Lead Business Analyst

The Lead / Principal Business Analyst is the anchor individual contributor responsible for translating a business line strategy into a coherent future-state operating model and clear, testable, traceable requirements across multiple workstreams and new systems. This role partners closely with business leaders, technology delivery partners, and external vendors to ensure outcomes are delivered with speed, consistency, and regulatory defensibility. The successful candidate thrives in ambiguity, influences without authority, and drives alignment across diverse stakeholder groups.

Key Outcomes

• A single coherent set of business requirements, business rules, and acceptance criteria that enables configuration/build and testing readiness across workstreams.
• Future-state process design and documentation (process flows, handoffs, exceptions, controls) that enables operational readiness and training inputs.
• Strong requirements governance: traceability, decision logging, dependency tracking, and audit-quality documentation.
• Effective cross-functional alignment and vendor coordination to prevent fragmentation and rework.

Primary Responsibilities

Future-State Design & Requirements Leadership

• Lead discovery and requirements elicitation across Distribution, Operations, Finance, Marketing and other stakeholders to define the future-state operating model (net-new design, not current-state documentation).
• Develop and maintain a structured requirements inventory and traceability from business objectives through functional requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria, and business rules.
• Facilitate prioritization and trade-off decisions; document assumptions, decisions, open items, and dependencies in a clear decision log to maintain momentum and transparency.

Cross Functional Alignment & Influence

• Drive convergence across stakeholders by simplifying complex topics, clarifying options, and building consensus without formal authority.
• Translate business needs into actionable requirements for technology delivery partners; ensure stakeholders understand implications across the end-to-end journey.
• Act as a central connector between business, technology, and vendors to reduce disconnects and ensure consistent outcomes across workstreams.

Vendor & Technology Partnership

• Partner with technology counterparts (e.g., business systems analysts, solution teams) to ensure requirements are feasible, testable, and aligned to delivery milestones.
• Review vendor deliverables (e.g., requirements, solution designs, integration specifications) to confirm alignment to business intent, scope, and assumptions.
• Ensure vendor timelines and assumptions align with program milestones; proactively surface risks, ambiguities, or missing inputs.

Process, Controls, Testing & Readiness

• Produce future-state process flows covering end-to-end lifecycle, handoffs, decisioning, exception handling, escalation/routing, and operational controls.
• Define requirements needed for operational controls, reporting, data feeds, and escalation management; ensure traceability through build and test.
• Support test readiness by defining acceptance criteria, supporting test scenarios, and ensuring requirements are verifiable.
• Provide inputs to SOPs and training support plans needed for launch readiness and ongoing operations.

Governance, Risk & Compliance

• Ensure requirements and documentation meet regulatory, risk, and compliance needs; support audit-ready documentation and disciplined change control.

Deliverables

• Requirements inventory and traceability matrix (business objectives → requirements → stories → acceptance criteria).
• Business rules catalogue; functional specifications and/or user stories with acceptance criteria.
• Future-state process flows (end-to-end lifecycle, handoffs, exceptions, controls).
• Decision log, assumptions register, dependency map, open questions list.
• Testing support inputs (acceptance criteria, scenario outlines) and readiness documentation.

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of business analysis experience delivering outcomes across multiple concurrent workstreams in a complex environment (financial services/insurance strongly preferred).
• Demonstrated expertise in requirements management, traceability, and creating high-quality analysis artefacts (functional specs, business rules, user stories, acceptance criteria).
• Proven experience partnering with technology teams and vendors to review and shape deliverables toward business outcomes.
• Exceptional facilitation and stakeholder management skills; able to simplify complexity and influence decisions across senior and diverse groups.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in net-new builds, platform implementations, or integration-heavy programs.
• Familiarity with regulated environments and supporting audit documentation / change management practices.
• Relevant certifications (CBAP, PMI-PBA, CSM) are preferred but not required.

Core Competencies

• Structured, conceptual thinking and problem-solving; able to operate effectively with ambiguity and changing priorities.
• Strong written and verbal communication; can present complex requirements and decisions clearly to varied audiences.
• Ownership mindset: drives requirements through delivery and validation, not just documentation.
• Collaboration and influence: builds alignment, mitigates conflict, and drives consensus across multiple teams.

Working Relationships

• This role works day-to-day with leaders and SMEs across Distribution, Operations, Finance, Marketing and Technology, and collaborates with external vendors to ensure clarity of requirements, alignment to outcomes, and on-time delivery readiness.

When you join our team:

• We’ll empower you to learn and grow the career you want.

• We’ll recognize and support you in a flexible environment where well-being and inclusion are more than just words.

• As part of our global team, we’ll support you in shaping the future you want to see.

About Manulife and John Hancock

Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services provider, helping people make their decisions easier and lives better. To learn more about us, visit https://www.manulife.com/en/about/our-story.html.

Manulife is an Equal Opportunity Employer

At Manulife/John Hancock, 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, colour, 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 hr@manulife.com.

Referenced Salary Location

Boston, MassachusettsHybrid

Salary range is expected to be between

$73,350.00 USD - $122,250.00 USD

Employees also have the opportunity to participate in incentive programs and earn incentive compensation tied to business and individual performance. 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. If you are applying for this role outside of the primary location, please contact hr@manulife.com for the salary range for your location.

Manulife/John Hancock 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/401(k) savings plans and a global share ownership plan with employer matching contributions) and financial education and counseling resources. Our generous paid time off program in the U.S. includes up to 11 paid holidays, 3 personal days, 150 hours of vacation, and 40 hours of sick time (or more where required by law) each year, and we offer the full range of statutory leaves of absence.

Know Your Rights I Family & Medical Leave I Employee Polygraph Protection I Right to Work I E-Verify

Company: John Hancock Life Insurance Company (U.S.A.)