Senior Data Engineer, Business Data Design and Management

About the role:

Reporting to the Director, Data Platforms, Client Experience Office (CXO), this role offers an excellent opportunity to mature our strategic data assets across our cloud analytics platforms within a regulated financial services environment. This role will deliver business analytics aligned data models and scalable governance frameworks to ensure enterprise data is trusted, compliant, discoverable, and analytics‑ready. Acting as a bridge between business stakeholders and data engineering teams, the role partners closely with CXO leaders, enterprise architecture, governance and risk teams, and our data practitioners to advance the overall SLF Canada’s Business Data Strategy.

What you will do:

Business Data Design

• Design conceptual, logical, and physical cloud data models aligned to business domains.
• Translate business capabilities into scalable cloud platform data structures.
• Define data product and domain-driven data flow design patterns.
• Lead architecture reviews with enterprise partners for analytics initiatives.
• Ensure reusable, scalable design standards across cloud platforms.

Data Management aligned with Governance framework

• Establish practical data governance operating framework for analytics platform.
• Define Data ownership model, Data product stewardship model, Data quality operational framework and execute on Catalog and Metadata management standards.
• Improve business data storage, visibility and discoverability among analytics practitioners.
• Execute on defined Data Governance standards for lineage, classification, and data access controls in partnership with CXO internal data governance teams.

Data Visibility & Consumption Enablement

• Define curated data layer strategy in cloud platforms.
• Improve semantic modeling for BI and self-service.
• Enable trusted data products for business domains.
• Drive adoption of data cataloging and metadata tools.

Stakeholder & Cloud Platform Collaboration

• Partner with multiple Business SMEs, Data Engineering, Cloud Platform, Architecture, Risk & Compliance teams.
• Act as bridge between business data consumers and business data engineering and data product stewards.
• Influence cloud data platform technology roadmap prioritization based on business domain data needs and value.

What you need to succeed:

• 10+ years of hands-on skills in data solution design, systems analysis, data management and data engineering fields.
• Deep experience in modern cloud technologies, preferably Snowflake platform and AWS data ecosystem (S3, Glue, IAM, Lake patterns).
• Hands-on experience with SQL, data modeling tools, database management systems, database software, and data business intelligence tools.
• Strong hands-on experience with Data modeling, Metadata & data cataloging solutions and Data governance frameworks (DAMA-DMBOK preferred).
• Fluent in common programming languages; preferably Pyspark/Python and SparkSQL.
• Experience working with very large datasets and familiarity with big data technologies.
• Experience building governed analytics platforms in regulated industries (financial services preferred).

Individual Skills:

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with business-facing communication and documentation skills.
• Strategic thinking for Cloud Data Management discipline who can operate hands-on and is passionate about making data trusted, discoverable, and reusable.
• The ideal candidate must understand risk implications of bad data and has a strong financial controls mindset for improving visibility and traceability of data.

What’s in it for you:

• Honored as a 2025 Best Workplaces in Ontario by Great Place to Work® Canada.
• Recognized by Excellence Canada with their top-level certification, the Canada Order of Excellence for Mental Health at Work®, for prioritizing employee well-being, fostering a positive work culture, and achieving excellence in mental health.
• Wellness programs that support the three pillars of your health – mental, physical, and financial.
• The opportunity to move along a variety of career paths with amazing networking potential.
• As a hybrid organization, you and your leader use business and Client need to choose where you work, at home or in the office.

Additional Information:

• 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.
• Must be able to satisfactorily complete applicable background checks prior to the start date and during employment, in accordance with Sun Life’s policies and practices.
• Base Pay range: $80,000 - $128,000 annually.

Diversity and Inclusion:

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 thebrightside@sunlife.com.

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 may use artificial intelligence to support candidate sourcing, screening, interview scheduling.

We thank all applicants for showing an interest in this position. Only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

Key skills/competency:

• Data Engineering
• Cloud Data Modeling
• Data Governance
• Metadata Management
• Snowflake
• AWS
• SQL
• Python
• Big Data
• Financial Services