Director, Risk and Compliance Advisory | Great West

Permanent Full Time

Are you passionate about enabling strategic initiatives through practical, business-focused risk advice and guidance?

Great-West Lifeco is seeking a Director, Risk and Compliance Advisory, to provide oversight, guidance and advisory support for Great-West Lifeco corporate functions. The role helps initiative leads and operations teams identify, assess and manage risk and navigate enterprise requirements to support informed decision making. Acting as a trusted advisor and constructive and independent challenger, the role promotes practical, consistent and business-focused risk management while enabling initiatives to move forward with the right risk mitigations, and governance support to achieve their objectives.

The role facilitates and advises but does not replace accountability of initiative leaders nor accountabilities of specialist second-line functions. It is the primary second-line risk advisor and coordinator for enterprise corporate-function initiatives, responsible for ensuring the right risk expertise is engaged at the right time and that projects receive consistent, practical and business-focused risk challenge and guidance.

What you will do

Provide advisory, coordination, challenge, oversight, governance and continuous improvement support for corporate function initiatives, helping teams manage risk effectively while delivering business outcomes:

• Provide risk advisory support to corporate function initiative leads and teams, helping teams understand key risks, expected controls, governance considerations and practical next steps
• Act as a coordinating point between corporate function projects and Risk and Compliance subject matter experts, helping connect the right expertise at the right time
• Support effective second-line oversight by reviewing project artifacts, risk assessments and decision points, and by providing advice, guidance and independent challenge
• Facilitate collaboration across business segments and second-line functions to promote a coordinated, efficient and consistent approach to risk management.
• Help initiative leads apply enterprise risk, compliance, privacy, operational resilience, third-party, data and other relevant frameworks proportionate to the project and business objective
• Promote consistent approaches to risk identification, assessment, mitigation and escalation across corporate function initiatives, while recognising that each project may have different context and complexity
• Advise on risk governance, issue management, residual risk, acceptance decisions and readiness for key project milestones or governance forums
• Identify themes, common questions and recurring support needs across initiatives
• Partner with Risk and Compliance teams to continuously improve guidance, tools, processes and ways of working.
• Support a strong risk-aware culture by providing clear, pragmatic and business-enabling advice that helps projects move forward confidently and effectively.

What you will bring

• Demonstrated experience in risk management, compliance, operational risk, project governance or business advisory roles, ideally in a financial service or a regulated environment
• Strong generalist risk advisory capability, with the judgement to identify when specialist input is required and the ability to coordinate across subject matter experts
• Practical understanding of corporate functions, enterprise projects and the three lines of defence model
• Ability to translate complex risk and compliance expectations into clear, actionable guidance for project teams and senior stakeholders
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to build trusted relationships with initiative leads, Risk and Compliance teams and cross-functional partners
• Sound analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to assess project context, identify risk considerations and recommend a risk-based approach
• Experience supporting governance forums, risk reviews, issue management, control assessments or project readiness activities is considered an asset
• Relevant professional qualifications in risk management, compliance, audit, finance, project management or related disciplines
• Curiosity and innovation mindset, with a strong interest in emerging technologies, AI and automation, and the ability to thoughtfully assess both opportunities and risks to the business

The base salary for this position is between $128,200 - $178,200 annually. This represents base salary only and does not represent other variable compensation components of our total compensation ( i.e. annual bonus, commission etc). If you are selected to move forward in our recruitment process, your recruiter will be able to discuss additional details of our total rewards program with you.

Career opportunities will be open a minimum of 5 business days from the date of posting, closing dates will vary depending on the search activity. All applications received will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Grow with Great-West Lifeco

Great-West Lifeco Inc is a Canadian headquarter, international financial services holding company with interests in life insurance, health insurance, retirement and investment services, asset management, and reinsurance businesses. We operate in Canada, the United States, and Europe under the brands: Canada Life, Empower and Irish Life. At the end of 2024, our companies had over 32,250 employees, 106,000 advisor relationships, and thousands of distribution partners – serving approximately 40 million customer relationships.

Great-West Lifeco trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) under the ticker symbol GWO and is a member of the Power Corporation group of companies.

What we offer

We’re committed to supporting our employees through every stage of their career. Here’s what you can expect as a full-time or part-time permanent team member:

Career Development : Opportunities for career advancement, access to industry-leading learning programs and up to $2,000 annually towards education reimbursement.

Health & Wellness: Flexible health and dental benefits, plus a $5,000 mental health benefit to support your well-being.

Time Off: In addition to regular vacation and personal days, we support community involvement with a volunteer day.

Financial Security: Company-matching pension plan, share ownership program and additional investment options.

Rewards and Recognition: Employee recognition programs, service milestone celebrations, employee discounts and more!

Emphasis on Community : We provide a workplace where employees feel connected and supported through Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), mentorship programs, social clubs and events.

Learn more about Great-West Lifeco.

We’re committed to removing barriers and ensuring equal access to employment. Applicants requiring reasonable accommodation during the application process may contact View email address on ca.workus.org . All information provided will be handled in accordance with applicable laws and Great-West Lifeco policies.