Job DescriptionWHAT IS THE OPPORTUNITY?We are seeking a highly experienced and strategic leader to join our Transformation and Chief Operating Office (TCOO) as the Senior Director, Change Management. Operating in a high-visibility, fast-paced environment, this leader will drive large-scale technology transformations, culture shifts, and tooling adoption across our global technology teams.
While this role is designed to lead change enablement across a portfolio of strategic technology initiatives, the
immediate priority will be leading the organizational change management (OCM) for our AI Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) transformation. You will partner closely with DevOps, HR, and Line of Business technology leaders to modernize how we build software by embedding Artificial Intelligence into our Software Development Lifecycle and Product Development Lifecycle (PDLC).
As a trusted strategic advisor to senior technology leaders, you will leverage industry-standard Organizational Change Management (OCM) frameworks (such as Prosci ADKAR, Kotter's, or similar) to translate technological shifts into structured, human-centric adoption plans. The ideal candidate will have a proven track record of leading complex, multi-workstream technical transformations, navigating matrixed environments, and delivering measurable business outcomes through strong executive influencing and collaborative leadership.
WHAT WILL YOU DO?The Senior Director is directly responsible for designing, orchestrating, and executing holistic and integrated OCM strategies across key technology priorities. This accountability is structured around the following integrated workstreams:
1. Organizational Change Management Strategy & Frameworks- Framework Design: Design and orchestrate comprehensive OCM frameworks tailored specifically for complex technology and platform transformations, ensuring strategic alignment between technical implementation and human adoption.
- Playbook Development: Lead the development of implementation playbooks, capability maturity models, and change acceleration tools to enable technology units to adopt new platforms and ways of working at scale.
- Manager Activism, Activation, & Accountability: Design structured enablement strategies to equip first-line and mid-level people managers and team leads to act as active, vocal advocates for technological change. Establish coaching programs and accountability frameworks to ensure managers actively lead transitions within their squads.
- Sponsorship Alignment: Equip senior technology and business leaders with the messaging, coaching, and strategic guidance needed to serve as active, visible sponsors of major transformation initiatives.
- Tooling Readiness & Feedback: (In partnership with DevOps/Platform Teams) Define and monitor technical "readiness gates" to ensure tooling performance and stability meet quality standards before executing broad, enterprise-wide rollouts. Establish fast-feedback loops between early adopters and product teams to dynamically iterate on tool performance and usability.
2. Curriculum, Training, & Incentives (In Partnership with HR & Technical Enablement)- Delineated Training Programs: Delineating clearly from technical tooling readiness, lead the end-to-end design, curation, and deployment of capability-based learning paths. Partner with HR, L&D, and external vendors to establish comprehensive upskilling programs (with an immediate focus on AI-assisted development).
- Gamification, Recognition, & Rewards: Design and execute engagement campaigns leveraging gamification, rewards, and recognition programs. Synthesize technology proficiency, learning achievements, and active tool utilization directly into performance expectations.
- Skill Benchmarking: Define skill benchmarks and evaluation mechanisms to measure the training program's effectiveness and long-term capability retention.
3. End-to-End Process & Operating Model Evolution- Upstream & Downstream Operating Model: Define and implement a cohesive end-to-end operating model. Collaborate upstream with business and product development partners to align on capacity and capability expectations. Partner downstream with functional teams, support groups, and operational units to ensure smooth, integrated, and uninterrupted business processes.
- Process Redesign: Collaborate with Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters, and Delivery Leads to redesign workflows, stage gates, and delivery methodologies to naturally incorporate new technology capabilities.
- Risk & Compliance Tuning: Re-engineer compliance, security, and governance review processes to accommodate high-velocity, automated tech environments while maintaining stringent enterprise risk standards.
4. Workforce & Role Evolution (In Partnership with HR)- Workforce Planning Framework: Establish a structured workforce planning framework that applies a differentiated approach across diverse employee categories and disciplines, reflecting the unique ways different roles interact with emerging technologies.
- Hiring Practices & Criteria Refresh: Partner with Talent Acquisition and HR leaders to refresh external hiring practices, interview criteria, and competency requirements, ensuring newly acquired talent possesses the baseline fluency and learning agility needed for future-state operations.
- Role Mapping: Partner closely with HR Business Partners and Talent Strategy leaders to analyze how transformed workflows impact job families, transitioning traditional tech roles into future-state, empowered positions.
5. Communications & Engagement (In Partnership with Corporate Communications)- Tactical Communication Plans: Formulate and execute comprehensive communication plans that build awareness, desire, and momentum across a diverse, highly technical audience.
- Leveraging Existing Programming & Forums: Systematically integrate change management communications into existing corporate programs, town halls, engineering forums, hackathons, and newsletters to amplify key success stories, highlight early adopters, and build behavioral momentum.
6. Resistance Management & Empathy-Driven Intervention- Root Cause Diagnosis: Proactively identify and diagnose developer skepticism, tool fatigue, ethical concerns, or fear of displacement.
- Coaching & Intervention: Design and execute targeted resistance management strategies, utilizing data-driven developer feedback loops and empathy-led coaching to build trust and clear pathways to adoption.
7. Governance, Analytics, & Capacity Management- Behavioral & Outcome Metrics: Pioneer and manage data-driven metrics systems to track both behavioral indicators (e.g., learning completion, community engagement, sentiment) and performance outcomes (e.g., tool utilization depth, task velocity, quality indicators) tied to clear OKRs and KPIs.
- Capacity Redeployment Governance: Create the governance framework and decision-making criteria for managing redeployment of saved capacity. Formulate clear mechanisms to guide how hours saved via productivity gains (starting with AI productivity gains) are strategically reinvested into innovation, technical debt reduction, or core business growth.
- Executive Reporting: Correlate change adoption metrics with operational metrics (e.g., cycle times, deployment frequency, delivery quality) to measure overall value realization and present actionable insights to C-suite leadership.
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO SUCCEED?Must have: Leadership Requirements:- Executive Influencing: Proven ability to build trusted-advisor relationships and influence senior, C-suite, and technical leaders across a complex, matrixed enterprise.
- People Leadership: Outstanding skills in building, inspiring, and mentoring cross-functional change management and enablement teams.
- Technical Bridge-Building: A natural capability to navigate complex organizational dynamics, bridging the gap between highly technical engineering teams, HR departments, and high-level corporate strategy.
- Strategic Communication: Exceptional written, verbal, and presentation skills, with a track record of translating complex technological shifts into clear, compelling human narratives.
General Requirements:- Bachelor's degree (Master's or MBA preferred, ideally in Organizational Development, Human Resources, Computer Science, or Business Administration).
- Minimum 10 years of experience in a leadership role, with a strong focus on enterprise change management, technology strategy, or large-scale digital/agile transformations within a complex banking or enterprise environment.
- Deep, practical knowledge of industry Organizational Change Management (OCM) frameworks (e.g., Prosci ADKAR, Kotter's 8-Step Model) and experience applying them to a highly technical audience.
- Strong, foundational understanding of the modern Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC, Agile, CI/CD, DevOps pipelines) and a strong interest or baseline familiarity with emerging AI technologies (Generative AI, Large Language Models, coding assistants like GitHub Copilot).
- Demonstrated experience partnering with HR functions (Talent Development, Compensation/Role Design, Talent Acquisition) and technical infrastructure units (DevOps/Platform Engineering).
Nice-to-have:
- Change management certification (e.g., Prosci Certified Change Practitioner, CCMP).
- Previous experience working in or consulting for a large-scale financial services organization or high-tech enterprise.
- Background in software engineering, technical program management, or agile delivery leadership is highly desirable.
WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU?We thrive on the challenge to be our best, progressive thinking to keep growing, and working together to deliver trusted advice to help our clients thrive and communities prosper. We care about each other, reaching our potential, making a difference to our communities, and achieving success that is mutual.
- A comprehensive Total Rewards Program including bonuses and flexible benefits, competitive compensation, commissions, and stock where applicable
- Leaders who support your development through coaching and managing opportunities
- Ability to make a difference and lasting impact
- Work in a dynamic, collaborative, progressive, and high-performing team
- A world-class training program in financial services
- Flexible work/life balance options
- Opportunities to do challenging work
Job SkillsAdaptability, Business Appraisals, Change Controls, Commercial Acumen, Critical Thinking, Decision Making, Interpersonal Relationship Management, Long Term Planning, Organizational Change Management, Overcoming Resistance to Change
Additional Job DetailsAddress:RBC WATERPARK PLACE, 88 QUEENS QUAY W:TORONTO
City:Toronto
Country:Canada
Work hours/week:37.5
Employment Type:Full time
Platform:TECHNOLOGY AND OPERATIONS
Job Type:Regular
Pay Type:Salaried
Posted Date:2026-07-13
Application Deadline:2026-08-14
Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the day prior to the application deadline date above
