Canada Human Resources Lead, Senior Manager

Canada HR Lead

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The Canada HR Lead serves as the primary HR leader within Canada for both Bank and Securities, accountable for ensuring the safety, soundness, and compliance of all HR activities in alignment with local labour laws, regulatory requirements, and organizational standards, ensuring that global delivery meets local requirements. Operating within the GHR operating model, the Canada HR Lead collaborates closely with business leaders, Global and Regional HR Business Partners, and Global Functions to ensure seamless, consistent delivery of HR support to clients in country.

The role provides strategic HR partnership at a country level to the senior leaders who are primarily focused on country-specific activity, balancing global consistency with local relevance. The role plays a critical part in fostering a compliant, engaged, and high-performing workforce that supports the company's business objectives in country.

Canada HR team role(s) enable globalization and centralization by focusing on activities that must be delivered to and/or performed within the country.

Key Responsibilities:

• Serve as the main interaction point between Country Head (GM) and HR
• Act as the primary HR liaison for the Country Head, ensuring clear and consistent communication on people-related matters
• Gather and interpret local business and regulatory requirements, escalating these to business-aligned HR Business Partners (HRBPs) as needed
• Translate country-specific needs into actionable inputs for GBG (Global Business Group) people plans and HR strategies
• Collaborate with global and regional HR teams to embed local insights into broader talent, engagement, and workforce planning initiatives
• Maintain a thorough understanding of country-specific employment practices and ensure appropriate integration with global HR policies
• Facilitate proactive two-way communication between local leadership and the HR function to support business outcomes and workforce priorities
• Support the coordination and delivery of HR programmes and initiatives within countries, ensuring they are aligned with local needs and global direction

Represent HR in both internal and external local boards and committees

• Provide HR representation to local boards, country governance committees, or equivalent bodies – preparing relevant papers, statutory submissions, reports, and regulatory attestations (e.g., renumeration disclosure statement)
• Monitor and report on people-related risk indicators (e.g., mandatory training compliance, SMCR fitness and propriety, whistleblowing activity, etc.), ensuring governance materials are supported by accurate data and clear recommendations
• Coordinate annual certifications, license renewals, and statutory audit responses, liaising with regulators as appropriate and ensuring timely closure of any actions or findings
• Manage country risk culture measures and review culture dashboards

Support local ER activity, including industrial relations and investigations

• Collaborating closely with the Regional ER teams, support the management of complex employee relations cases – such as disciplinary matters, grievances, performance concerns, and terminations – to ensure all actions comply with local legislation and internal standards of fairness
• Develop constructive, trust-based relationships with trade unions, works councils, and employee representatives; prepare for and lead consultation or negotiation meetings on restructures, collective agreements, or policy changes
• Liaison with centrally coordinated external legal advisers and labour authorities, coordinating documentation, evidence, and hearings as required and embedding learnings into future practice

Manage required legal, fiscal and regulatory steps outs in global processes

• Monitor employment legislation requirements and regulatory updates relevant to designated country or region, mapping any changes against the firm's global HR processes
• Draft and secure approval for locally-compliant process variations or workarounds, documenting the rationale, controls, and accountabilities, and tracking them through implementation to audit readiness
• Collaborate with HR Central Services, Legal, Finance, Compliance, and Risk to ensure that local deviations are accurately costed, correctly configured in HR systems / payroll, and reflected in procedural documentation and employee communications

Embed the global people strategy at country level

• Provide tailored, high-touch support to the executive committee of the country for sensitive or strategically significant HR processes, such as performance management, executive onboarding, complex ER cases, contract changes, relocations, and exits
• Act as a first-line triage point during the transition to the new GHR operating model, assessing employee and manager queries and directing them – via ticketing systems or warm handovers – to HR Central Services, CoEs, or HR Business Partners as appropriate
• Assess country engagement scores and lead country-level interventions to improve these as appropriate
• Anticipate and resolve potential friction points in key people processes involving senior leaders, ensuring confidentiality, discretion, and alignment with business priorities
• Apply safety and soundness standards and principles to the country
• Escalate issues and gaps in processes to the accountable GHR function

Work Experience:

• Extensive experience in an HR business partner or similar management role, at a country or region-wide level
• Proven record of implementing strategic HR initiatives that have demonstrably contributed to achieving business objectives and enhanced overall business performance
• Proven record of managing HR function for a business unit
• Experience of partnering with and influencing senior leaders and their leadership teams and working collaboratively with key stakeholders to create joint expectations and deliverables
• Ability to advise, coach, and guide senior leaders
• Proven ability to work effectively across cultures and in a global environment
• Strong change management experience to effectively guide teams and stakeholders through organizational change
• Ability to manage multiple cyclical and ad-hoc HR programs simultaneously
• History of delivering results in a high-pressured, fast-paced environment
• Demonstrable ability to prioritize competing objectives and achieve results

Functional / Technical Competencies:

• Strong business acumen with an understanding of global business dynamics
• Deep understanding of generalist HR practices
• Deep understanding of GHR policies and practices
• Deep understanding of Canadian Federal and Provincial employment / labor laws, common law practice, and financial industry regulatory requirements
• Excellent judgment and decision-making in complex ER cases
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with demonstrated ability to present effectively to the highest levels of local leadership
• High degree of adaptability and resilience
• Highly comfortable navigating and analyzing data to support HR strategy that serves business needs
• Significant experience overseeing budgets and resources, as required (TBC)
• Familiarity with GHR processes
• Strong organization, time management, and multi-tasking skills with the ability to manage competing priorities
• Exceptional discretion and tact to handle highly confidential and delicate information about clients and colleagues
• Proficiency with the full range of Microsoft Office applications (PowerPoint, Excel, Word, Outlook, and Teams)

Education / Qualifications:

• Relevant HR or Professional experience required
• Experience in an HR support, coordination or administrative role

Personal Requirements:

• Results driven with a strong sense of ownership and accountability and a proactive, motivated approach
• Analytical and strategic thinker, with excellent problem-solving skills
• Ability to work effectively in complex organizational structures and drive outputs
• Flexible and effective communication skills, coupled with the ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines effectively
• Resourcefulness to identify alternate paths and options for achieving results