience leading, developing, and implementing strategic marketing plans for major multi-market companies/brands.
• Minimum of 7 years’ experience leading multi-disciplinary teams, ideally within matrixed structures/organization.
• Strong depth of working experience in key disciplines, including data-driven marketing, digital marketing, MarTech capabilities, responsible AI-enabled Client experiences, brand development, sponsorships and partnerships, integrated marketing plan design, and execution.
• Strong data-orientation – strong understanding of analysis and metrics, with the ability to interpret data and apply learnings effectively to plans and programs.
• Superior influencing and communication skills
• Strong collaborator across teams and Enterprise functions.
• Demonstrated ability to work across Technology, Compliance, Risk, Legal, Privacy, Corporate Communications, HR, Finance, and market leadership teams to deliver complex enterprise programs with strong governance and clear business outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Drive the near and long-term strategy and roadmaps for Sun Life’s Enterprise Marketing Technology (MarTech) stack suite of capabilities, partnering with key BG/BU and Enterprise Technology teams to understand and bring together the right MarTech capability needs and requirements for the business.
• Design and champion key MarTech utilization and efficiency measures and drive the development Client & Business Impact use cases that demonstrate the value of these capabilities.
• For key internal partners and senior audiences, articulate how platform and capability investments drive ROI and improve outcomes for the business and the Client.
• Own the overall Client-facing AI effort for Global Client Experience & Marketing, including strategy, prioritization, governance, operating model, and responsible delivery of AI-enabled experiences that improve Client outcomes, reduce friction, and create scalable business value.
• Partner closely with Technology, Compliance, Risk, Legal, Privacy, and Corporate Communications to ensure AI, MarTech, data, and digital capabilities are deployed responsibly, ethically, securely, and consistently with Sun Life’s brand, regulatory, and reputation expectations.
• Identify relevant areas of opportunity to help advance Sun Life’s data strategy in support of improved Client Experience and marketing performance.
• Guide strategy, project, and capacity plans for Digital Shared Services (Publishing and Digital Analytics) in support of BG/BU and Corporate partner priorities.
• As a digital marketing consultant, partner with BG/BUs digital marketing and channel leads to evaluate, provide insight, and drive stronger strategic outcomes through a range of digital marketing tools and applications.
• Advance the maturity of Enterprise digital marketing and AI-enabled Client engagement capabilities in support of BG/BU teams, with a focus on new Client growth, deepening existing Client relationships, and creating more personalized, relevant and proactive experiences across the journey.
• Drive adoption of digital marketing best-in-class learnings and test-and-learn practices to maximize Client impact and company growth using all available digital channels, capabilities, and platforms (e.g., website, email, mobile, SEO/SEM, programmatic media, social media, etc.)
• Work with Global and Business teams in driving analysis and interpretation of digital channel analytics and metrics to determine and drive areas of improvement.
• Actively support Business Groups and Units in deepening relationships with existing Clients and driving cross-sell opportunities using Client data analytics and insights, CRM techniques, and targeted marketing activities
• Stay on top of and promote the latest innovations across the digital marketing ecosystem.
• Translate emerging AI, search, personalization, and digital experience trends into practical business use cases, pilots, and scalable capabilities that position Sun Life as a modern, digitally enabled and active partner for Clients.
• As the global brand champion, drive strategy and implementation for Sun Life’s overall B2C, B2B, and Corporate brand strategy in partnership with key BG, BU, and Corporate teams, reinforcing Sun Life’s positioning as an active and trusted partner that helps Clients move forward with confidence and connects brand activity to business outcomes.
• Develop and execute the adoption of Sun Life’s brand architecture, creative principles, playbooks and guidelines, trademarks and reputation management across geographies, business groups and business units.
• Develop and deploy all employee brand training, communications, and engagement plans, collaborating with key partners including Communications and HR to ensure employee brand champions across the organization.
• Working with Business Groups and Units, Leverage brand health results and insights to drive disciplined market-level improvement opportunities across key journeys and touchpoints, campaigns, and channel activations.
• Design and implement an engineered brand differentiation practice with BG/BU teams for products and solutions, including value proposition development, market positioning, brand naming, testing, and GTM plans.
• Provide Business Groups and Units with strategic and executional brand support, including consultation and governance, to better systematize ‘on-brand’ work through program briefs, concept and creative testing, and effective campaign development in support of business priorities.
• Lead content strategy, development and execution for global social channels and corporate websites; manage key global social media tools and platforms reporting.
• Be the senior voice inspiring creative excellence in every program and communication.
• Own the strategy, governance, and enterprise integration of Sponsorships and Partnerships, ensuring high-value relationships and activations strengthen Sun Life’s brand, advance Client and community impact, and align with business priorities across markets.
• Work closely with Corporate Communications to ensure brand positioning, market narratives, social content, reputation monitoring, paid and earned media, and employee communications are aligned, consistent, and ready for enterprise-wide launch and activation.
• Oversee management of Sun Life’s internal Creative Services team responsible for developing a broad range of B2C, B2B, and Corporate creative campaigns and materials in support of key Executives, Corporate and Enterprise teams
• As an extension of the Global Brand Team, provide on-brand creative direction and guidance to other creative and design teams across Sun Life, execute Creative Excellence reviews, and establish and develop ongoing brand guidelines and best practices.
• Oversee Sun Life’s core creative assets management, including image library, logo guidelines and assets, and templates; establish and develop ongoing brand guidelines and best practices.
• Manage and lead a multi-disciplinary global team of 50+ team members across Toronto, Waterloo, and partner markets, setting clear priorities, operating rhythms, governance practices, and performance expectations.
• Manage key vendor, agency, sponsorship, and partnership relationships, budgets, business cases, tracking, and administration of program costs in conjunction with key programs and enterprise priorities.
• Promote and champion a positive working and learning environment by fostering a culture of trust, inclusion, continuous development, and accountability.
• Foster and accelerate employee career development.
• Regularly update business teams, senior management, Global Marketing, Technology, Compliance, Risk, and Corporate Communications partners on program progress, Client and business impact, risk considerations, and adoption through quantitative and qualitative reporting.

Benefits

• In addition to Base Pay, eligible Sun Life employees participate in various incentive plans, payment under which is discretionary and subject to individual and company performance.
• Certain sales focused roles have sales incentive plans based on individual or group sales results.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive
• Education Level: No Education Listed