Senior IT Project Manager (10+ years) to lead branch network migration initiatives using MPLS and SD-WAN technologies- 41316
Our banking client is seeking a Senior IT Project Manager (10+ years) to lead branch network migration initiatives using MPLS and SD-WAN technologies- 41316
Location Address: Hybrid - Toronto – 2 days onsite/week
Subject to change: 3–4 days onsite may be required based on business needs
Contract Duration:12 months (Possibility of extension & conversion to FTE)
Number of Positions: 1
Schedule Hours: Varied Schedule Hours, Monday-Friday, and there could be occasional weekend work; Overtime is expected and budgeted for this role. As branch network migration activities occur during evening cutover windows, the successful candidate will be required to support migration activities outside of standard business hours, primarily Monday through Thursday, when branches go offline and cutover activities commence.
Story Behind the Need
Business group: The role sits within EDO - Tech Portfolio Management, supporting networking and infrastructure initiatives within the Global Technology & Enterprise Platforms (GTEP) organization.
This position is part of a highly visible enterprise-wide technology transformation program that requires close collaboration between GTEP and Canadian Banking teams. The successful candidate will serve as a key liaison between technical and business stakeholders, ensuring successful planning, coordination, communication, and execution of migration activities.
Project: The role supports the NGN3 (Next Generation Network 3) Program, specifically within the Data Workstream.
The NGN3 Program is a large-scale network modernization initiative focused on migrating Canadian banking branches from the existing NGN2/MPLS network environment to a modern SD-WAN platform.
The Bank is partnering with Bell as a managed service provider to execute branch migrations nationwide. The program involves:
- Migration planning and execution across hundreds of branch locations
- Coordination of branch site visits and cutover activities
- Management of migration schedules and deployment readiness
- Communication and stakeholder engagement across technology teams, business units, branch operations, and external vendors
- Governance and oversight of vendor performance and service-level commitments
The program is currently approximately 50% complete, with branch migrations actively occurring across Canada from east to west. The focus of this role is supporting the ongoing deployment and migration execution phase.
The successful candidate will play a critical role in facilitating migration activities, leading cutover calls, resolving issues, managing dependencies, and ensuring branch migrations are executed successfully according to plan.
Typical Day in Role:
The Project Manager will act as the primary coordination point between Scotiabank, Bell, business stakeholders, and branch teams to ensure successful delivery of migration activities.
Key responsibilities include:
- Managing end-to-end planning and execution of branch network migrations
- Applying project management methodologies, governance, and best practices throughout delivery
- Acting as the primary liaison for the Data Workstream between Scotiabank and Bell
- Managing and refining migration schedules within a rolling 3-month planning horizon
- Working closely with Bell to finalize migration plans for upcoming 4–6 week deployment periods
- Ensuring migration communications are accurate, timely, and distributed to appropriate business stakeholders
- Monitoring migration readiness, deployment risks, equipment availability, and site dependencies
- Tracking progress against migration targets and delivery objectives
- Facilitating migration and cutover calls during evening deployment windows
- Escalating and resolving issues that may impact branch deployment schedules
- Coordinating remediation activities when site-specific issues arise
- Managing requests for accelerated or reprioritized branch migrations
- Collaborating with business lines that communicate migration impacts to individual branches
- Maintaining stakeholder alignment across technology, business, operations, and vendor teams
- Ensuring vendor adherence to service commitments, processes, and contractual SLAs
Delivery Environment
- Current migration target: 64 branch migrations per month
- Stretch target: 72+ migrations per month
- Bell operates within a rolling 3-month deployment schedule
- Migration schedules may be impacted by equipment delays, site readiness concerns, remediation requirements, or changing business priorities
- Core infrastructure preparation, testing, data center readiness, equipment ordering, and lab validation activities have already been completed, and the program is currently focused on large-scale migration execution
Candidate Requirements/Must Have Skills:
1) 10+ years as an IT Project Manager leading complex technology projects
2) Migration project experience on a longer-term project, including:
- Demonstrated experience managing infrastructure, network, or technology migration programs over an extended project lifecycle
- Experience coordinating deployment schedules, cutovers, and implementation activities
- Strong experience managing external vendors and delivery partners
- Experience working with telecommunications providers (Bell, Rogers, Telus, etc.) is considered a strong asset
4) Managed service provider project experience:
- Experience working within managed service delivery environments
- Ability to manage vendor commitments, performance metrics, and service-level obligations
5) Network technology project experience involving MPLS and/or SD-WAN technologies
Nice-To-Have Skills:
1) Testing management or test coordination experience
2) Financial services or banking industry experience
3) Experience supporting branch transformation or branch migration programs
4) Experience supporting geographically distributed deployments across multiple sites
Education:
Experience is prioritized
PMI/PMP certifications are an asset
Best VS. Average Candidate:
The ideal candidate combines strong project management expertise with a solid technology background and a demonstrated ability to lead large-scale migration programs.
They will:
- Understand how technology initiatives impact business operations
- Be comfortable working with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Demonstrate exceptional organization and execution discipline
- Have experience managing complex, multi-year migration or infrastructure transformation programs
- Effectively balance competing priorities while driving delivery against aggressive timelines
- Communicate clearly, confidently, and professionally across all organizational levels
Candidate Review & Selection – Interview Process
Round 1
- Hiring Manager and Program Manager
- Microsoft Teams Video Interview
- Approximately 45 minutes
Topics will include:
- Relevant project and migration experience
- Stakeholder management approach
- Vendor management experience
- Problem-solving capabilities
- Scenario-based delivery and risk-management questions
- Overall team and role fit
Round 2 (if required)
Additional assessment to further evaluate experience, leadership capabilities, and program fit
Our banking client is seeking a Senior IT Project Manager (10+ years) to lead branch network migration initiatives using MPLS and SD-WAN technologies- 41316
Location Address: Hybrid - Toronto – 2 days onsite/week
Subject to change: 3–4 days onsite may be required based on business needs
Contract Duration:12 months (Possibility of extension & conversion to FTE)
Number of Positions: 1
Schedule Hours: Varied Schedule Hours, Monday-Friday, and there could be occasional weekend work; Overtime is expected and budgeted for this role. As branch network migration activities occur during evening cutover windows, the successful candidate will be required to support migration activities outside of standard business hours, primarily Monday through Thursday, when branches go offline and cutover activities commence.
Story Behind the Need
Business group: The role sits within EDO - Tech Portfolio Management, supporting networking and infrastructure initiatives within the Global Technology & Enterprise Platforms (GTEP) organization.
This position is part of a highly visible enterprise-wide technology transformation program that requires close collaboration between GTEP and Canadian Banking teams. The successful candidate will serve as a key liaison between technical and business stakeholders, ensuring successful planning, coordination, communication, and execution of migration activities.
Project: The role supports the NGN3 (Next Generation Network 3) Program, specifically within the Data Workstream.
The NGN3 Program is a large-scale network modernization initiative focused on migrating Canadian banking branches from the existing NGN2/MPLS network environment to a modern SD-WAN platform.
The Bank is partnering with Bell as a managed service provider to execute branch migrations nationwide. The program involves:
- Migration planning and execution across hundreds of branch locations
- Coordination of branch site visits and cutover activities
- Management of migration schedules and deployment readiness
- Communication and stakeholder engagement across technology teams, business units, branch operations, and external vendors
- Governance and oversight of vendor performance and service-level commitments
The program is currently approximately 50% complete, with branch migrations actively occurring across Canada from east to west. The focus of this role is supporting the ongoing deployment and migration execution phase.
The successful candidate will play a critical role in facilitating migration activities, leading cutover calls, resolving issues, managing dependencies, and ensuring branch migrations are executed successfully according to plan.
Typical Day in Role:
The Project Manager will act as the primary coordination point between Scotiabank, Bell, business stakeholders, and branch teams to ensure successful delivery of migration activities.
Key responsibilities include:
- Managing end-to-end planning and execution of branch network migrations
- Applying project management methodologies, governance, and best practices throughout delivery
- Acting as the primary liaison for the Data Workstream between Scotiabank and Bell
- Managing and refining migration schedules within a rolling 3-month planning horizon
- Working closely with Bell to finalize migration plans for upcoming 4–6 week deployment periods
- Ensuring migration communications are accurate, timely, and distributed to appropriate business stakeholders
- Monitoring migration readiness, deployment risks, equipment availability, and site dependencies
- Tracking progress against migration targets and delivery objectives
- Facilitating migration and cutover calls during evening deployment windows
- Escalating and resolving issues that may impact branch deployment schedules
- Coordinating remediation activities when site-specific issues arise
- Managing requests for accelerated or reprioritized branch migrations
- Collaborating with business lines that communicate migration impacts to individual branches
- Maintaining stakeholder alignment across technology, business, operations, and vendor teams
- Ensuring vendor adherence to service commitments, processes, and contractual SLAs
Delivery Environment
- Current migration target: 64 branch migrations per month
- Stretch target: 72+ migrations per month
- Bell operates within a rolling 3-month deployment schedule
- Migration schedules may be impacted by equipment delays, site readiness concerns, remediation requirements, or changing business priorities
- Core infrastructure preparation, testing, data center readiness, equipment ordering, and lab validation activities have already been completed, and the program is currently focused on large-scale migration execution
Candidate Requirements/Must Have Skills:
1) 10+ years as an IT Project Manager leading complex technology projects
2) Migration project experience on a longer-term project, including:
- Demonstrated experience managing infrastructure, network, or technology migration programs over an extended project lifecycle
- Experience coordinating deployment schedules, cutovers, and implementation activities
3) Vendor management experience:
- Strong experience managing external vendors and delivery partners
- Experience working with telecommunications providers (Bell, Rogers, Telus, etc.) is considered a strong asset
4) Managed service provider project experience:
- Experience working within managed service delivery environments
- Ability to manage vendor commitments, performance metrics, and service-level obligations
5) Network technology project experience involving MPLS and/or SD-WAN technologies
Nice-To-Have Skills:
1) Testing management or test coordination experience
2) Financial services or banking industry experience
3) Experience supporting branch transformation or branch migration programs
4) Experience supporting geographically distributed deployments across multiple sites
Education:
Experience is prioritized
PMI/PMP certifications are an asset
Best VS. Average Candidate:
The ideal candidate combines strong project management expertise with a solid technology background and a demonstrated ability to lead large-scale migration programs.
They will:
- Understand how technology initiatives impact business operations
- Be comfortable working with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Demonstrate exceptional organization and execution discipline
- Have experience managing complex, multi-year migration or infrastructure transformation programs
- Effectively balance competing priorities while driving delivery against aggressive timelines
- Communicate clearly, confidently, and professionally across all organizational levels
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