Manager, Expense Management

You are as unique as your background, experience and point of view. Here, you’ll be encouraged, empowered and challenged to be your best self. You'll work with dynamic colleagues - experts in their fields - who are eager to share their knowledge with you. Your leaders will inspire and help you reach your potential and soar to new heights. Every day, you'll have new and exciting opportunities to make life brighter for our Clients - who are at the heart of everything we do.

At Sun Life, we're driven by our Purpose: helping our Clients achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives. Our values shape how we work: caring, authentic, bold, inspiring, and impactful.

When you join Sun Life, you'll work with passionate colleagues and empowering leaders who support your growth and celebrate your contributions, so you can make a meaningful difference in our Clients' lives.

Discover how you can make a difference in the lives of individuals, families and communities around the world.

Job Description:

At Sun Life, we cultivate a High-Performance, Caring Culture that empowers our people to achieve outstanding results, embrace continuous growth, and create meaningful impact. We succeed together by fostering an inclusive environment where wellbeing, collaboration, and accountability are equally valued.

When you join Sun Life Private Wealth

Our Sun Life Private Wealth Finance organization is a trusted strategic partner to the business, enabling performance through insights, financial discipline and forward-looking guidance. Within this, the Expense Management function plays a critical role in driving cost transparency, operational efficiency and sustainable expense management across the Private Wealth business.

In this high impact role, the Manager, Private Wealth Expense Management, will drive strategic expense management for our Private Wealth business, going beyond traditional reporting to influence decision-making and efficiency across the business. Reporting to the Director, Private Wealth Expense Management, you will collaborate closely with a small, high-performing team (including a peer Manager) and partner with international controller teams in Singapore and Bermuda. This opportunity is ideal for an innovative, qualified finance professional who is passionate about optimizing expenses, enabling business growth through financial insights, and leading transformation – including leveraging data analytics and AI to enhance processes.

What you will be doing

• Lead Strategic Budgeting and Planning: Support the annual budgeting process, coordinating inputs across the business and ensuring budgets align with Private Wealth strategic goals. Challenge assumptions and ensure final budget allocations support business objectives and cost discipline.

• Expense Forecasting and Analysis: Manage periodic forecasting cycles (e.g. quarterly, monthly), analyzing actuals vs. plan and providing timely insights and recommendations to leadership for course corrections. Develop forecast models that enhance accuracy and agility in expense management.

• Cost Allocation and Chargebacks: Develop and maintain effective expense allocation and chargeback methodologies. Work closely with regional controller teams, in Singapore and Bermuda, to ensure fair, transparent distribution of costs across units and compliance with internal policies and accounting standards.

• Expense Governance and Control: Implement robust expense governance frameworks and internal controls. Ensure compliance with corporate policies and financial regulations, safeguarding the integrity of expense reporting and proactively addressing any variances or risks.

• Performance and Savings Optimization: Conduct in-depth expense analyses to identify cost savings opportunities and efficiency improvements. Drive productivity initiatives by uncovering waste, benchmarking costs and partnering with business leaders to implement actionable solutions that optimize spending without compromising business goals.

• Finance Transformation and Innovation: Champion continuous improvement in finance processes. Lead or support finance transformation projects, from introducing process automation to integrating AI and advanced analytics, with the goal of streamlining expense management, reducing manual work, and delivering faster, data-driven insights.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Serve as a strategic finance partner to cross-functional teams and senior stakeholders. Collaborate with global finance colleagues, including controllers in Singapore and Bermuda, Private Wealth FP&A, Regional Office finance stakeholders, and business unit leaders to ensure cohesive expense management and share best practices across the organization

Who you will be working with

• Private Wealth leadership team to provide actionable insights, challenge assumptions and support long term value creation

• Function heads to understand cost drivers and align spend with priorities

• Private Wealth Finance and Private Wealth FP&A to integrate expense insights into forecasting, planning and reporting

• Procurement to assess third party spend and support strategic sourcing initiatives

• Product, Technology, Operations, Underwriting, Compliance, Risk, Finance and HR to manage functional cost bases and Private Wealth initiatives

What we are looking for

• Qualified accountant with a CPA or CA designation (required)

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, or a related field (Masters or MBA a plus)

• 7+ years of progressive experience in finance roles such as expense management, financial planning & analysis, or controllership. Prior experience managing budgeting, forecasting and expense reporting processes in a large corporate or financial services environment is strongly preferred.

• Strong financial acumen and proficiency with financial systems and tools (e.g. SAP, Hyperion, Alteryx, advanced Excel, data analytics platforms)

• Familiarity with automation or data analytics/BI tools, and interest in emerging AI technology are highly valued

• Experience working in a global environment or partnering across different geographic regions is an asset. Ability to work effectively with remote teams and adapt to cultural nuances.

• Exceptional analytical skills with the ability to interpret complex financial data, discern key insights and implications, and make strategic recommendations that drive business value

• A self-starter who takes initiative to identify issues and opportunities. Demonstrated track record of delivering cost savings

• Agile and open to change, with a continuous improvement mindset. Able to navigate a dynamic, evolving business environment, and motivated by building new capabilities (e.g. finance transformation, AI integration).

• High ethical standards in financial management with a commitment to accuracy, compliance and governance. Takes ownership of results and fosters a culture of accountability and excellence within the team. 

• This role may include early morning or evening hours to accommodate time zone differences between North America and Asia. Flexibility and willingness to adjust working hours as needed are essential for this role.

We encourage you to explore our Private Wealth page to learn more about our business, solutions, and latest developments: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sun-life-private-wealth/

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