Employment Status: Permanent

Type of Position: New Position

Location: Hybrid

Number of Vacancies: 1

Who We Are The Ontario College of Pharmacists (OCP) serves and protects the public interest by ensuring that the province’s pharmacists and pharmacy technicians have the required education, skills and judgment to provide safe, ethical and quality care for patients. We also regulate and accredit Ontario’s pharmacies, and hold pharmacy professionals and pharmacies accountable to relevant legislation, standards, policies and a Code of Ethics.

Position Summary

This role serves as OCP's executive lead for policy, profession engagement, knowledge mobilization, stakeholder insight and regulatory innovation. The Director ensures the College maintains a contemporary understanding of pharmacy practice, emerging risks, system priorities and stakeholder perspectives, and translates these insights into policy, engagement and organizational strategies that advance public protection and regulatory effectiveness.

This role ensures that current and relevant professional practice and operational standards are in place and that appropriate engagement and ongoing support for registrants to achieve and maintain these standards are active and effective. With other members of the leadership team, this role supports the development of OCP’s strategic goals and identified operational initiatives and provides direct executional oversight of functional and cross-functional initiatives as designated.

This role will work very closely with the Director, Public Affairs & Communications, in establishing and maintaining new relationships with key system partners, networks, and influencers, including relevant government departments, to coordinate stewardship of OCP priorities and communications so that partnerships remain collaborative and productive.

What you’ll do at OCP

Strategic Leadership

Provide leadership for the development, implementation, monitoring, and achievement of the College's Strategic Plan and Operational Plan.

- Translate Board-approved strategic priorities into actionable departmental plans.
- Participate as a member of the Executive Team and contribute to enterprise-wide planning, decision-making and organizational leadership.
- Lead cross-functional initiatives and working groups as assigned by the Registrar & CEO.
- Foster alignment between policy priorities, operational activities and strategic objectives across the organization.
- Monitor progress against strategic objectives and adjust priorities as required.
- Identify emerging issues, risks, trends, and opportunities that could impact the College's ability to achieve its mandate.
- Advise the Registrar & CEO and Executive Team on strategic implications of regulatory, operational, and stakeholder issues.
- Establish annual goals, initiatives, performance measures, and deliverables for the Policy, Profession Engagement, and Knowledge Mobilization functions.

Regulatory Intelligence & System Insight

- Lead the College's approach to environmental scanning, regulatory intelligence and system insight generation.
- Monitor emerging trends in pharmacy practice, healthcare delivery, technology, education and regulation to identify opportunities, risks and strategic implications.
- Ensure intelligence gathered through stakeholder engagement, research, complaints, quality assurance activities and environmental scanning is analyzed and translated into actionable recommendations for leadership.
- Champions innovative approaches to stakeholder engagement, policy development, knowledge mobilization and regulatory delivery models that support an outcome-based approach.

Policy Leadership

- Provides central leadership by overseeing the development of OCP’s policy priorities, and maintaining current and relevant policies, standards, and any other similar regulatory guidance to the profession.
- Provide leadership advice regarding the College’s engagement structures/forums and consultation process and oversees the facilitation of collaborative engagement with registrants, operators, and associations throughout the policy development process.
- Promote engagement with system partners to inform the policy review and development process,



facilitate implementation and support change management, as necessary.
- Inform and oversee the development of new and/or revisions of existing policies, ensuring alignment with strategic plan, and obtaining approval as appropriate.
- Proactively identify policy gaps and/or opportunities to advance OCP’s mandate.
- Create updated policy framework and development/review approach based on best practices and an understanding of pharmacy practice-risk.
- Delegate policy work as appropriate to staff and oversee ongoing staff development.
- Represent OCP in consultation meetings, make presentations to system partners based on current issues, and collaborate on the development of mutually relevant policies.
- Ensure coordination with Public Affairs & Communications to support the policy review and development process (e.g., soliciting public feedback, consultation processes, communicating new policies, developing relevant materials, and/or informing system partners about changes, and identifying and responding to risks through communicating within OCP as appropriate)
- Coordinates with Public Affairs to engage with the Ministry and other external system partners to communicate, promote and clarify policies with the goal of more effective implementation.

Profession Engagement

- Establish an integrated profession engagement strategy that enables meaningful, ongoing dialogues with registrants, operators, educators and professional organizations.
- Ensure stakeholder insights are systematically captured, analyzed and incorporated into policy development, strategic planning and operational decision making.
- Evaluate and continuously improve the effectiveness of OCP’s engagement structures and methodologies.
- Participate in health system partner relations, including fostering key relationships with relevant organizations and staff to collaborate on profession-related content in a way that builds trust and advances OCP’s mandate and strategic goals.
- Operates in coordination with the Registrar & CEO and Director, Public Affairs & Communications to develop a strategy to establish, build and support relationships in support of key internal initiatives and the strategic plan
- Jointly with the Director, Public Affairs & Communications, leads the coordination of OCP system partner interactions to ensure consistency in messaging, best representation of OCP interests, and effective collaboration with, and response from, OCP while maintaining efficient use of staff time.
- Represent OCP at system partner meetings as appropriate.
- Coordinate with relevant departments across the organization to inform joint strategic initiatives with stakeholders and communicate developments and progress.

Profession Support & Knowledge Mobilization

- Provide executive oversight of OCP’s practice support and knowledge mobilization functions.
- Ensure registrants and system partners receive timely, relevant and actionable information that supports understanding and implementation of regulatory expectations.
- In collaboration with Public Affairs & Communications, oversees the development and evaluation of learning, engagement and information-sharing strategies that promote regulatory compliance and support quality pharmacy practice.
- Ensures that practice support resources reflect emerging practice realities, stakeholder needs and OCP’s priorities based on risk and outcomes.

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

- Leads the development of OCP’s EDI Strategy, setting plans, priorities, and applicable evaluation frameworks and monitoring.
- Provides direct oversight and management support to the College’s EDI initiatives as it relates to regulatory program and practices design, and external initiatives. For OCP’s internal operations, EDI is overseen by Human Resources, but EDI support may be provided from a subject matter expertise perspective as requested by HR.




- Ensures incorporation of EDI principles into policy work and profession and partner engagement.

Operational Oversight

- Provide effective leadership to the Policy & Profession Engagement and Support teams, to ensure communications models, plans and approaches are effective and best utilize the talents of a diverse department.
- Promote a culture that values learning, a commitment to quality, healthy risk taking, a team-first collaborative mindset, and analytics-based recommendations.
- Promote innovation, continuous quality improvement and an “art of the possible” mindset within the department and model behaviours that support and empower effective teams.
- Continually observe and make recommendations for departmental efficiencies (e.g., streamlining processes and organization of projects and workflows), and ensure timely escalation of potential issues and opportunities.
- Oversee the team’s capacity and ability to track, measure and report on the effectiveness of its activities making data-driven adjustments as necessary.
- Oversee and approve the development of annual operational plans and budgets.

What we’re looking for

- Demonstrated ability to lead organizational transformation and influence change across a complex stakeholder environment
- Strong political acuity and ability to navigate sensitive regulatory, system and government relationships
- Ability to translate complex regulatory, operational and environmental information into strategic recommendations and organizational action
- Strong knowledge of continuous quality improvement practices and guidelines and pharmacy operations and practice
- Ability to influence business issues through a sound knowledge of various processes with consultative skills to interact with all levels internally and externally
- Proven planning skills with the ability to “think outside the box” and see the “big picture” impact of decisions/actions.
- Demonstrated relationship management skills coupled with a high level of professionalism.
- Proven ability to scan environmental factors including political acuity (internal and external) in order to understand political realities, human resource capacity, and willingness
- Strong analytical, problem solving, facilitation, and conflict resolution skills within a culturally diverse multi-location work setting.
- Excellent written, verbal and interpersonal skills with a demonstrated ability to collaborate, build trust and relationships with stakeholders

What experience we prefer

Education

- Pharmacy education (Pharm.D) or equivalent is strongly preferred
- Graduate studies in health policy or administration is considered an asset to supplement work experience

Work Experience

- 10+ years’ experience in policy, legislation or regulation leadership and development
- Experience as a pharmacist in one or more relevant practice environments is strongly preferred
- Demonstrated knowledge and application of regulatory and pharmacy related legislation, College policies, guidelines and standards of practices is ideal

Why work for us? We are the registering and regulating body for the profession of pharmacy practice in Ontario with a mandate to serve and protect the public interest. In addition to ascertaining all registrants meet professional standards, the College sets and ensures ongoing adherence to professional and operational standards as it leads the advancement of pharmacy.

AI Disclosure

At Ontario College of Pharmacists, we value transparency and fairness in recruitment. While our system (ADP Workforce Now) includes AI-powered features, we do not use AI to screen, assess, or select applicants. All evaluations are conducted by people.

If you are interested in joining the College, please apply by October 14, 2026 stating salary expectations at www.ocpinfo.com/about/careers.

OCP is committed to supporting accessibility and diversity. Requests for accommodations can be made at any stage of the recruitment process. Applicants need to make their requirements known when contacted. We wish to thank all applicants for their interest in this position. We will only contact those whose skills, knowledge, and experience most closely match the requirements of the position.

📌 Director, Policy & Profession Engagement (Toronto)
🏢 Ontario College Of Pharmacists Ordre des Pharmaciens de L Ontario
📍 Toronto