Senior Manager, Service Innovation and Inclusion Frontline Program Department

Job posting

Senior Manager, Service Innovation and Inclusion

FRONTLINE PROGRAM DEPARTMENT

Who we are

Founded in 1986, Prosper Canada is a national charity dedicated to expanding economic opportunity for Canadians living in poverty through program and policy innovation.

As Canada’s leading champion of financial empowerment, we work with government, business, and community partners to develop and promote policies, programs and resources that transform lives and foster the prosperity of all Canadians.

Prosper Canada does not deliver services directly to people living on low incomes. Instead, we work with public, private and community sector partners to ensure quality financial empowerment (FE) supports (including effective policy and regulation) are available to all people living on a low income across Canada.

At Prosper Canada, we value being collaborative, human-centred, and forward-thinking. We recognize, accept, and celebrate our differences. We see power in diversity, equity, and inclusion, and believe we can help everyone thrive by being our boldest true selves. Diversity is at the core of what we do and who we support to build financial health. Our financial empowerment efforts focus on equity-seeking groups including those living on low incomes, Indigenous Peoples, members of racialized communities, and people living with disabilities.

We strive to create a culture where all feel valued, respected, and a true sense of belonging. We seek diverse perspectives that represent the lived experience, needs and challenges of equity-seeking groups. Join us in supporting and empowering everyone in Canada to prosper.

THE OPPORTUNITY

Prosper Canada supports a national system of free, high-quality, community-delivered, financial help services for people with low/moderate incomes across Canada. Over the next 4 years, in collaboration with our community partners, we will help 1 million people to build their financial wellbeing and connect them to $2 billion in additional income. At the same time, we are also looking at ways we can deepen our impact through innovating and improving financial help service models and approaches, including tailoring for diverse communities.

The Senior Manager, Service Innovation and Inclusion (SI&I) isa highly entrepreneurial innovation leader and equity champion who will provide strategic and operational leadership to drive focused, rigorous, equity-driven, innovation projects and initiatives to advance our strategic goals. In this capacity, they will:

• Prioritize and oversee development and piloting of innovative financial empowerment service models, tools, and resources, which drive greater service reach, impact, and inclusion.
• Drive development and organizational adoption of a consistent and effective approach to engaging and working with priority underserved populations to better meet their financial empowerment needs.
• Build a roadmap and supporting partnerships, in collaboration with the Senior Manager, Community Services and Impact, to move our national financial empowerment service system toward greater service consistency, quality, and accessibility over the next 5+ years.

The ideal candidate relishes the opportunity to work collaboratively with internal teams, community partners, and equity-seeking populations to advance innovations that grow the consistency, quality, and inclusion of financial empowerment services across Canada, to drive mission impact on a national scale.

You possess demonstrated skills, experience, and rigour in moving innovative approaches from idea to proof-of-concept to successful pilot and helping to create pathways to take successful innovations to scale. You understand evidence and its critical role in driving service innovation and improvement and are experienced at commissioning the types of research and evaluation you need and mobilizing resulting insights to drive progress, with the collaboration and support of other internal teams. You also have a track record of driving equity and inclusion and experience co-developing and testing innovations with members of underserved and vulnerable groups and their organizations. Finally, you are a results-driven but empathetic leader who sets clear goals for your team members and invests the necessary time and effort to help them learn, develop and succeed.

Reports to: Director, Frontline Programs

Direct reports: 3 Managers, Service Innovation & Inclusion

Indirect reports: 3 Senior Officers, Service Innovation & Inclusion

Summary of key Responsibilities

1. Prioritize and drive financial empowerment innovation (30%)

Oversee prioritization, development and testing of financial empowerment innovations to drive greater financial empowerment service reach, impact and inclusion.

• Prioritize financial empowerment service model, tool and resource innovations for development and testing in alignment with our organizational strategy, capabilities, and available resources
• Establish and apply structured innovation frameworks, tools, and processes to guide our innovation work from ideation through proof-of-concept testing and larger-scale piloting, ensuring consistency, quality, and alignment across all SI&I projects.
• Use human-centered design approaches to embed equity, accessibility, and lived experience in all stages of innovation to improve the relevance, effectiveness, and impact of FE services.
• Strengthen Prosper Canada’s organizational capacity by helping to integrate inclusive human-centered design into core team practices and capabilities.
• Work with other relevant Prosper Canada teams to mobilize resulting evidence and insights to support effective practices, adoption/scaling of successful innovations, and/or relevant system change, marketing and communications, and fundraising efforts.

2. Lead SI&I operational planning, delivery and performance measurement (25%)

Develop multi-year and annual SI&I operating plans and budgets that advance our organizational strategy and fulfill our funded obligations and regularly monitor and report on progress on those plans. This includes:

• Delivering a 3-year SI&I operating plan aligned with Prosper Canada’s strategy and funded commitments
• Ensuring new or renewed business development opportunities align with SI&I multi-year plans, goals and priorities.
• Ensure all innovation and inclusion initiatives are effectively monitored, evaluated and reported on with a view to effectiveness, impact, scalability, and resulting insights to be shared with relevant internal teams, community service partners, funders, and other external stakeholders.
• Lead multi-year and annual planning for the SI&I Group, including budgeting and capacity planning, aligning resources with organizational goals and funder commitments.
• Ensure SI&I projects and initiatives are delivered on time, on budget, and in alignment with strategic and funder expectations.
• Ensure financial accountability and resource optimization through proactive financial monitoring, timely reporting, and reliable forecasting for all SI&I initiatives.

3. Ensure a systematic organizational approach to meeting the needs of priority populations (15%)

Develop and facilitate implementation of, a systematic organizational approach to identifying and addressing the needs of priority populations in the context of our overall organizational strategy. This approach should include:

• Planned outreach and engagement to build and deepen relationships with key organizations led by and serving target populations.
• Research and dialogue to understand the financial challenges, barriers, and priorities of target populations and effective ways to address these, systematically sharing resulting insights with relevant internal and external stakeholders.
• Research and dialogue to generate guidance on effective practices for ensuring financial empowerment services are accessible, relevant and inclusive of target populations, and sharing insights with our Community Services and Impact Group and Community of Practice.
• Identifying and prioritizing opportunities to develop and test tailored service models, tools and resources for target populations.
• Co-developing and testing tailored service models, tools and resources for target populations.
• Building insights and evidence on what works and collaborating with other teams to mobilize this knowledge to inform frontline adoption of proven innovations and related upstream program, policy and regulatory change.

4. Team leadership and people management (20%)

• Lead and coach the SI&I team to achieve team and individual goals and objectives and deliver on commitments, ensuring alignment with organizational priorities.
• Foster a culture of inclusion, collaboration and innovation, while ensuring role clarity and accountability.
• Ensure the team delivers high-impact innovation and inclusion projects while maintaining wellbeing, sustainable workloads, and strong internal and cross-team collaboration.
• Grow team capacity through mentorship, skill development, and succession planning to support long-term organizational strength.
• Support cross-team alignment by serving as a key connector between the SI&I team and other program and functional teams.

5. Build and advance roadmap to enhance service system consistency, quality and inclusion (10%)

Lead the development and implementation of a road map and supporting partnerships and approaches (e.g., training, service standards, and accreditation), in collaboration with the Senior Manager, Community Services and Impact, to move our national financial empowerment service system toward greater service consistency, quality and inclusion. This should include:

• Building consensus internally and with community delivery partners on clear objectives for the evolution of our service system and what success will look like.
• Strategic inquiry and research to see how other national/provincial community service systems have tackled this challenge and what works.
• Developing an initial 5-year roadmap for how we will make progress toward our goal with clear activities, milestones, objectives and timelines, in collaboration with other key internal teams (Community Services and Impact, System Change, Research & Evaluation, Marketing and Communications).
• Lead implementation of the roadmap, in collaboration with relevant internal teams and external partners, and regularly monitor and report on progress.

WHAT SUCCESS IN THIS ROLE LOOKS LIKE OVER the next 3 years

• A clear, multi-year, operating plan for the Service Innovation and Inclusion (SI&I) Group is established, aligned with Prosper Canada’s strategic priorities.
• SI&I projects consistently follow structured innovation methodologies and processes and generate measurable outcomes and/or developmental insights to inform future development, adoption and/or scaling efforts.
• Innovation and inclusion projects are delivered on time and within budget, with clear processes in place to support staff wellbeing, team and project partner satisfaction, and measurable impact.
• SI&I team leads have clear mechanisms for assessing proposed innovation projects and making recommendations to senior leadership that incorporate considerations including potential impact, resource requirements, organizational capabilities, and alignment with organizational strategy.
• Inclusive and human-centered design principles are embedded across all SI&I initiatives, resulting in service models and tools that improve access and outcomes for diverse and underserved communities.
• Strong collaboration with other internal teams and aligned approaches to working with external partners to support innovation delivery.
• The SI&I team is high-performing, well-supported, and empowered, with clear roles, strong accountability, and ongoing professional development.
• Innovation insights are effectively shared with other teams and translated into funding opportunities, policy and advocacy contributions, and knowledge mobilization that enhance Prosper Canada’s nationalleadership in inclusive financial empowerment innovation and human-centered design.

Experience and competencies

Candidates must clearly demonstrate how they meet the essential criteria set out in the table below to be considered for an interview. Candidates should highlight desirable criteria they possess to gain a competitive edge over other candidates at shortlisting or interview stage.

Essential criteria

Minimum (non-negotiable) qualifications, skills, experience, and/or knowledge needed to perform the job effectively

Desirable criteria

Preferred nice-to-have attributes, like additional certifications or advanced skills, that give a candidate a competitive edge, but are not critical to performing core job duties

Experience

• 7–10 years in innovation and/or social impact leadership role(s)
• Planning and overseeing complex, multi-year, multi-stakeholder project portfolios
• Managing medium-sized teams, successfully fostering collaboration, inclusion and accountability
• Implementing human-centered design and service innovation methodologies across the full innovation lifecycle
• Leading initiatives with project team members drawn from your teams and others across the organization.
• Delivering financial empowerment services or overseeing teams that do
• Lived or professional experience working with equity-deserving populations
• Designing or adapting products/services with an accessibility lens
• Leading technology-focused or technology-enabled innovation projects
• Working and influencing across sectors: funders, government, community

Skills and knowledge

• Strong ability to lead strategic planning, budgeting, and performance monitoring approaches for a team
• Ability to oversee multiple early-stage innovation initiatives, ensuring quality and consistency
• Data/evidence-informed and agile decision-making
• Strong ability to lead teams in dynamic, fast-paced environments and ability to adapt to change
• Excellent written and verbal communicator and relationship-builder
• Strong presentation and discussion facilitation skills.
• Able to translate complex concepts into accessible information and insights for diverse audiences.
• Creative and solution-focused mindset
• Knowledge of the Canadian financial empowerment landscape
• Bilingual in French and English, able to present and communicate effectively in both languages, in a predominantly English-speaking environment.

Qualifications

• Post-secondary education in a related field e.g., Social Innovation, Design Thinking, Public Policy, Community Development, Business Administration or equivalent experience
• Project management certification

WHAT WE OFFER

Prosper Canada offers the opportunity to work in a mission-driven, values-based environment where you can help to drive large-scale social impact. Our staff enjoy:

• Supportive work policies in a hybrid office environment
• A collaborative work environment with a strong culture of learning and innovation
• Opportunities for learning and professional development and to participate in cross-team working groups and projects.

Compensation package: The salary range for this position is $87,500 to $95,000. Upon successful completion of a 3-month probation period, the successful candidate will also participate in a full suite of employee benefits including:

• 20 paid vacation days
• 3 paid personal days and 15 paid sick days
• Paid time off when we close the office from Christmas Eve through New Year’s Day
• Group medical and dental benefits
• Employee Assistance Program
• Employer RRSP contribution and membership in the Common Good retirement savings plan

Prosper Canada values and welcomes:

• Applicants from racialized groups, including, black, Indigenous, and people of colour.
• Applicants of all gender expressions and sexual orientations, including queer, trans, and two-spirit people.
• Your personal experience of living on a low income, being a newcomer, or living with a disability, and the insights and perspectives this would bring to your work.
• Your understanding of the concepts of institutional and structural racism and bias and their impact on underserved and under-represented communities.
• Your ability to build empathetic relationships with a broad range of people, including diverse communities living on low incomes.

If you do not meet all our requirements, but believe your skill set and experience are applicable or transferable, we would still love to hear from you.

We encourage candidates from equity-seeking groups to self-identify in their cover letters and to highlight how their lived experiences help them understand the needs and challenges of equity-seeking groups. We are committed to making accommodation for all candidates and staff with temporary or permanent disabilities. Applicants who may require an accessible format of this job description or accommodation to have a successful interview are encouraged to contact us on hr@prospercanada.org.

Interviews with candidates may be conducted virtually or in person for candidates in the Greater Toronto Area. We thank all applicants for their interest, however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

APPLICATION DETAILS / HOW TO APPLY

Application deadline: January 18, 2026

Start date: February / March 2026

Job location: 60 St. Clair Avenue E., Toronto ON

Travel: 5% per year

How to apply: Please email the following documents to hr@prospercanada.org indicating ‘Application for Senior Manager, Service Innovation and Inclusion’ in subject line

• Cover letter
• Resume