Job Description

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.
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Role Summary
Within Sun Life, the Corporate IT team is comprised of savvy and intellectually curious professionals who are on a mission to transform how we apply data and analytics to support Sun Life becoming client-centric. An integral part of the Corporate IT organization, the Data Science team supports the business units in their journey to leverage data and analytics as a foundational pillar in delivering business value.
As a Senior Data Scientist you will focus on supporting the business units in accelerating the growth and application of analytics in driving value. The senior data scientist will leverage practical experience in applying varied data science techniques & offering advice/inputs to help with the design, development and implementation of analytics use cases.
Sun Life views success in this role in demonstration of these key attributes:
Fierce curiosity. You are drawn to discovering and leveraging new data and taking on challenging business puzzles. An inquisitive mind. Driven to ask questions to help lead projects to commercial value and not being afraid that the innovation attempts can and will lead to failing. A passion for solving problems. The most successful data scientists' solution for what the right data to use, they solve using the most suitable (not most advanced) algorithms for the problem at hand and figure out how to execute and deliver with highest efficiency. Technical skills in both data and computer science. There are 3 core technical skills we look for: in-depth coding knowledge of an analytical tool(s) (i.e., Python); data science techniques and concepts; working with structured data (SQL) Thirst for learning. You are a data scientist who is constantly updating their knowledge of data science state-of-the-art.
What will you do?

• Be able to engage with business stakeholders to understand business outcomes. Comfortable to translate business goals into analytical problems.
• Be able to work in cross functional teams to develop an ML/data science product
• Be able to break down broader data science development milestones into smaller goals, activities, and a work plan
• Apply best in breed data science including descriptive, predictive and machine learning techniques from the design to implementation that impacts the business.
• Focus on Feature Engineering, Model Training and Model Evaluation in addition to data munging / wrangling
• Identify the right algorithms and statistical techniques for a specific project as well as the best features for a model. Advise junior members on the same.
• Make business recommendations with effective presentations of findings at multiple levels of stakeholders
• An active contributing member to the analytics community to help foster and grow the data science community at Sun Life
• Champion and support diversity and inclusion

What will you need to succeed?

• BSc/M.S. in a statistical, mathematical, or technical field (i.e., computer science) or equivalent experience
• 3+ years experience in developing and implementing data science techniques (predictive, prescriptive, ML etc.)
• Comfortable writing complex SQL queries to extract and integrate data from multiple database sources
• Proficient in using one or more statistical programming languages (i.e., Python) for data science
• Experience with AWS services including SageMaker
• Experience with machine learning including supervised and unsupervised models
• Demonstrated experience in data transformation & data manipulation
• Experience working with Structured vs. Unstructured data
• Experience with technologies like Hadoop, HDFS, Hive, HBase, Spark is strongly desirable
• Effective and concise oral and written storytelling and insights communication skills
• Ability to work on multiple projects in parallel while managing constantly changing deadlines and priorities
• Ability to document work and effectively prioritize documentation
• Ability to work with junior data scientists, data engineers, ML engineers and guide their work if needed

What will be nice to have?

• Past experience in life insurance/wealth management, or other financial services industry (e.g., retail banking, credit card, property and casualty insurance)
• Past experience working in Agile delivery model
• Past experience in developing and deploying production grade model in cloud infrastructure

Unique Requirements
As a condition of the role, the successful candidate must obtain a Government of Canada Reliability Status security clearance through Sun Life in advance of the start date
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 .
We are proud to be a hybrid organization that offers our employees the choice and flexibility to work from both the office and virtually based on the needs of the business, our Clients and you! Several 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: 84,000/84 000 - 138,000/138 000
Job Category: IT - Technology Services
Posting End Date: 17/07/2025