Director at sunlife pay

Spoke to a Sunlife recruiter a couple months back for a similar Director position and he said the range is $120-$130k base with 20% bonus

tissot wrote: ↑ Spoke to a Sunlife recruiter a couple months back for a similar Director position and he said the range is $120-$130k base with 20% bonus

That sounds about right. Manulife is similar.

tissot wrote: ↑ Spoke to a Sunlife recruiter a couple months back for a similar Director position and he said the range is $120-$130k base with 20% bonus

Thanks. Appreciate it.

Wow Director IT Engineering is only 120K? That is pretty damn low / awful for that kind of role

Ziggy007 wrote: ↑ Wow Director IT Engineering is only 120K? That is pretty damn low / awful for that kind of role

We pay developers more than that lol

Ziggy007 wrote: ↑ Wow Director IT Engineering is only 120K? That is pretty damn low / awful for that kind of role

Should be noted, this is the median range of the entire financial sector in Canada (banks, insurance, similar companies etc.)

Ziggy007 wrote: ↑ Wow Director IT Engineering is only 120K? That is pretty damn low / awful for that kind of role

Yeah, AVP is not much higher than this either as seen in the other thread. 120k for director level and being squished between bottom/top bureaucratic politics is a no-go.

Is it really that low? I recall interviewing for Senior engineer role with Sun 5-6 years ago and it was something like ~100k

Sepiraph wrote: ↑ Is it really that low? I recall interviewing for Senior engineer role with Sun 5-6 years ago and it was something like ~100k

Correct, Senior level role compensation has hardly changed at Sun (+ other FIs) in the last 5-6 years. They've only recently started adjusting to market rates in the last year, however, still well below market rates overall. Average comp for Sr eng is still in 110-150k range which is what the wider Canadian market is paying.

There are plenty of dev folks paid more, they're just usually hired on contract at market value.

This amount sounds about right for a permanent director role in one of the big FIs, maybe a bit more for external hires esp if it's for an area going through "transformation" (aka the new "synergy")

tissot wrote: ↑ Spoke to a Sunlife recruiter a couple months back for a similar Director position and he said the range is $120-$130k base with 20% bonus

The directors in my public sector agency make North of $150k and beat me to the parking lot at end of day, I guess the C-suite people are the real money makers

badmus wrote: ↑ The directors in my public sector agency make North of $150k and beat me to the parking lot at end of day, I guess the C-suite people are the real money makers

Directors in public sector are higher than in many private places just because of title inflation is rampant in private

A director in many private places like FI are more like manager level in terms of actual responsibilities/head count in public if that.

AVP is closer to like director level in public.

StatsGuy wrote: ↑ Directors in public sector are higher than in many private places just because of title inflation is rampant in private

A director in many private places like FI are more like manager level in terms of actual responsibilities/head count in public if that.

AVP is closer to like director level in public.

I have heard of title inflation a few times especially in banks and even in some Telecom companies. We do have Assistant Directors, Senior Directors, VPs, Senior VPs and so on but from my friends I know at banks who are non branch managers, the responsibilities are not the same.

StatsGuy wrote: ↑ Directors in public sector are higher than in many private places just because of title inflation is rampant in private

A director in many private places like FI are more like manager level in terms of actual responsibilities/head count in public if that.

AVP is closer to like director level in public.

Private sector title inflation only occurs in capital markets and sales type roles

ie you will have the Regional VP of Sales who is just a 24 year old kid with no direct reports

badmus wrote: ↑ I have heard of title inflation a few times especially in banks and even in some Telecom companies. We do have Assistant Directors, Senior Directors, VPs, Senior VPs and so on but from my friends I know at banks who are non branch managers, the responsibilities are not the same.

I think what's being said, and I've heard, is if you are a big 5 manager you likely don't have the experience to apply to a pub ser manager role.

A director might lateral into a sen man role in pub ser.

So in that way, bank titles are inflated compared to pub ser.

probably it’s just SLF is at the lower side, the average in other big 5 are typically higher than that.
Plus 20+% bonus that public sectors don’t have, so it’s still higher.
But nothing to compare with US firms

I have friends from school (Grad school) who went straight to Senior Manager roles with no prior banking experience, some of them are Directors now after a couple of years, they won’t have enough years to lateral into the same role in the public sector nor the same responsibilities.

I see another one that started as a Branch Manager trainee from University and is an AVP now.

Director at insurance is more like a 'Senior' Manager in that they will have more responsibility/ownership, but are often individual contributors, and that aren't really paid attention to by the VPs. I remember when my wife was in Telecom, and Director was the next step up that all the 'Sr Managers' were gunning for as that next level of prestige, and having a bunch of people under them.

There are many Directors in insurance that are largely capped and won't make the next level up of AVP, as each step above is quite big. So in that sense, it is government like.

Banks have had much much higher growth given the growth in the money supply, while life 'Insurance' has been mature, while returns (largely from fixed income) has been abysmal due to those low rates. Thus pay and bonuses for banks have been a lot higher. On the flipside, banks are much more volatile in terms of stability, turnover. Layoffs, restructuring happen much more often, especially at a whiff of a change in business conditions for that segment.

While insurance is more utility or government like, as the roles in Insurance aren't as volatile or changing. The heavier regulation of the niche focus life insurance really is keeps most people/businesses in their lane, where there's less jumping between other insurers, so it's more of a lifestyle thing, where you work with your manager or team for a long-time vs revolving door of managers that is more common at banks.

There is the insurance 'proceeds' investment divisions where pay would be higher. I.e. a Sr. Analyst there would be equivalent of a Director on the insurance side type thing.

I was told the same as you guys mentioned here, $125-135k+ 20% bonus. I did not pursue this.

I am at a FI now , SM level. Did not make much of a sense for a switch now and the role was also a little off for me.

periyava1894 wrote: ↑ I was told the same as you guys mentioned here, $125-135k+ 20% bonus. I did not pursue this.

I am at a FI now , SM level. Did not make much of a sense for a switch now and the role was also a little off for me.

Is it due to responsibility difference or pay is not much different? I thought Sr manager at bank makes about 100k base give or take.