Manulife is a leading international financial services provider, helping people make decisions easier and lives better. Help shape the future you want to see — and discover that better can take you anywhere you want to go.
We are seeking a seasoned strategy and transformation professional to lead the Affinity Health & Dental Transformation initiative. This role is pivotal in driving program success across multiple workstreams, ensuring alignment with strategic objectives, and delivering sustainable solutions. The Program Manager will work closely with product, business, technology, and operations leadership to manage roadmaps, delivery timelines, costs, risks, and dependencies, while maintaining strong governance and collaborator engagement.
Program Leadership & Delivery
- Drive end-to-end success of the Affinity Health & Dental transformation program, ensuring delivery on time, within scope, and on budget.
- Partner with workstream leads and program leadership to maintain progress and resolve challenges proactively.
- Integrate program roadmaps, manage cross-functional dependencies, and act as the single source of truth for status and updates.
Risk & Dependency Management
- Identify risks within and across workstreams; develop and implement mitigation strategies.
- Ensure all workstream dependencies are documented, tracked, and communicated promptly when changes occur.
- Support change management and business readiness efforts.
Governance & Collaborator Engagement
- Lead program governance forums including Steering Committees, Transformation Checkpoints, and other required governance deliverables.
- Provide clear, concise updates to senior leadership and collaborators on program status, risks, and decisions.
Technology & Architecture Alignment
- Collaborate with Tech PMO/RTE and Architecture teams to ensure solutions are scalable, sustainable, and meet business requirements.
- Validate that technical designs align with program objectives and regulatory standards.
Financial & Resource Management
- Monitor program budgets, forecasts, and resource allocations to ensure optimal utilization and cost control.
- Report program performance—including financials, progress, quality, and risks—to steering committees and executive sponsors.
- Strategic Thinking: Ability to connect program objectives to broader business strategy and anticipate future needs.
- Influence & Collaboration: Skilled at building relationships and influencing across business, technology, and operations teams.
- Decision-Making Under Uncertainty: Comfortable making informed decisions in complex, ambiguous environments.
- Change Leadership: Proven ability to lead through transformation, driving adoption and engagement across collaborators.
- Execution Excellence: Strong focus on accountability, prioritization, and delivering measurable outcomes.
- On-Time Delivery: Achieve key program milestones and final delivery within agreed timelines.
- Budget Adherence: Maintain program costs within approved budget thresholds.
- Risk Management: Proactive identification and mitigation of risks, with minimal impact on delivery.
- Collaborator Satisfaction: Positive feedback from Steering Committee and leadership on communication, governance, and transparency.
- Quality of Outcomes: Solutions delivered meet business requirements, are sustainable, and align with architectural standards.
- Dependency Management: All critical dependencies tracked and resolved without causing major delays.
- Bachelor’s degree minimum
- Minimum 7 years strategy and/or program/project management experience in large-scale transformations, preferably in health, dental, or insurance domains
- Proven track record of managing complex, multi-workstream programs with significant business and technology components
- Experience with agile methodologies (SAFe, Scrum, Kanban) and tools (Jira, Smartsheet)
- Strong leadership and collaborator management skills, with ability to influence at all levels
- Strong facilitation skills with the ability to be both co-operative and collaborative while understanding when assertive and directive behavior is required
- Experience with analyzing information/data and developing frameworks/ methodology to drive decision-making; strong problem solving and analytical skills
- Ability to grasp business and technology concepts of increasing complexity
- Good understanding of technology space, particularly FinTech
- Demonstrated initiative; ability to collaborate across teams and divisions
- Comfortable working in an unstructured environment where concepts and ideas will be designed and tested in an accelerated timeframe
- Excellent communication skills, ability to present complex ideas clearly and experience with presentation preparation
- Passion for innovation and a high degree of comfort with ambiguity
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 recruitment@manulife.com.
Referenced Salary Location
Toronto, Ontario
Hybrid
Salary range is expected to be between
$125,100.00 CAD - $175,100.00 CAD
If you are applying for this role outside of the primary location, please contact recruitment@manulife.com 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 recruitment@manulife.com for more information about U.S.-specific paid time off provisions.