Associate Director, Service Delivery

OUR COMPANY BACKGROUND & CULTURE

UPP is the first pension plan of its kind in Ontario’s university sector, proudly serving over 41,000 members across five universities and fourteen sector organizations. Our purpose is to bring greater retirement peace of mind to the university sector by investing with integrity and serving members with care. As a sector-wide plan designed for growth, our doors are open to all Ontario universities.

Together, we’re a team of progressive thinkers and agile doers operating within a fast-paced culture of collaboration and respect. We believe in bringing smart and capable people together to create, solve and grow with a clear shared vision and values of integrity, inclusivity, ingenuity, and impact.

Our culture is intentionally welcoming and purposefully rooted in equity, diversity, inclusion, and reconciliation (EDI&R). We believe diverse teams, perspectives, and lived experiences contribute to better decisions and a better workplace.

As a long-term investor, we recognize that environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) factors support risk management and value creation. As stated in our Responsible Investing Policy, we are committed to incorporating ESG considerations into our investment management activities and we collaborate with other industry participants in the promotion of a sustainable economy and society.

Join us in building a bright future for our members, our organization, and each other.

THE ROLE

As Associate Director, Service Delivery, you will lead the implementation and optimization of the Technology, Data, and Delivery team’s delivery model for providing services to its clients across UPP. Your primary responsibility will be to collaborate with Senior Directors and Directors and other leaders in Technology, Data and Delivery, to manage program and tactical Kanban boards, establish portfolio coordination, and drive efficiency through enhanced delivery practices.

Core outcomes to achieve with Senior Directors and Directors through coaching them and their teams to:

• Define and visualize workflows, actively manage items within those workflows, and continuously improve them to enhance efficiency and delivery outcomes.
• Actively manage workflows by controlling work-in-progress (WIP), avoiding work item backlogs, and ensuring work progresses without unnecessary delays, leveraging Service Level Expectations (SLEs) as benchmarks.
• Proactively identify and unblock stalled work to maintain consistent workflow momentum.
• Establish a culture of accountability and operational transparency across all levels of the delivery process.

In this role, you will influence senior stakeholders and teams, oversee Kanban systems and other related tools, and vendor management by managing contracts to ensure alignment with organizational needs. You will identify and deliver necessary delivery practice coaching programs to upskill the technology division, enhancing workflow management, improving predictability metrics, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. Additionally, you will translate delivery practice achievements into compelling business value stories and actionable business insights for senior leadership. Over time, you may extend this delivery model to non-technical functions, such as legal and corporate finance, driving alignment and collaboration across the organization.

You will report to the Senior Director, Delivery Practice & Portfolio Reporting, and benefit from ongoing mentorship from seasoned leaders and best-in-industry Kanban coaches, fostering your professional growth with each project. UPP is based in Toronto’s financial district and has a hybrid work model (~2 days / week in office).

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Collaborate daily with Senior Directors and Directors to manage and enhance 4 program-level Kanban boards and 6+ tactical team boards, ensuring alignment and efficient delivery practices.
• Influence senior stakeholders to adopt best delivery practices, ensuring the efficient flow of high-priority initiatives aligning with organizational objectives and driving meaningful business outcomes.
• Develop and implement a portfolio coordination work management layer to align and prioritize initiatives across programs, fostering a culture of visibility, accountability, and strategic value delivery.
• Develop and enforce metrics-based performance practices, including SLAs for key workflows, to improve throughput, cycle times, and predictability while effectively managing team capacity and ensuring stakeholder satisfaction.
• Provide executive-level reporting on Kanban system performance and work types, including the integration of predictive analytics to anticipate bottlenecks and areas for improvement.
• Translate Kanban flow achievements into actionable insights and compelling business value stories for senior leadership.
• Design and deliver Kanban training programs to enhance workflow management skills, work breakdown, improve predictability metrics, and drive actionable improvement plans within the technology division.
• Oversee vendor relationships, including managing procurement of Kanban and delivery tools through agreements such as MSAs and SOWs, ensuring the organization is equipped with effective coaching programs, techniques, and tools to support efficient delivery.
• Champion technology organizational agile transformation initiatives that leverage agile frameworks, techniques, and tools (Kanban, Scrum) to improve overall operational agility and responsiveness.
• Drive the effective use of Jira, Confluence, and other predictability and dashboard tools to support workflows, ensuring visibility, accuracy, and seamless tracking of initiatives.
• Over time, potentially partner with senior leadership to extend the Kanban delivery model to non-technical functions such as legal, corporate finance, and other areas, integrating them into the broader organizational delivery framework.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

• A Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field, with 5+ years of proven experience in implementing and managing Kanban systems in technology or data-driven settings, with a strong grasp of Lean principles and Kanban practices; portfolio Kanban experience preferred.
• A minimum Kanban Management Professional (KMP) certification; a Kanban Coaching Professional (KCP) is strongly preferred.
• Proven ability to lead large-scale delivery initiatives with significant executive engagement.
• Demonstrated ability to influence and partner with senior executives and leadership teams to implement enterprise-wide delivery improvements.
• Experience managing vendor relationships, including MSAs, SOWs, and program delivery partnerships.
• Deep knowledge of service delivery models, emphasizing continuous improvement and customer satisfaction.
• Exceptional facilitation, collaboration, and communication abilities, capable of engaging diverse teams and stakeholders effectively.
• Comprehensive understanding of project and portfolio management methodologies, including project lifecycle, risk management, and stakeholder communication.
• Skilled in using Jira and Confluence to support Kanban workflows, with a track record of customizing these tools for enhanced flow.

Nice-To-Have Skills

• Familiarity with flow metrics and predictability.
• Experience with Portfolio & Capacity Planning tools.
• Working knowledge of DevOps practices.

ATTRIBUTES

• Commitment to building and scaling delivery models across diverse organizational functions.
• A creative and skilled facilitator who can effectively work with cross-functional teams to achieve common goals.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, ensuring clarity and understanding across all stakeholders.
• Enthusiastic about driving and sustaining a culture of excellence in delivery and continuous improvement.
• Able to thrive in a dynamic and evolving work environment, adapting to uncertainty, change, and challenges.
• Continuous learner who’s constantly looking to develop your skillset and improve processes.

LIFE AT UPP

Do work that matters. We are duty-bound to serve our members’ interests, and it’s a responsibility we don’t take lightly. That’s why we’ve ingrained sustainability in our work from day one—to ensure our members have a resilient future to retire into, both today and for generations to come.

Stronger together. Collaboration is how UPP was born, and it’s how we work with each other and our partners day in, day out. No one at UPP is just a number (even if they are excellent at math) and every win is a shared win.

Grow every day. You’ll have the opportunity to work on unique, once-in-a-career projects that maximize your skill set and probably teach you some new ones—at any stage in your career.

Prioritize wellness. At UPP, wellness takes many forms. Ultimately, it’s about ensuring our people are cared for in the ways that matter to them. Check out some highlights of our inclusive employee-focused benefits program including:

• Defined benefit pension plan
• Flexible hybrid work model
• Work from abroad up to eight weeks/year
• Comprehensive group benefits including medical, dental, vision etc.
• Extended paramedical and mental health service coverage
• Health care and lifestyle spending accounts
• Fertility treatments, paid parental leave, and gender affirmation coverage
• Education Assistance program

UPP enthusiastically welcomes applications from all qualified applicants and especially invites people with lived experience as an Indigenous person, a person with a disability or as a member of another Human Rights Code protected group that faces barriers to employment to apply. Our goal is to create a barrier-free experience for every candidate throughout the recruitment process, so if you require accommodation at any point during the process, please let us know so that we can make the appropriate arrangements.