Program Manager (SRI) - Physical Sciences - Regular Full-time 2025-15243

One of Canada's Top 10 Research Hospitals, Sunnybrook Research Institute is developing innovations in care for the more than 1.3 million patients the hospital cares for annually.

Sunnybrook Research Institute is the research enterprise of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, a teaching hospital fully affiliated with the University of Toronto. Research spans three Toronto-based campuses, eight programs and three scientific platforms. Our main aims are to understand and prevent disease, and to develop treatments that enhance and extend life. Our vision is to invent the future of health care. Each year, we conduct about $100 million in research across 500,000 square feet, including in the world’s first Centre for Research in Image-Guided Therapeutics.

INOVAIT is Canada’s image-guided therapy (IGT) and artificial intelligence (AI) network. INOVAIT supports Canadian IGT companies and academic institutions to go faster and farther to build and validate medical technologies, positively impact the healthcare system, and create high-quality jobs. The Network brings together small, medium-sized, and large companies, research organizations, post-secondary institutions, and not-for-profit organizations to collaborate on game-changing projects to transform healthcare. INOVAIT strengthens the Canadian IGT ecosystem by fueling continuous innovation that revolutionizes healthcare globally. INOVAIT was established in 2020 by Sunnybrook Research Institute and supported by the Government of Canada’s Strategic Innovation Fund.

Reporting to INOVAIT Executive Directors, the Program Manager will lead INOVAIT’s data program, one of the strategic pillars of INOVAIT. As a knowledgeable expert and experienced facilitator in health data and AI, they will drive initiatives to support image-guided therapy (IGT) research and innovation in Canada through data. They will establish and build relationships with key stakeholders to advance INOVAIT’s priorities in health data and artificial intelligence (AI), build and promote INOVAIT’s reputation as a Canadian leader on the topic of health data, lead market insight initiatives in furtherance of the Network’s strategic objectives, and engage in continuous learning to maintain expert-level knowledge of current developments and best practices for data and AI in healthcare; and act as INOVAIT’s expert resource thereof. They will furthermore lend their strategic and tactical expertise to help drive and support Sunnybrook data governance initiatives.

Summary of Duties:

• Lead INOVAIT’s data program to support the Network’s mission of advancing Canadian IGT and AI technology.
• Engage with a national community of healthcare leaders to mobilize Canadian health data in support of IGT AI research and innovation.
• Represent the Network as an expert thought leader in the Canadian health data ecosystem, including but not limited to: participating in working groups and committees; engaging in media interviews for knowledge translation and to promote Network activities; participating in expert-level panel discussions for knowledge exchange and ecosystem building; and delivering high impact presentations at conferences, events, and to bodies such as the Senate of Canada.
• Through continuous learning and active collaborator and stakeholder engagement, maintain an up-to-date knowledge base on national and international best practices, trends, and advancements in health data governance and responsible clinical AI deployment. Serve as an expert resource for INOVAIT and Sunnybrook on topics related to data sharing and governance and responsible clinical AI deployment.
• Reporting to Sunnybrook’s Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Development, and the Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel, act as a key contributor in the governance of Sunnybrook institutional data assets. Play an integral role in the design, deployment, and management of Sunnybrook’s Data Access Committee and the processes and tools thereof. Collaborate with internal partners for efficient integration of Data Access Committee processes. Engage in other institutional initiatives as required in support of Sunnybrook’s continuous data governance evolution.
• Collaborate with leading innovators across Canada to deploy initiatives that reduce barriers to responsible data sharing in support of IGT innovation, refine and develop best practices for knowledge distribution, and scale these efforts for broader adoption.
• Lead market insight initiatives leveraging data and information collected from INOVAIT Network Members and other sources to advance the strategic objectives of INOVAIT.
• Manage and be an active member of INOVAIT’s data working groups and have overall responsibility for actioning and managing working group initiatives.
• Lead and compose articles, white papers, toolkits, and other materials for public distribution.
• Additional responsibilities upon request.

Qualifications:

• At minimum, a master’s degree in a discipline related to health information, digital data management, digital health, health management and administration, medical sciences, engineering, or biotechnology, with a doctoral degree or MD strongly preferred.
• Minimum 5 years related experience with demonstrated leadership in the health technology sector and the health system in Canada.
• Experience mobilizing diverse groups of stakeholders to deliver on collaborative strategic initiatives. Demonstrated ability to collaborate with leading sector stakeholders on policy initiatives considered a strong asset.
• Experience working in an academic environment or with academic or clinical researchers. Strong preference for experience working in clinical or policy research with a record of publications in high impact peer-reviewed academic journals.
• Expertise in data governance, including an understanding of data trusts, federated learning, responsible AI deployment, and related concepts.
• Experience deploying artificial intelligence solutions in a highly regulated industry. Experience working with data and/or AI in a healthcare setting strongly preferred, with strong technical knowledge of AI and healthcare data considered an asset.
• Highly developed qualitative research skills, including interviews, questionnaires, focus groups, discourse analysis, and environmental scans.
• Ability to strategically analyze and synthesize data and information to derive actionable insights and knowledge. Ability to gather, synthesize and effectively communicate information and intelligence for use by internal and external stakeholders.
• Excellent communication (written, oral) and presentation skills, with demonstrated experience authoring and publishing high impact white papers considered an asset.
• Experience working with a diverse group of stakeholders in a healthcare institution considered an asset.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a largely self-directed manner.
• Able to work effectively in a dynamic team environment (working both independently and as part of a small team).

Fluency in French is considered an asset.