Director, Value Creation Private Markets

Director, Value Creation Private Markets

Department: Investments

Type: Full-Time - Permanent

Location: Toronto (Hybrid)

Posting Date: September 9, 2026

At OPTrust, paying pensions today, preserving pensions for tomorrow is our mission and business.

When you choose OPTrust, you join a team of smart, talented people who fuel our success and have a passion for pensions. Everyone at OPTrust – in Toronto, London and Sydney – makes a meaningful impact. Our culture is driven by team members with different backgrounds and perspectives creating an inclusive and fulfilling place to work for everyone. We work in a fast-paced environment, but we find time to have fun and give back to the community.

What OPTrust offers you

• Unique culture rooted in our core values – collaboration and teamwork, integrity, respect, flexibility, excellence, and continuous improvement.

• A purpose-driven environment where we all work towards the common goal of paying pensions today and preserving pensions for tomorrow.

• Comprehensive benefits focused on your health and wellness, including dental, vision and extended health benefits, as well as membership in our world-class defined benefit pension plan.

• A flexible, hybrid work model.

• A dedicated inclusion, diversity, and equity strategy with meaningful opportunities to participate, including our employee-led resource groups.

• Extensive professional development opportunities and learning initiatives including access to LinkedIn Learning, guest speakers, tuition reimbursement, professional association memberships, leadership development programs, a mentorship program, monthly professional development time and more.

• A competitive vacation package with additional work-life balance days.

About OPTrust

With net assets of over $27 billion, OPTrust invests and manages one of Canada’s largest pension funds and administers the OPSEU Pension Plan (including OPTrust Select), a defined benefit plan with over 118,000 members.

OPTrust’s Private Markets team is a dedicated business unit within the Investment Division of OPTrust that invests and manages private markets investments, primarily focused on infrastructure, private equity, and real estate, on behalf of the Fund. We execute our member-driven investment strategy with our unique application of a total portfolio approach and a “One Team, One Fund” mindset and culture. From our offices in Toronto, London, and Sydney, the team manages a diversified $13.5 billion global portfolio of private market investments across asset classes, sectors, strategies and geographies. We invest through a combination of fund commitments, co-investments, and direct investments.

About the role

The Director, Value Creation will lead the modernization of Private Markets investment workflows and drive AI-enabled value creation across the portfolio. This role combines expertise in private markets, process transformation, data, analytics, and AI to improve investment decision-making, operational efficiency, and portfolio outcomes. Key responsibilities include mapping and optimizing end-to-end investment processes, implementing technology and AI solutions, supporting the development of advanced analytics to deliver data-driven insights, and helping to oversee digitization initiatives across portfolio companies. Working closely with investment teams, business partners, and external stakeholders, the Director, Value Creation will champion continuous improvement in the identification and implementation of AI tools, help advance a "One Team, One Fund" approach, and lead technology-driven value creation efforts within the Private Markets team and our direct portfolio. The Director, Value Creation is a member of the Value Creation team which works alongside deal teams in Private Markets to provide oversight and assist in the implementation of value creation initiatives for Private Markets workflows and within the Private Markets portfolio.

What you’ll do

Private Markets Workflow Modernization and AI Enablement

• Define and communicate a clear vision, guiding principles, and roadmap for modernizing key Private Markets workflows through technology, data, automation, and AI.

• Map end-to-end workflows across deal sourcing, underwriting, execution, asset management/portfolio monitoring, and exit to identify high-value, complex, and time-consuming processes for improvement, as well as any “quick-win” initiatives.

• Design, prioritize, build, test, and deliver targeted initiatives using modern AI and software engineering tools that improve operating efficiency, strengthen investment analytics, and enhance the quality, speed, and analytical rigour of investment decision-making.

• In coordination with our business partners, establish practical principles for data access, storage, and governance to support scalable technology and AI solutions.

• Identify, screen and evaluate technology-enabled tools; map key processes and workflows; develop business cases and implementation roadmaps; lead implementation of select initiatives; and define and track measurable controls, adoption, and outcomes.

• Build and maintain a tracker highlighting targeted initiatives, progress against initiatives and measured outcomes as part of a continuous-improvement framework that tracks benefits, incorporates user feedback, and continually focuses resources on improving the highest-value workflows through AI and advanced analytics.

Cross-Functional Leadership, Governance, and Change

• Partner effectively with Private Markets investment teams and business partners, including ITOS, Finance, Investment Risk, Legal, Compliance, and other stakeholders, to align priorities, dependencies, resources, and delivery plans.

• Establish fit-for-purpose governance for modernization and other AI initiatives, including clear decision rights, accountability, risk management, controls, and progress reporting.

• Lead change management, stakeholder engagement, and training so that new capabilities are embedded in day-to-day investment workflows and shared across the team, resulting in high adoption and satisfaction rates.

• Build internal capability by sharing leading practices, strengthening technology and AI literacy, and developing colleagues who can bridge investment expertise, operational excellence, data, and technology.

Value Creation and Portfolio Company Digitization

• Work alongside deal teams, Value Creation colleagues, and portfolio company management teams throughout the investment lifecycle to identify, assess, and oversee measurable data and AI value creation opportunities in direct investments in support of investment theses and, where applicable, co-investments where OPTrust has a strong governance role.

• Support deal team data, technology and AI diligence by assessing portfolio company digital capabilities, key workflows or processes, opportunities, risks, and the potential contribution of data and AI initiatives to investment thesis and value creation.

• Support portfolio company digitization, data & analytics, and AI roadmaps, alongside deal teams, that enable growth initiatives, operational excellence, resilience, and measurable value creation.

• Develop and track measurable results against agreed upon initiatives.

• Participate in Investment Committee meetings and work alongside deal teams and portfolio company management teams to identify, oversee implementation, and monitor portfolio company data and AI value creation progress.

Measurement, Value Realization and Performance Tracking

• Develop and recommend baseline metrics, target outcomes, and value realization criteria for all prioritized and approved digitization, analytics, and other AI-based initiatives, ensuring expected benefits are clearly defined prior to implementation.

• Develop, implement and maintain value realization frameworks and playbooks that identify financial, operational, risk management, workflow, or decision-quality improvements, as applicable, attributable to technology, data, analytics and AI-based initiatives.

• Establish and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs), success thresholds, and leading and lagging indicators to assess initiative effectiveness, adoption, and return on investment, as available, providing recommendations for corrective action where needed.

• Prepare and maintain reporting, as part of broader Value Creation reporting, for senior management, Investment Committee, and portfolio level reviews that transparently tracks initiative progress, realized value, required investment, key risks, and expected future benefits.

• Design and maintain portfolio-level scorecards and dashboards that monitor value creation outcomes across investments and identify opportunities to replicate successful initiatives across the portfolio.

What we offer

• A collaborative, mission-driven culture that values integrity, innovation, entrepreneurial-spirit, and impact.

• Competitive executive compensation package, including performance-based incentives.

• Comprehensive health, wellness, and retirement benefits.

• Annual professional development allowance and access to global thought leadership forums.

• The chance to work with world-class investment and operational talent in a high-trust, high-impact environment.

What you bring

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in a quantitative field such as Finance, Economics, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.

• 10+ years of progressive experience in investment management, portfolio strategy, or adjacent domains, including experience working with private markets investment professionals in a data or AI capacity.

• Experience in investment platform modernization or operating model transformation within an institutional investment organization.

• Experience mapping, redesigning, and prioritizing critical investment workflows, with credibility and influence to engage senior investment professionals.

• Proven experience translating use cases into business requirements, piloting solutions, managing controls and integration, driving adoption, and measuring realized benefits

• Hands-on experience implementing AI-enabled and agentic workflows in an investment environment, through building or prototyping AI solutions such as LLM-based applications, retrieval and analytics over unstructured data is considered a strong asset for the successful candidate.

• Demonstrated experience supporting digital, data, or AI value creation initiatives at portfolio companies, including diligence, value creation planning, implementation oversight, and benefits measurement is an asset, but not required.

• Demonstrated ability to translate strategic investment priorities into clear, executable roadmaps, balancing innovation, scalability, risk, and cost.

• Proven effectiveness in matrixed, influence-driven settings, including recommending team or enterprise-level prioritization decisions without direct line authority.

• Strong understanding of how emerging technologies, including AI and advanced analytics, can be applied to enhance investment decision making, with the judgment to identify and prioritize high-value applications.

• Experience with enterprise change in complex professional environments where adoption depends on credibility, ability to implement, governance, and operating model design rather than directive authority.

• Exemplify OPTrust’s values: collaboration and teamwork, integrity, respect, flexibility, excellence, and continuous improvement.

This posting is for an existing vacancy.

Please submit your application via Workday by September 23, 2026.

Serving a membership as diverse as ours and investing in a global market means cultivating an environment that embraces inclusion, diversity, and equity in everything we do. OPTrust is an organization engaged in building on our unique and diverse strengths. We know a diversity of backgrounds, cultures, gender identities and perspectives are critical to achieving our shared goals.

If you require accommodation at any time during the recruitment process, please send a message to careers@optrust.com, or discuss your needs with the Talent Acquisition Consultant during the telephone screening. We will do our best to work with you and provide appropriate accommodation.

As an organization we’re seeking ways to respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Call to Action 92. We are working with the Canadian Council for Indigenous Business to build bridges with Indigenous communities and partners, and we have created an employee-led Reconciliation Working Group that will work with Indigenous experts to identify a path to reconciliation for our organization.

We thank all interested applicants, however only those under consideration will be contacted.