VP, Employee Experience, Technology Leader

Manulife is seeking a seasoned technology leader to drive the strategic direction of its Employee Experience Technology function. The successful candidate will provide comprehensive technical leadership across a range of infrastructure, applications, and business solutions, supporting Human Capital Management (HCM), Payroll Processing, Communications, and Employee Services for Manulife's Global Human Resources & Communications Management teams.

Key Responsibilities:

• Strategic Leadership: Identify and evaluate emerging HR & Communication technology trends, both internally and externally, to formulate value propositions and actionable strategies for aligning application portfolios.
• Productivity Enhancement: Develop and implement an operations productivity roadmap focusing on Citizen Development and maximizing the adoption of GenAI tools to ensure employees have the right tools to excel.
• Systems Strategy: Collaborate with HR and Communications leadership to plan and develop the HR and Communications systems and capabilities roadmap, ensuring seamless integration across multiple systems, vendors, and platforms.
• Optimization Initiatives: Lead efforts to optimize Manulife's HR technologies, systems, and platforms (e.g., Workday) to eliminate manual work, drive efficiency, ensure compliance, and enhance the employee experience.
• Data Management: Establish a strong data management foundation governing data architecture, quality, and integration, while building long-term capabilities such as a sustainable HR data repository to facilitate quick analysis of talent data.
• Unified HR Services: Provide architectural and technology leadership to unify Manulife's HR services platform, integrating HR portal, communications, mobile delivery, case management, knowledge, and chat capabilities.
• Global Processes: Design, implement, and communicate global processes to drive value and adoption across the business.
• Team Development: Develop the HR & Communications Technology team to ensure deep bench strength and expertise in key areas.

People Management:

• Team Leadership: Lead a team of full-time and contract staff, overseeing goal planning, achievement assessments, and employee development plans.
• Resource Planning: Collaborate with the broader Group Functions Technology & Global Data management teams to determine resource requirements and planning.
• Skill Development: Encourage cross-training and job sharing, creating an annual plan for skill development and advanced technical capabilities.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Lead workshops, architecture & engineering meetups, user groups, and meet with key stakeholders globally to build capabilities for Group Functions and across Manulife.

Governance and Controls:

• Process Alignment: Ensure all technology management processes align with standard operating procedures and Group Functions architecture and enterprise technology standards and policies.
• Technology Guidance: Provide guidance on technology principles, capabilities, practices, security, and access controls.

Innovation and Continuous Improvement:

• Thought Leadership: Offer thought leadership and guidance on advancing new technologies and capabilities that are value driven.
• Industry Advancements: Stay current with industry advancements in Human Resources & Communications and collaborate with Manulife's innovation teams and other technology teams.
• Stakeholder Communication: Maintain regular communication with HRLT stakeholders, providing metrics, KPIs, and service levels to address challenges, new business, issues, prioritization, and budget updates.

Required Qualifications:

• Experience: 10-15 years of professional experience in Human Resources Technology, with a degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
• Project Management: Advanced skills in project management methodologies (DevOps, Extreme Programming, Agile, Waterfall).
• Strategic Execution: Proven ability to formulate and execute a holistic data and technology strategy for Human Resources.
• HR Systems Expertise: Solid understanding of HR systems (e.g., Workday, ADP, Salesforce), business, data, and technical architecture disciplines.
• Technical Translation: Ability to translate non-technical user requests into complex technical specifications.
• Enterprise Architecture: Experience leading complex architecture initiatives and delivering enterprise-scale solution architectures.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Visionary Leadership: Strategic thinker with a proactive approach to leading the HR tools and technology roadmap.
• Stakeholder Management: Outstanding skills in partnering with HR stakeholders to deliver a joint vision.
• Organizational Skills: Excellent organizational and time management skills, with the ability to multitask and work with minimal supervision.
• Communication: Exceptional oral, written, and interpersonal communication skills, adept at simplifying complex technical concepts.
• Relationship Building: Strong ability to establish working relationships across business, operations, and technology partners.
• Adaptability: Quick to ramp up in new business and technology areas.
• Proactive Attitude: Highly motivated, self-directed, and proactive.
• Travel: Willingness to travel up to 40% of the time (primarily between Toronto, Waterloo, Boston, Hong Kong/Manila).

About Manulife:

Manulife Financial is a leading global financial services provider that helps people make decisions easier and live better. To learn more about us, visit www.manuife.com.

Manulife is an equal opportunity employer

At Manulife, we embrace our diversity. We strive to attract, develop, and retain a workforce that is as diverse as our customers and to foster an inclusive workplace that leverages the diversity of our employees and the skills of everyone. We are committed to ensuring fair recruitment, retention, promotion, and compensation practices, and we administer all our practices and programs without discrimination based on race, ancestry, place of origin, color, ethnic origin, citizenship, religion or religious beliefs, gender (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 grounds protected by applicable law.

We prioritize eliminating barriers to equal employment opportunity. Therefore, an HR representative will work with candidates requesting reasonable accommodation during recruitment. All information provided during the accommodation request process will be stored and used in accordance with applicable laws and policies of Manulife. To request a reasonable accommodation during recruitment, please write to recruitment@manulife.com.

Main Region

Toronto, Ontario

Compressed Work Week

Hybrid

Salary Range

$171,200.00 CAD - $317,700.00 CAD

If you are applying for this position outside of the main region, please write to recruitment@manulife.com for the salary range corresponding to your region. Salary varies based on local market conditions, geography, and relevant job-related factors such as knowledge, skills, qualifications, experience, and education or training. Employees also have the option to participate in incentive programs and earn performance-related compensation tied to company and individual performance.

Manulife offers eligible employees a wide range of customizable benefits, including health care, dental care, mental health, vision care, short and long-term disability, life insurance, adoption, surrogacy, and non-urgent medical care, as well as employee and family assistance programs. We also offer eligible employees various retirement savings plans (including pension plans and an international share ownership program with employer matching contributions) as well as resources for financial education and counseling. Our generous paid leave program in Canada includes holidays, annual leave, personal leave, and sick leave, and we offer the full range of statutory leaves as required by law.