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The Director, Transformation Delivery & Excellence is responsible for establishing, leading, scaling, and maturing Air Canada’s internal delivery capability within the IT, Digital & Data (IDD) organization ensuring large and complex programs are delivered with discipline, transparency and measurable value. This role will establish and scale a new Transformation Delivery & Excellence function that provides expert program / project management, delivery leadership, organizational change management, and agile capabilities to enterprise technology transformation programs.
As a central leader in IDD’s evolving operating model, the Director will act as both leader and practitioner – building and scaling in-house program delivery capabilities and team, while also stepping into a delivery leadership role for one or more large transformation programs. This role is accountable for establishing Centre(s) of Excellence (COEs) that define Air Canada’s approach to enterprise transformation and delivery, including playbooks and best practices, while also deploying team members into large, strategic programs in an internal consulting capacity. This role ensures disciplined, outcome focused execution across IDD’s most critical initiatives, with a strong emphasis on delivery excellence, portfolio level insight, and benefits realization. This role requires close collaboration with senior stakeholders across IDD, Finance, Strategic Procurement, HR, and other enterprise branches and requires strong executive presence and communication.
Responsibilities:
Transformation Delivery Leadership
- Build and lead an internal transformation delivery function capable of supporting and delivering large, complex technology and business programs across IDD.
- Deploy program / project managers, delivery leads, organizational change management practitioners, and agile specialists into strategic initiatives, ensuring disciplined execution and measurable value delivery.
- Provide hands on oversight, coaching, and escalation management for high priority transformations and enterprise programs.
- Responsible for the leadership of one or more large transformation programs, establishing and driving governance (e.g. Executive Steering Committees), bringing together leadership across business and technology to deliver on business benefits and expected outcomes.
Center of Excellence (COE) & Talent Development
- Responsible for establishing COEs for program / project management, delivery leadership, organizational change management and agile / scrum, including methodologies, frameworks, playbooks, and best practice standards.
- Develop a standardized delivery model for large program delivery integrating agile, waterfall, and hybrid approaches, ensuring alignment with IDD’s Product & Platform Operating Model.
- Maintain a library of templates, tools, and reusable assets that enable consistency, efficiency, and quality in delivery.
- Scale the team and capabilities through upskilling / training and foster a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and excellence in delivery across all roles.
Delivery Excellence & Governance
- Lead the implementation of IDD wide delivery excellence standards, including program governance, health checks, risk management, and quality assurance.
- Accountable for the implementation of portfolio level performance measurement frameworks that provide clear visibility into program status, risk profiles, KPIs, and interdependencies.
- Partner with the business, key stakeholders and Finance to establish and operationalize a robust benefits realization and value tracking framework ensuring programs deliver expected outcomes and business impact.
- Drive continuous improvement in delivery processes, leveraging metrics and feedback to enhance quality, speed, and predictability of program outcomes.
Stakeholder & Partner Management
- Build strong, trust based relationships with IDD leadership, business partners, HR, Finance, Strategic Procurement and external vendors to support effective delivery of transformation initiatives.
- Act as a strategic advisor to program executives and sponsors, enabling informed decision making and alignment across complex cross functional initiatives.
- Support vendor coordination as needed to ensure seamless blended teams and high quality outcomes.
Product & Platform Operating Model Enablement
- Partner with IDD leaders to embed COE capabilities into the Product & Platform Operating Model.
- Ensure delivery practices, governance structures, and roles are aligned to future state ways of working.
Qualifications
- 10+ years of progressive experience in technology transformation, enterprise program delivery, or related leadership roles.
- Demonstrated success leading large, complex, multi year transformation programs with measurable business outcomes.
- Deep expertise in program management, delivery leadership, OCM, agile methods, and hybrid delivery models.
- Expertise in financial management and operating model transformation is a strong asset.
- Experience building or operating internal delivery capabilities and/or consulting experience is a strong asset.
- Proven ability to establish methodologies, governance frameworks, and delivery standards in complex organizations.
- Strong financial and portfolio management capability, including business casing and benefits tracking
- Proven ability to manage ambiguity and drive results in a dynamic environment.
- Strong analytical, problem solving, and communication skills, with the ability to influence senior executives.
- Demonstrate punctuality and dependability to support overall team success in a fast-paced environment.
- Experience leading large teams, building talent pipelines, and managing organizational scale up.
- Bachelor’s degree required
- PMP, Agile/Scrum and PROSCI certifications preferred.
Conditions of Employment:
Candidates must be eligible to work in the country of interest at the time any offer of employment is made and are responsible for obtaining any required work permits, visas, or other authorizations necessary for employment. Prior to their start date, candidates will also need to provide proof of their eligibility to work in the country of interest.
Linguistic Requirements
Based on equal qualifications, preference will be given to bilingual candidates.
Diversity and Inclusion
Air Canada is strongly committed to Diversity and Inclusion and aims to create a healthy, accessible and rewarding work environment which highlights employees’ unique contributions to our company’s success.
As an equal opportunity employer, we welcome applications from all to help us build a diverse workforce which reflects the diversity of our customers, and communities, in which we live and serve.
Air Canada thanks all candidates for their interest; however only those selected to continue in the process will be contacted.
