Chief Legal & Compliance Officer

Position Title: Chief Legal & Compliance Officer

THE COMPANY

Securian Canada is a technology-enabled insurance organization with more than 70 years of experience serving Canadians through financial institutions, associations, affinity organizations, and other strategic distribution partners. As an independent subsidiary of Securian Financial Group, the company combines deep local market expertise with the resources and scale of a leading North American insurance organization. Focused on helping Canadians build greater financial security, Securian Canada offers a range of life, creditor, and specialty insurance solutions designed to meet evolving consumer needs.

The organization has established a strong reputation for customer-focused innovation, leveraging technology, data, and digital capabilities to enhance both product offerings and client experiences.

In recent years, Securian Canada has experienced significant growth and transformation through strategic investments, business expansion, and acquisition activity, further strengthening its market position. Despite its increased scale and sophistication, the organization continues to foster a culture characterized by agility, collaboration, inclusion, and an entrepreneurial approach to innovation and continuous improvement.

THE OPPORTUNITY

The Chief Legal & Compliance Officer is a key member of the senior leadership team and is responsible for leading the organization’s legal, compliance, privacy, anti-money laundering (AML), regulatory affairs, and corporate governance functions.

Operating in a highly-regulated environment, priorities evolve quickly, new opportunities emerge regularly, and legal and compliance teams are relied upon as key stakeholders to provide practical, solution-oriented guidance that supports business growth and innovation. This role will manage competing priorities and evolving stakeholder expectations, requiring exceptional judgment, agility, and the ability to influence and collaborate across the organization.

This role serves as a trusted advisor to the CEO, Executive Leadership Team, and management, helping the organization achieve its business goals in line with its strategy and risk appetite.

As a growing, technology-enabled insurance organization of approximately 400 employees, Securian is focused on transforming how life and creditor insurance products are delivered and experienced. Company culture combines the stability and responsibility of a regulated financial services company with the agility, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit of a growth organization. The Chief Legal & Compliance Officer will offer a unique opportunity to shape the legal, compliance, governance, privacy, anti-fraud, and AML frameworks that will help the organization achieve its strategic objectives.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Executive Leadership & Strategic Partnership

• Serve as a member of the Senior Leadership Team contributing to the execution of the company’s strategic plan.
• Provide proactive legal, regulatory, governance, and risk advice to senior leadership on business initiatives, strategic growth opportunities, and operational matters.
• Support organizational growth by identifying and managing legal, compliance, and regulatory risks while enabling innovation and business development.
• Partner with leaders across all business functions to foster a strong culture of integrity, compliance, and accountability.
• Lead and develop a high-performing team of legal, compliance, privacy, anti-fraud, and AML professionals.

Legal Affairs

• Lead all legal activities across the organization and provide practical, commercially focused legal advice.
• Oversee the drafting, review, negotiation, and management of a variety of contracts.
• Provide legal support for new products, distribution channels, strategic partnerships, and corporate initiatives.
• Manage litigation, disputes, regulatory investigations, and legal claims.
• Oversee external legal counsel and legal spending.
• Monitor legislative and regulatory developments affecting the organization and provide strategic recommendations to leadership.

Compliance & Regulatory Affairs

• Develop, implement, and maintain an enterprise-wide compliance framework that supports the organization’s growth strategy and regulatory obligations.
• Ensure compliance with all applicable laws.
• Provide leadership and oversight regarding regulatory requirements
• Establish compliance monitoring, testing, reporting, and issue-management programs.
• Ensure regulatory requirements are effectively integrated into business processes and operations.
• Lead enterprise compliance training and awareness initiatives.

Privacy

• Provide executive oversight of the organization’s privacy program.
• Ensure compliance with applicable privacy legislation and regulatory expectations.
• Oversee privacy governance, policies, procedures, and controls related to the collection, use, disclosure, retention, and protection of personal information.
• Lead privacy impact assessments and privacy risk management initiatives.
• Manage privacy incidents, investigations, breach response activities, and regulatory reporting obligations.
• Partner with Technology and business leaders to strengthen privacy and data governance practices.
• Provide executive leadership and oversight of the organization’s AML and Anti-Terrorist Financing (ATF) compliance program.
• Ensure compliance with all applicable AML regulatory requirements.
• Oversee enterprise AML risk assessments, customer due diligence processes, sanctions screening, transaction monitoring, and regulatory reporting.
• Oversee the Fraud Management Program.
• Monitor emerging financial crime risks and implement appropriate controls and mitigation strategies.
• Report significant AML and financial crime matters to executive leadership and the Board as required.
• Foster a strong culture of compliance and accountability regarding financial crime prevention.

Corporate Governance & Board Relations

• Serve as Corporate Secretary or provide oversight of the Corporate Secretary function.
• Act as a trusted advisor to the Board of Directors and Board Committees on governance, legal, compliance, privacy, AML, and regulatory matters.
• Attend Board and Committee meetings and provide strategic guidance on significant legal, compliance, and governance issues.
• Prepare and present Board reports, briefing materials, resolutions, and recommendations.
• Support Directors in fulfilling their governance and oversight responsibilities.
• Ensure governance frameworks, policies, charters, and practices align with regulatory expectations and governance best practices.
• Coordinate Board governance activities, annual reviews, and corporate filings.

REQUIREMENTS

• Minimum 12-15 years of progressive legal and regulatory experience, ideally within insurance or financial services.
• Proven experience operating in a high growth environment characterized by rapid change, evolving priorities, and ambitious business objectives.
• Experience advising executive leadership teams and Boards of Directors, with a demonstrated ability to balance regulatory rigor with innovation.
• Experience leading legal support for strategic partnerships and complex commercial transactions.
• Experience managing regulatory examinations, investigations, and interactions with regulatory bodies.
• Strong understanding of contract law, commercial transactions, and corporate governance.
• Ability to translate complex legal and regulatory issues into practical business solutions.
• Strategic thinking and strong business acumen combined with exceptional judgment and integrity.
• Outstanding stakeholder management and relationship-building skills.
• Proven success building and leading high-performing teams.
• Strong communication, presentation, and influencing abilities.
• Ability to navigate competing priorities and multiple stakeholder interests.
• Collaborative leadership style with a focus on partnership and accountability.
• Strong decision-making capabilities under pressure and in ambiguous situations.

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