Senior Manager, Risk Advisory
Metrolinx · Canada · onsite
Contract/Temporary Assignment upto 12 months Metrolinx is connecting communities across the Greater Golden Horseshoe. Metrolinx operates GO Transit and UP Express, as well as the PRESTO fare payment system. We are also building new and improved rapid transit, including GO Expansion, Light Rail Transit routes, and major expansions to Toronto’s subway system, to get people where they need to go, better, faster and easier. Metrolinx is an agency of the Government of Ontario.
At Metrolinx, equity, diversity and inclusion are essential to living our values of serving with passion, thinking forward and playing as a team. The Enterprise Risk Management team is seeking a Senior Manager, Risk Advisory for a 12-month contract to strengthen risk-informed decisions across Metrolinx. Combining strategic problem solving and analysis, the role helps leaders assess threats and opportunities, challenge assumptions and evaluate trade-offs. The Senior Manager advances risk analytics, intelligence and enterprise reporting, translating quantified exposure into actionable insights for senior management while supporting risk appetite, escalation and effective responses. Business leaders retain ownership of risks and decisions.
What will I be doing?- Strategic advisory: Leads cross-functional, hypothesis-driven engagements to frame strategic questions, test assumptions and evaluate options. Recommends actions that balance strategic outcomes, public value and residual risk, including the consequences of delay or inaction.
- Risk quantification: Advises leaders early in planning, investment and operational change, before commitments become difficult to reverse. Uses risk assessments, quantitative models, and scenario and sensitivity analysis to estimate likelihood and financial, schedule, service and other impacts, comparing exposure under alternative decisions and responses.
- Builds divisional risk capability through coaching, practical tools and targeted learning, integrating risk thinking into existing planning, performance and governance processes while maintaining clear business ownership of risks, responses and decisions.
- Risk intelligence: Partners with senior stakeholders to strengthen risk analytics, combining business knowledge, external developments, financial and operational data, and performance trends. Develops metrics, leading indicators, thresholds and dashboards that identify emerging risks, explain exposure changes and inform priorities.
- Enterprise exposure: Works with business units, specialist risk groups and control functions to assess shared drivers, dependencies and cumulative exposure across projects, programs and operations. Quantifies enterprise exposure where supportable, accounting for overlapping impacts and correlations, and recommends coordinated responses and escalation without assuming business ownership.
- Provides objective challenge on risk assessments, supporting evidence, key assumptions, response strategies and proposed risk acceptance. Helps leaders apply approved risk appetite, tolerances and delegated authorities, identifying evidence gaps and exposures requiring leadership direction.
- Supports and challenges business-owned response plans, assessing whether controls, contingencies and actions are feasible, adequately resourced and reducing exposure. Works with owners to establish meaningful indicators and decision triggers, monitor effectiveness and escalate material gaps, while retaining business accountability for implementation.
- Reporting and insight: Strengthens senior-management reporting and prepares decision-ready executive and Board advice through established governance. Uses quantified estimates, metrics and visualizations to explain exposure magnitude, concentration, trends and drivers, distinguishing evidence from assumptions and uncertainty. Identifies the objective at risk, urgency, options, trade-offs, accountable owner and decision required.
- Continuous improvement: Converts lessons learned into changes to controls, triggers, plans or accountabilities and assesses their effectiveness.
- Leads, mentors and coordinates matrixed multidisciplinary professionals and co-sourced partners on priority advisory engagements, providing targeted analytical and facilitation support and maintaining the quality and timeliness of advice.
- Leads staff on specific projects.
What Skills and Qualifications Do I Need?- Completion of a degree in risk management, economics, accounting, engineering, business administration, data analytics, statistics or a related discipline, or a combination of education, training and experience deemed equivalent. An MBA or relevant graduate degree is an asset.
- Demonstrated experience leading and developing high-performing teams, including setting clear expectations, coaching and developing staff, managing performance, and building capability in a professional, advisory, consulting, risk or similarly analytical environment.
- Relevant experience: Progressive experience in strategy or management consulting, strategic planning, risk advisory, enterprise risk or a related analytical field within large public or private sector organizations. Experience leading multidisciplinary teams or engagements and advising senior leaders on complex decisions. Candidates from consulting firms and internal strategy functions with transferable capabilities are encouraged to apply. Understanding of relevant legal, regulatory and safety obligations.
- Relevant professional designations, such as CPA or international equivalent, P.Eng., CRM or PMP, are assets; demonstrated strategic risk advisory capability is the primary consideration.
- Advanced practical knowledge of enterprise risk assessment, risk appetite, controls and risk response principles, methodologies and tools, with the judgment to apply them proportionately and provide objective challenge while preserving business accountability.
- Strong business acumen and enterprise perspective to connect external developments, delivery constraints, financial and operational performance, and cross-divisional dependencies to strategic objectives and cumulative risk exposure.
- Quantitative capability: Hands-on expertise in applied probability and statistics, financial and operational analysis, scenario and sensitivity modelling, and risk metrics and leading indicators. Builds fit-for-purpose models using data and defensible assumptions to quantify likelihood, impact ranges and exposure, substantiate conclusions mathematically and assess residual risk. Assesses data quality, validates assumptions and outputs, and commissions or challenges specialist modelling, communicating uncertainty and limitations without false precision.
- Practical understanding of program and project lifecycles and delivery methods, particularly capital projects to identify effective intervention points, assess the feasibility of business-owned responses and contingencies, and monitor actions and outcomes without assuming responsibility for delivery.
- Strategic problem solving and facilitation: Frames ambiguous problems, develops hypotheses and analytical workplans, and synthesizes rigorous evidence into options, clear strategic narratives and actionable recommendations. Translates risk concepts into practical decision tools and facilitates cross-functional discussions that challenge assumptions and make competing objectives and trade-offs explicit.
- Leadership, coaching and influencing skills to build trusted partnerships, constructively challenge senior stakeholders and strengthen business ownership of risk-informed decisions that support strategic outcomes and responsible stewardship.
- Executive communication: Strong interpersonal, writing and presentation skills to produce concise briefs, deep dives, dashboards and recommendations for SMT, executives and the Board through established governance. Communicates quantified exposure and enterprise trends through mean