Manager, Audio Visual Experience

Sun Life · Toronto

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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:

Events & Experiences is a strategic partner that creates meaningful connections through meetings, events, workplace experiences, hospitality services, audiovisual production, and multimedia storytelling.

Our team brings together experience strategists, hospitality professionals, event specialists, technical experts, and creative storytellers who design and deliver in-person, hybrid, virtual, and broadcast experiences that help employees collaborate, leaders connect, and business objectives come to life.

By combining creativity, hospitality, technology, operational excellence, and data-driven decision making, we create experiences that strengthen culture, enhance engagement, and support Sun Life's success.

About the role:

The Manager, Audio Visual Experience is responsible for managing and developing a team of AV technicians, including hiring, training, performance evaluations, coaching, and career development. The Manager oversees team scheduling, resource allocation, workload management, and service coverage to ensure optimal team performance and consistent service delivery. They foster a positive and accountable team culture, promote collaboration and knowledge sharing, conduct regular team meetings, and implement best practices and continuous improvement initiatives to enhance team efficiency and effectiveness.

As a working manager, the Manager also provides leading, hands-on support for AV and broadcast services for live in-person, hybrid, and virtual corporate meetings and events at Sun Life. They guide business partners toward the best possible solutions and ensure services are delivered to a high-quality and professional standard, providing direction to team members and vendor partners as required. The Manager leads onsite events for senior executives and multi-site hybrid events with advanced technical complexity, thriving in high-pressure circumstances. They also provide hands-on delivery of audio-visual services for onsite and virtual events for Sun Life business groups and senior leadership teams.

What will you do?

• Lead, manage, coach, and develop a team of AV technicians, including hiring, onboarding, training, setting clear expectations, providing regular feedback, conducting performance evaluations, supporting career development, and addressing performance or development needs.
• Manage the day-to-day operations of the Toronto Audio Visual Experience team, including team scheduling, workload management, resource allocation, service coverage, prioritization, and assignment of work to ensure consistent and high-quality service delivery.
• Foster a positive, inclusive, and accountable team culture that promotes collaboration, employee engagement, knowledge sharing, continuous learning, and professional development.
• Conduct regular team meetings and individual check-ins to communicate priorities, provide coaching, support employee development, identify challenges, and ensure team members have the direction and resources required to succeed.
• Lead the team through operational and organizational change, clearly communicating expectations, supporting employees through transitions, and maintaining team effectiveness and service continuity.
• Provide supervision, coaching, and direction to technicians, vendors, and service providers, ensuring work is completed safely, professionally, and in accordance with department standards.
• Remain a hands-on working manager, actively participating in event planning, rehearsals, technical setup, operation, troubleshooting, and event delivery alongside the team.
• Provide hands-on planning with business partners to recommend appropriate virtual platforms, audio-visual, and staging solutions. Complete planning documentation and lead rehearsals and event delivery to ensure the seamless execution of the event agenda. Update and improve department documentation and train team members on new processes.
• Demonstrate a commitment to continuous learning and research to advance the team’s knowledge and capabilities while staying ahead of technological developments in the AV and event production industry.
• Provide advanced technical operation of multiple virtual event platforms, broadcast and video equipment and integrations, multi-channel systems, and video editing capabilities. Lead the implementation of new technology, tools, and systems into regular operations, supporting and training other team members as required.
• Utilize advanced department systems and organizational practices, document KPIs, monitor service performance, and recommend efficiencies and opportunities for the department.
• Contribute to the evolution of venue and virtual service operations through the research and recommendation of new equipment, systems, and platforms, as well as the development of processes to support their successful implementation and operation.
• Take a leading role in implementation projects. Lead partners with flexible, solution-focused customer service skills to quickly adapt, resolve, and troubleshoot technical problems or late-breaking customer needs.
• Oversee assigned venue AV system operations, manage systems, complete ongoing maintenance checks and break-fix responses, and maintain equipment and inventory resources according to department standards.
• Collaboratively support other team members by participating in site improvement projects, cross-training, and initiatives that strengthen overall service operations.
• Adhere to company policies and industry best practices for technical processes before, during, and after events.
• Demonstrate a commitment to continuous improvement with the aim of making processes as efficient as possible while delivering high-quality results.

What you need to succeed?

• You have demonstrated people-management experience and can effectively lead, coach, develop, and motivate employees while setting clear expectations and reinforcing accountability.
• You have experience managing team operations, including scheduling, capacity and workload planning, resource allocation, service coverage, employee development, and performance management.
• You are a collaborative and approachable leader who builds trust, provides regular and constructive feedback, supports career development, and creates an environment where employees can succeed.
• You can balance the responsibilities of managing a team and department while remaining actively involved in hands-on technical planning, troubleshooting, and event delivery.
• You can lead employees through change, communicate priorities clearly, manage competing demands, and maintain team engagement and service quality during periods of transition or uncertainty.
• You have 5+ years of professional audio-visual technical expertise in a corporate event environment.
• You’re a well-accomplished event technician with honed skills and a track record of troubleshooting under pressure. You are knowledgeable about a wide range of media, platforms, and venues and regularly work in close collaboration with event planning and multimedia teams.
• You have excellent customer service and communication skills and can put partners, executives, and colleagues at ease in high-pressure situations.
• You have expert industry knowledge of equipment, systems, and terminology, with advanced technological and operational abilities. This may include expert knowledge of AV and broadcast systems such as video-conference hardware and software endpoints, hardware and software video switchers, including Blackmagic ATEMs and vMix, virtual event platforms, including Zoom and Microsoft Teams, as well as expertise in Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite.
• You demonstrate intuitiveness and the ability to adapt to and learn a wide range of new platforms, production systems, equipment, and integrations as technology evolves.
• You build strong business relationships with stakeholders, vendors, staff, and team members and have a strong ability to negotiate and resolve issues smoothly and effectively.
• You have expertise leading partners, suppliers, and teams to deliver high-quality work. You can train and coach team members to succeed with partners while navigating tight timelines, unexpected deliverables, and business pressures to deliver the best possible experience.
• You regularly show initiative. As a self-starter, you are confident in your abilities and decision-making.
• You have an excellent track record in fast-paced, deadline-driven, high-volume, and live-production environments.
• You have exceptional attention to detail.
• You have a passion for corporate event experiences, with your finger on the pulse of the latest trends and techniques.
• You’re adaptable and resilient, adjust quickly, and maintain your effectiveness throughout periods of change. You are comfortable with ambiguity and can provide the leadership and direction required to guide the team through change.

Preferred skills:

• Industry certifications are an asset.
• Involvement in industry-related associations.

Unique requirements:

Occasional travel of up to 20% may be required

The Base Pay range is for the primary location for which the job is posted. It may vary depending on the work location of the successful candidate or other factors. In addition to Base Pay, eligible Sun Life employees participate in various incentive plans, payment under which is discretionary and subject to individual and company performance. Certain sales focused roles have sales incentive plans based on individual or group sales results.

Diversity and inclusion have always been at the core of our values at Sun Life. A diverse workforce with wide perspectives and creative ideas benefits our Clients, the communities where we operate and all of us as colleagues. We welcome applications from qualified individuals from all backgrounds.

Persons with disabilities who need accommodation in the application process, or those needing job postings in an alternative format, may e-mail a request to thebrightside@sunlife.com.

We are proud to be a hybrid organization that offers our employees the choice and flexibility to work from both the office and virtually based on the needs of the business, our Clients and you.

We may use artificial intelligence to support candidate sourcing, screening, interview scheduling.

We thank all applicants for showing an interest in this position. Only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

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