AVP, GenAI Architecture & Services

You are as unique as your background, experience and point of view. Here, you’ll be encouraged, empowered and challenged to be your best self. You'll work with dynamic colleagues - experts in their fields - who are eager to share their knowledge with you. Your leaders will inspire and help you reach your potential and soar to new heights. Every day, you'll have new and exciting opportunities to make life brighter for our Clients - who are at the heart of everything we do. Discover how you can make a difference in the lives of individuals, families and communities around the world.

Job Description:

We seek a visionary leader with deep expertise to spearhead architectural design and acceleration of cutting-edge Generative AI solutions across Sun Life globally.  The Assistant Vice President, GenAI Architecture & Services will report into the Global Chief Enterprise Architect and will also lead a team of Architects that partner with Business Groups across Canada, U.S., Asia, Corporate and SLC Management offices. 

The AVP will play a critical role in aligning GenAI initiatives with enterprise goals, ensuring scalable and compliant architectures, and driving innovation through collaboration with cross-functional teams. The ideal candidate will bridge the gap between strategic vision and technical execution to deliver business outcomes using enterprise GenAI architecture patterns.

Responsibilities:

Strategy and innovation

• Ability to orchestrate business and strategic knowledge and technology knowledge to understand how to generate business value from the use of GenAI
• Contribute to the inclusion of GenAI solutions in business and IT strategies to achieve business outcomes, including quantifiable business value
• Evolving and maturing a culture that trusts and uses GenAI in the right places at the right time in the right amounts of human versus machine talent mix
• Contribute to the growth of a GenAI and Data-literate employee population at Sun Life
• Collaborate with senior leadership to identify opportunities for GenAI driven innovation and define a roadmap for implementation.
• Stay abreast of emerging GenAI technologies, trends, and innovations, recommending and integrating them where appropriate.  
• Be a thought leader in the responsible and ethical use of GenAI at Sun Life to achieve our purpose

Team and Stakeholder Collaboration

• Build strong partnership with Enterprise Data & Analytics Enablement team and the Data & Analytics Enterprise architecture team in defining and delivering the target state capabilities associated with the GenAI strategy.
• Partner with business leaders, application architects, solution engineers and platform owners in the adoption of GenAI services, patterns and best practices to achieve business outcomes
• Advocate for GenAI adoption and educate the Enterprise Architecture & Engineering community as well as stakeholders on its value and implications.  
• Mentor and guide architects and engineers with respect to GenAI capabilities and patterns, fostering a culture of innovation and excellence.  
• Scale the use of GenAI capabilities by training team members, supporting skill development and maintaining focus on change management and adoption.
• Build strong relationships with external vendors, research organizations, and technology partners.
• Act as a liaison between technical teams and business stakeholders, translating business needs into technical requirements.
• Partner with IT, governance, and security teams to ensure robust and compliant solutions

AI Architecture Design and Development

• Work to continually improve the Sun Life architecture framework and governance processes to drive the consistent and responsible use of GenAI.
• Own/Advise and maintain key deliverables to direct the evolution of GenAI capabilities, services, tools, and platforms to support and inform build vs. buy decisions.  Key deliverables including but not limited to:
  • Enterprise Capability Model aspects for GenAI.
  • Personas and Journeys to support aligning GenAI development and use across Sun Life.
  • Roadmap of foundational GenAI services, tools, and platforms.
  • Taxonomy of GenAI functional uses.
  • Data & Analytics supported reference architectures for GenAI systems (buy and build).

• Oversee the design of GenAI frameworks and solutions, including foundation model training / tuning, deployment pipelines, and integration with existing systems.
• Ensure seamless integration of foundation models / LLMs with data platforms, cloud infrastructure, and enterprise applications.
• Guide the selection of Foundation Models (LLMs, SLMs), GenAI services, tools, and frameworks to meet enterprise needs.
• Drive the adoption of best practices in the use of GenAI, foundation models and LLMs in application development

Operational Excellence

• Develop and communicate architectural blueprints, standards, and guidelines to support enterprise-wide GenAI adoption.  
• Establish metrics and KPIs to evaluate the success and performance of GenAI solutions and value realization.
• Optimize costs and resource utilization while ensuring high performance and scalability of GenAI services.
• Monitor emerging GenAI and trends, ensuring the organization stays ahead of the curve.
• Promote the use of rapid prototyping using GenAI services to safely test new uses of GenAI in the enterprise.

Key Deliverables

• Build GenAI architecture frameworks for scalable and safe application development using GenAIAdvise on /Identify on strategic GenAI initiatives aligned with enterprise goals.
• Enhanced collaboration between business units, delivery teams and governance teams for optimized outcomes.
• Scalable data pipelines and governance systems for GenAI solutions.

Required Experience and Skills:

• At least 5 years in a strategic technology leadership role
• 10+ years of experience in application architecture or data architecture at an enterprise level.
• 3 to 5 years or more specializing in Generative AI (GenAI)
• Proven track record of delivering enterprise AI, ML and GenAI solutions at scale.
• Strong expertise in data ecosystems, including data lakes, data warehouses, and cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP).
• Management and development of enterprise architects

Technical Expertise

• Proficiency in enterprise architecture frameworks and application development processes
• In-depth knowledge of AI / ML frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit-learn) and data processing tools (Spark, Kafka etc).
• Proficiency in programming languages like Python, R, Java, or Scala.
• Expertise in designing AI pipelines, MLOps practices, and model deployment strategies.
• Expertise in the use of AI / ML and GenAI in application development
• Thought leader in the use of prototyping and experimentation to test new ideas including rapid deployment and rapid UI development

Soft Skills

• Exceptional leadership and team-building capabilities.
• Excellent communication skills to articulate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Strategic thinking and problem-solving abilities.
• A passion for innovation and leveraging technology to create business value.  

Educational Background

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, or a related field. Master's or Ph.D degree is preferred).

Preferred Certifications:

• TOGAF (The Open Group Architecture Framework)
• AWS Certified Machine Learning Specialty, Azure AI Engineer Associate, or Google Professional Machine Learning Engineer
• Agile / Scrum certifications

As this position is posted in several locations, we specify that bilingualism (French, English, both oral and written) is required for Quebec only as the position includes managing both French and English-speaking staff (Quebec and outside Quebec) and providing daily support to the team.

What’s in it for you?

• Great Place to Work® Certified for Most Trusted Executive Team in Canada – 2025, 2024 and 2023
• Great Place to Work® Certified for Best Workplaces in Canada - 2025
• Canada Order of Excellence for Mental Health at Work® certification from Excellence Canada. Sun Life is one of only four companies in Canada to ever receive this certification – 2024
• Top Work Places® for Remote Work – Monster Canada - 2024
• Great Place to Work® Certified for Best Workplaces in Canada – 2024 and 2022
• Great Place to Work® Certified for Best Workplaces for Women in Canada - 2024
• Flexible hybrid work model. #LI-Hybrid
• Pension, stock and savings programs to help build and enhance your future financial security
• Work and professional development that is united by our Purpose: to help Clients and Employees achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives
• A friendly, collaborative and inclusive culture
• Be part of our continuous improvement journey in developing the next greatest digital enterprise experience.
• Competitive salary and bonus structure influenced by market range data
• The opportunity to move along a variety of career paths with amazing networking potential

The Base Pay range is for the primary location for which the job is posted.  It may vary depending on the work location of the successful candidate or other factors.  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. 

Diversity and inclusion have always been at the core of our values at Sun Life. A diverse workforce with wide perspectives and creative ideas benefits our clients, the communities where we operate and all of us as colleagues. We welcome applications from qualified individuals from all backgrounds.

Persons with disabilities who need accommodation in the application process or those needing job postings in an alternative format may e-mail a request to thebrightside@sunlife.com.

At Sun Life we strive to create a flexible work environment where our employees are empowered to do their best work. Several flexible work options are available and can be discussed throughout the selection process depending on the role requirements and individual needs.

We thank all applicants for showing an interest in this position. Only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

Salary Range:

145,000/145 000 - 235,000/235 000

Job Category:

IT - Application Development

Posting End Date:

25/05/2025