AVP Affinity Technology Lead

Job Description

Manulife is seeking a highly skilled and experienced technology leader to join our Individual Insurance Technology Leadership Team. As a key member of our team, you will be responsible for driving the development and implementation of digital technology solutions that enable our customers and partners to interact with us 24/7.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop and implement technology roadmaps that deliver on business strategies and market requirements.
• Lead the architecture, development, testing, implementation, and delivery of large-scale technology solutions with adherence to Global Strategy standards.
• Prioritize work efforts within and across Value Streams, ensuring technical priorities are given equal focus while keeping systems safe, sound, and secure.
• Deliver on Technology specific financial and Strategic Cost Management (SCM) targets.
• Recruit, retain, and empower a high-performing technology team that is highly engaged, proactive, and business outcome-focused.
• Model our Manulife values to drive the ongoing change required to evolve our Canadian Technology organization, developing and driving a culture of continuous improvement and innovation.
• Manage talent across the team for development and succession, rotating expertise throughout the team.
• Manage key vendor relationships and contracts.
• Achieve and sustain employee engagement scores.

Requirements:

• Minimum of 7-10 years of progressive leadership experience in technology strategy execution for large-scale organizations, with experience in the Insurance industry preferred.
• Demonstrated success in leading transformational changes within an engineering culture, with the ability to navigate a complex, highly regulated, marketing-focused, growth business.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and implement a technology strategy and tactics to drive business goals, in collaboration with external and internal partners.
• Strong financial and business insight, with demonstrated ability to manage large technology budgets.
• Demonstrated success at senior cross-functional project delivery involving multiple technical teams, partners, and business functions, including Risk.
• Strong Portfolio Management Skills, including the ability to manage multiple complex projects at the same time and under tight deadlines, operating in a cross-functional environment.
• Exposure and experience in areas such as agile, digital, emerging technologies, and Legacy (e.g., mainframe systems).
• Exceptional communication skills, with a talent for engaging both technical and non-technical collaborators.
• Strong vendor management experience and skills, with demonstrated success establishing long-term cost-effective partnerships. Experience in incident management is advantageous.
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, computer engineering, management of information systems, or equivalent experience; bilingualism is beneficial.

Technical Leadership:

• Software engineering practices and approaches.
• Agile Methodologies and experience with Delivery processes.
• Solution-Focused, with a focus on results and leading the team to deliver solutions that deliver business and technology value.
• Technology Savvy, with a high level of capability and informedness on technology, demonstrating innovative ideas to deliver results with the future in mind.

Leadership Attributes:

• Change Enablement.
• Solution-Focused, with the ability to deliver results, lead a diverse technical team.
• Ability to communicate at all levels to both technical and non-technical partners.
• Leading with Excellence and Drive, Motivated and driven to getting things done to a high standard.
• Influence and Persuasion.
• Collaboration.
• Transparent Leadership.

Working Conditions:

• Some travel as required.
• Primary staff locations are Waterloo, Toronto (Canada).

What We Offer:

• A competitive salary and benefits packages.
• A growth trajectory that extends upward and outward, encouraging you to follow your passions and learn new skills.
• A focus on growing your career path with us.
• Flexible work policies and strong work-life balance.
• Professional development and leadership opportunities.

Our Commitment to You:

We lead with our Values every day and bring them to life together. We create opportunities to learn and grow at every stage of your career. We invite you to help redefine the future of financial services. We foster an inclusive workplace where everyone thrives. We build a business that benefits all partners and has a positive social and environmental impact.

Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services group that helps people make their decisions easier and lives better. With our global headquarters in Toronto, Canada, we operate as Manulife across our offices in Asia, Canada, and Europe, and primarily as John Hancock in the United States. We provide financial advice, insurance, and wealth and asset management solutions for individuals, groups, and institutions. At the end of 2022, we had more than 40,000 employees, over 116,000 agents, and thousands of distribution partners, serving over 34 million customers. At the end of 2022, we had $1.3 trillion (US$1.0 trillion) in assets under management and administration, including total invested assets of $0.4 trillion (US $0.3 trillion), and segregated funds net assets of $0.3 trillion (US$0.3 trillion). We trade as 'MFC' on the Toronto, New York, and the Philippine stock exchanges, and under '945' in Hong Kong.

At Manulife/JohnHancock, we embrace our diversity. We strive to attract, develop, and retain a workforce that is as diverse as the customers we serve and to foster an inclusive work environment that embraces the strength of cultures and individuals. We are committed to fair recruitment, retention, advancement, and compensation, and we administer all of our practices and programs without discrimination on the basis of race, ancestry, place of origin, color, ethnic origin, citizenship, religion or religious beliefs, creed, sex (including pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions), sexual orientation, genetic characteristics, veteran status, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, family status, disability, or any other ground protected by applicable law.

It is our priority to remove barriers to provide equal access to employment. A Human Resources representative will work with applicants who request a reasonable accommodation during the application process. All information shared during the accommodation request process will be stored and used in a manner that is consistent with applicable laws and Manulife/John Hancock policies. To request a reasonable accommodation in the application process, contact [insert contact information].

The annual base salary for this role is listed below.

Primary Location: Waterloo, Ontario

Salary range is expected to be between $123,400.00 CAD - $229,300.00 CAD

If you are applying for this role outside of the primary location, please contact for the salary range for your location. The actual salary will vary depending on local market conditions, geography, and relevant job-related factors such as knowledge, skills, qualifications, experience, and education/training. Employees also have the opportunity to participate in incentive programs and earn incentive compensation tied to business and individual performance.

Manulife offers eligible employees a wide array of customizable benefits, including health, dental, mental health, vision, short- and long-term disability, life and AD&D insurance coverage, adoption/surrogacy and wellness benefits, and employee/family assistance plans. We also offer eligible employees various retirement savings plans (including pension and a global share ownership plan with employer matching contributions) and financial education and counseling resources. Our generous paid time off program in Canada includes holidays, vacation, personal, and sick days, and we offer the full range of statutory leaves of absence. If you are applying for this role in the U.S., please contact for more information about U.S.-specific paid time off provisions.

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