Principal, Customer & Airports Transformation - Projects

Being part of Air Canada is to become part of an iconic Canadian symbol, recently ranked the best Airline in North America. Let your career take flight by joining our diverse and vibrant team at the leading edge of passenger aviation.

The Principal, Customer & Airports Transformation – Projects oversees the portfolio of transformation initiatives across Airports, Customer Support & Care, and Customer Relations to ensure alignment with strategic objectives and organizational priorities. The role ensures that complex cross branch projects are supported through strong governance, robust performance tracking, and effective risk management. The incumbent plays a key strategic role in advancing the transformation roadmap by engaging stakeholders, establishing performance standards, and delivering clear insights and reporting to senior leadership.

This position may be located in Montreal or Toronto.

Responsibilities:

• Oversee large‑scale, complex transformation initiatives with significant operational and customer impact across multiple branches.
• Manage the strategic roadmap view and maintain clarity on project objectives, timelines, interdependencies, risks, and impacts.
• Establish and uphold governance standards, including frameworks for KPI tracking, reporting, and risk escalation.
• Define performance standards and ensure consistent monitoring, measurement, and reporting across all initiatives.
• Engage senior leadership across Operations, IDD, and other corporate functions to maintain alignment with transformation priorities.
• Lead cross‑branch strategic discussions related to project status, risk mitigation, operational readiness, and decision requirements.
• Prepare executive‑level reporting, including dashboards, status summaries, risk profiles, and presentations for committees and leadership forums.
• Identify emerging risks, gaps, and issues that may impact transformation objectives and propose mitigation strategies.
• Maintain an integrated portfolio view that reflects impacts, interdependencies, and resource considerations.
• Track and report project performance against defined metrics, milestones, and success criteria.
• Conduct impact assessments, readiness analyses, and other evaluations that support informed decision‑making.
• Uphold a strong customer‑centric and operational lens throughout project lifecycles to ensure initiatives enhance both experience and efficiency.
• Recommend improvements to governance processes, reporting tools, and portfolio tracking practices.
• Support the evolution and sustainability of the Airports Transformation operating model.
• Partner with Finance and branch leads to track benefits and costs where required.
• Manage documentation standards, including risk logs, decision records, and reporting artifacts.
• Support vendor assessments or interactions where applicable to transformation initiatives.
• Address executive inquiries with timely and well‑supported analysis.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Operations, Project Management, or related field.
• Minimum 7+ years of experience in large‑scale project management, transformation, PMO, customer operations, or similar environments.
• Strong understanding of project governance, risk management, and performance frameworks.
• Exceptional analytical skills with the ability to interpret complex information and translate it into actionable insights.
• Demonstrated ability to work across multiple branches and influence stakeholders at all levels.
• Experience developing concise, executive‑ready presentations and reports.
• Proficiency with project management and reporting tools (e.g., Jira, Confluence, MS Project) and MS Office (Excel, PowerPoint, Word).
• PMP or equivalent certification is considered an asset.
• Strong communication skills in English; bilingualism is an asset.

Conditions of Employment:

Candidates must be eligible to work in the country of interest, at the time any offer of employment is made and seeking any required work permits/visas or other authorizations which may be required is the sole responsibility of the candidates applying for this position.

Linguistic Requirements

Based on equal qualifications, preference will be given to bilingual candidates.

Diversity and Inclusion

Air Canada is strongly committed to Diversity and Inclusion and aims to create a healthy, accessible and rewarding work environment which highlights employees’ unique contributions to our company’s success.

As an equal opportunity employer, we welcome applications from all to help us build a diverse workforce which reflects the diversity of our customers, and communities, in which we live and serve.

Air Canada thanks all candidates for their interest; however only those selected to continue in the process will be contacted.