The Role

Reporting to the Vice-President, Finance and Administration, the Lead Transformation Officer will establish and lead the Transformation Implementation Office and oversee the coordinated delivery and success of the University’s multi-year transformation plan, and its continuous improvement over time. They work in close relationship with senior leadership, internal partners, and external advisors, and staff, faculty, and students across the institution, prioritizing positive culture and morale. The incumbent will play a central role in translating strategic priorities into actionable initiatives, ensuring alignment across the institution and maintaining a strong focus on execution. This role is responsible for bringing structure, discipline, and momentum to a complex portfolio of initiatives, ensuring that projects are delivered in ways that meet the aspirations of the institution, while remaining on time, on budget, and aligned with University’s long-term sustainability and strategic objectives.

The Lead Transformation

Officer will foster collaboration across academic and administrative units, support effective decision-making at the executive level, and drive a culture of accountability and continuous improvement, ensuring that transformation efforts result in measurable, meaningful, and enduring positive outcomes for the institution.

- Strategic Leadership and Transformation Execution – Provides enterprise-wide leadership for the implementation of the University’s transformation plan, translating strategic priorities into actionable initiatives, establishing governance frameworks, and ensuring disciplined execution that delivers measurable organizational value.

- Program and Portfolio Leadership – Leads a complex portfolio of interdependent initiatives, ensuring effective prioritization, resource allocation, and alignment across multiple workstreams while maintaining focus on outcomes, timelines, and overall program performance.

- Organizational Alignment and Change Leadership – Guides the University through transformation by fostering collaboration across units, building alignment among leadership, and supporting the adoption of recent ways of working through clear communication and sustained engagement.

- Governance, Performance, and Financial Stewardship – Establishes clear decision-making structures, performance metrics, and reporting processes, while overseeing transformation-related budgets and ensuring responsible, strategic use of resources.

- Relationship Building and Culture – Builds strong relationships across all levels of the University and with external partners, facilitates effective executive-level decision-making, removes barriers to progress, and promotes a culture of accountability, continuous improvement,



and results-oriented execution.

- Long-term Adoption and Sustainability - Ensures that transformation initiatives are widely adopted and achieve their intended financial, operational, service, cultural, and strategic benefits over the long-term.

- Establishes clear outcome measures and ownership, validates that benefits are realized following implementation, and ensures completed initiatives are transitioned effectively into operational ownership with sustainable processes, resources, controls, and continuous-improvement mechanisms.

The Ideal Candidate

As the ideal candidate, you are an accomplished transformation leader with a proven ability to deliver results in complex, multi-faceted environments. You bring a systems perspective and understand how to integrate strategy, execution, and change management to achieve meaningful and lasting outcomes. You understand Laurentian’s bilingual and tricultural mandate and are recognized for your ability to align diverse perspectives, build consensus, and make timely, well-informed decisions in high-pressure situations.

You demonstrate strong business acumen, sound judgment, and the ability to balance competing priorities while maintaining focus on what matters most.

Your leadership style is collaborative and decisive, and you are adept at working through influence rather than positional authority. You are skilled at building and developing high-performing teams, fostering trust, and maintaining momentum through periods of change and uncertainty. You bring a strong orientation toward outcomes, continuous improvement, and execution excellence, ensuring that strategic initiatives translate into tangible organizational value.

Qualifications and Experience

- Undergraduate degree in business, public administration, economics, or a related field; a graduate degree is an asset

- Formal training in management of complex projects, such as a Project Management Professional (PMP) or similar certification is required

- Strong knowledge of project management and continuous improvement methodologies such as Agile, Lean, Six Sigma, ITIL, or PROSCI

- Significant experience leading large-scale transformation or change initiatives, preferably in the public or post-secondary sector

- Demonstrated success managing complex projects involving multiple partners and competing priorities

- Experience establishing governance frameworks,



performance metrics, and reporting structures

- Demonstrated record of building positive relations with Indigenous communities and leaders and working collaboratively on shared initiatives

- Commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility with evidence of applying critical lenses to impactful decisions

- Proven leadership experience in building and managing high-performing teams

- Excellent communication and relationship-building skills

- Bilingualism (English and French) is considered an asset

You are someone with :

- An authentic, collaborative, and consultative leadership style, able to manage change empathetically and explain complex decisions transparently.

- The ability to inspire and motivate large groups of people with integrity.

- The ability to build and lead a high-performing team and engage with internal and external partners to achieve goals and outcomes.

- The ability to adapt and pivot with evolving demands in a complex environment.

- A high capacity to balance multiple priorities while being responsive.

Plage salariale : 150 000 $ - 165 000 $

Current vacancy

Si ce poste vous intéresse, écrivez à Abbey MacLeod à [email protected] ou à Kyle Steele à [email protected] ou soumettez en ligne votre dossier complet de candidature.

Equité en matière d’emploi

Laurentienne est une collectivité inclusive et accueillante déterminée à assurer l’équité dans l’emploi. Elle encourage les candidatures des membres de communautés en quête d’équité, y compris les femmes, les personnes autochtones et racialisées, les personnes handicapées et les personnes de toutes les orientations, identités ou expressions sexuelles.

Laurentienne se fait un devoir d’assurer une expérience inclusive et sans obstacle aux personnes ayant des besoins d’accessibilité. Les demandes d’adaptations peuvent être soumises à tout stade du procédé de recrutement en écrivant à [email protected].

Toutes les personnes qualifiées sont invitées à poser leur candidature, mais, conformément aux exigences en matière d’immigration au Canada, les citoyens canadiens et les résidents permanents auront la priorité.

Afin de se conformer aux lois fédérales, l’Université doit compiler des statistiques sur le nombre de candidats à chaque poste affiché qui sont citoyens canadiens ou résidents permanents du Canada. Il n’est pas nécessaire d’indiquer la citoyenneté ou le pays d’origine, mais plutôt d’inclure dans la lettre de présentation l’énoncé « Je suis citoyen canadien / résident permanent du Canada » ou « Je ne suis pas citoyen / résident permanent du Canada », sans quoi le dossier sera considéré comme incomplet.

📌 Lead Transformation Officer, Laurentian University (Ontario)
🏢 KNIGHTSBRIDGE ROBERTSON SURRETTE
📍 Ontario