Job Description

The Opportunity: At Equitable, our focus is on making a meaningful impact in the lives of Canadians by putting clients at the heart of everything we do. We lead with empathy, act with intention, stay curious, and support one another every step of the way. If you're looking for purpose-driven work in a collaborative and inclusive environment where your voice is heard, and your growth is encouraged we'd love to connect. The Lead Technology Platform Owner - Digital, will own and steward Equitable Individual Insurance Digital technology platforms. Lead and collaborate with multiple business and IT teams and leaders. In addition, they will manage the direction and processes of multiple technology teams to execute tactical and strategic initiatives to support business products or value streams and its owned technology platform. Join one of the Waterloo Area's Top Employers for 2025 and Southwestern Ontario's Top Employers for 2024 and be part of something that matters.
Position Title: Lead Technology Platform Owner, Platforms
Reports To: Head of Technology - Individual Insurance
Department: IT
Term: Permanent Full-Time
Work Arrangements: This is a hybrid role. You will work in our office in Waterloo, ON a minimum of two (2) assigned, consecutive days every other week, plus a fifth (5th) assigned day per month. You are welcome to work from the office more than the minimum requirement and there may be some roles that are required to work in our office more than the minimum requirement.
What you will be doing:

• Specializing in understanding the business usage of information technology (IT) and helping technology add value, to the business via oversighting and evaluating of technology and processes;
• Set technical platform vision and implementation roadmap for owned assets to support and enhance business outcomes;
• Advance the technical health and performance of owned assets and platform;
• Manage total cost of operation and ownership of the product platform and identify opportunities for improvement;
• Lead and collaborate with multiple business leaders and IT team members solution design and development of systems, applications, and platforms across multiple domains that may depend on or are used by the TPO's platform;
• Accountable for introduction, alignment, and maintenance of a platform specific release calendar;
• Ensure product solutions meet department and enterprise architecture, security and quality standards;
• Communicate critical, high-risk, advanced and/or cross-functional technical design and solutions to internal and external IT stakeholders;
• Establish release governance for scoping of upcoming releases according to the planning rules, business priorities and other technical, functional, or organizational dependencies and objectives;
• Assess downstream dependencies and the corporate or strategic impacts related to technical changes;
• Manage IT contracts and vendor relationships to ensure excellence of delivery and positive relationships;
• Manage the lifecycle of vendor platforms and overall vendor relationships;
• Enable and guide teams to deliver high quality solutions and/or services in a sustainable and optimized manner;
• Identify, document, continuously improve, and implement end-to-end software/service development, quality, delivery, and support processes;
• Own the technology KPIs and prioritization of owned platform/assets;
• Sets direction, goals and vision for the team;
• People management, including hiring, coaching, recognizing, mentoring and performance managing team members;
• Hold team members accountable for deliverables and high-quality work;
• Monitor team productivity, quality, and morale;
• Spearheads and guides team through process implementation/changes; and
• Team budgeting, structure, development and succession planning.

What you will bring:

• 10+ years hands on enterprise class software solution design, development and support; 5+ years in a team leadership/management role in solutions design and development;
• Post-secondary degree or equivalent combination of education and experience in the following or related discipline: computer science, computer systems engineering, software engineering;
• Exceptional organizational skills, including the capability to break down complex enterprise needs spanning multiple assets into multi-phased, implementable solution plans;
• Excellent knowledge of code management, build and release and quality practices;
• Ability to translate business needs into solution architecture requirements and to mentor other to do the same;
• Ability to define and explain multiple solution options to business problems;
• Ability to quickly comprehend the functions and capabilities of new technologies;
• Ability to articulate the effect of technology on business;
• Ability to prioritize and handle multiple priorities concurrently;
• Deep understanding of business capability definitions, data modelling, integration layers;
• Experience leveraging and integrating vendor platforms, including holding vendors to a technical standard;
• Experience with and implementation of common Architecture patterns (e.g. Microservices, SOA, Event sourcing, etc.);
• Experience with data and application integration patterns (Domain-Driven, APIs, messaging, streaming, sync/async);
• Experience in defining blank-page solutions based on client journeys and/or experiences, including participation in Human Centre Design workshops;
• Experience with Cloud Providers, Azure preferred;
• Experience with developing PWA, SPA, and Responsive web applications;
• Experience working in MS SQL Server; and
• Designing and solutioning for generating and sending communications including contact orchestration, preferences/permissions, contact-lifecycle.

What's in it for you:

• A workplace where care, passion, and curiosity aren't just values, they're how we work, grow, and succeed together every day;
• A healthy work-life balance with employee wellness top of mind;
• Annual bonus program, annual vacation allowance, and company-paid benefits program;
• Generous vacation package with one volunteer day to give back to a charity of your choice;
• Immediate enrollment in the company's pension program with employer matching;
• Employee resource groups that support an inclusive work environment;
• Tuition support and specialized program assistance;
• An onsite full-service cafeteria with a variety of daily options;
• Discounts on company products and services, and access to exclusive employee perks; and
• Regular EQ Together events focused on company togetherness and collaboration.

As part of the recruitment process, candidates may be asked to complete an assessment and will be required to undergo background screening, in accordance with company policy.
At Equitable, we're committed to fair pay and an inclusive, accessible hiring experience. If you need accommodations or alternative formats at any stage, just reach out to us at careers@equitable.ca, we're happy to help.
Your base pay will be based on your skills, qualifications, experience, and education. In addition to your salary, this role is eligible for a discretionary annual incentive award tied to business performance, plus a wide range of competitive benefits.
If you're selected to move forward, our Talent Acquisition team will walk you through all the details of our total rewards program, so you know exactly what's included.

Skills Required