Global AI Platforms, Program Manager

The Program Manager, AI Platforms is accountable for end-to-end delivery of the Global AI Platforms roadmap, translating AI strategy and platform vision into measurable business value, scalable capabilities, and repeatable outcomes across the enterprise.

They will be accountable for how platform initiatives are planned, sequenced, governed, and delivered-ensuring that AI platform investments accelerate time to value, enable responsible innovation, and support the shift from project-led delivery to a product-led operating model.

The Program Manager works in close partnership with AI leaders, technology teams, AI governance and risk functions, and business stakeholders to ensure that Global AI Platforms are delivered as reliable, secure, and reusable enterprise capabilities. AI is treated as a value enabler, with success measured by efficiency, innovation, outcomes, and realized benefits.

The Program Manager reports to the Global Product Owner, AI Platforms, and plays a critical role in shaping how Manulife scales AI safely, efficiently, and globally.

Position Responsibilities:

AI Platform Program Leadership & Value Delivery

• Own delivery of the Global AI Platform roadmap, ensuring alignment to enterprise strategy and the ambition to unlock significant AI-driven value.
• Translate platform vision and technical capabilities into clear delivery plans, milestones, and outcomes tied to business value.
• Maintain a strong value-delivery orientation, ensuring platform initiatives enable measurable improvements such as faster time-to-market, reduced delivery friction, cost optimization, and increased efficiency.
• Drive prioritization decisions based on enterprise impact, reuse potential, and scalability, not local optimization.

Integrated Delivery & Execution

• Manage delivery of the Global AI Platform as a foundational enterprise capability, shifting the organization from isolated AI initiatives to cohesive, scalable, product-led execution.
• Lead delivery of golden pathways across highly interconnected AI platform domains-including agent orchestration, integrated AI delivery, and automated governance-ensuring they evolve as a single, coherent system rather than isolated solutions.
• Accelerate the transition from idea to impact, enabling teams to move from intent to production faster by reducing friction, standardizing patterns, and embedding AI-native delivery practices.
• Partner deeply with engineering, architecture, and product leaders to reshape how AI solutions are built, ensuring platform capabilities are composable, reusable, and continuously improving through InnerSource contribution.
• Drive delivery excellence by ensuring solutions built on the platform are enterprise-ready by design-secure, resilient, performant, and governed-so teams can innovate at speed without re-solving foundational concerns.
• Actively surface and resolve systemic constraints-technical, organizational, or process-related-that limit scale, throughput, or value realization.
• Establish delivery rhythms, metrics, and feedback loops that emphasize outcomes over outputs, focusing on adoption, reuse, developer productivity, and measurable business impact.
• Enable a step-change in execution maturity by embedding learning, iteration, and continuous improvement into how AI platform capabilities are delivered and evolved.

Technical Fluency & AI Enablement

• Bring strong technical fluency across AI platforms, creator tooling, agent-based architectures, and modern cloud-native delivery to effectively steward a development platform that enables others to build AI‑first applications.
• Understand the end-to-end AI application development lifecycle-from intent and design through build, deployment, governance, and operations-so platform capabilities are shaped around real creator and business needs.
• Act as a translator between platform contributors and consuming teams, ensuring platform abstractions, APIs, and tooling accelerate development rather than introduce friction.
• Champion and operationalize an InnerSource development model, enabling teams across segments and functions to contribute to, extend, and reuse shared AI platform capabilities.
• Establish clear contribution patterns, standards, and feedback loops so the platform evolves through community-driven improvement while maintaining enterprise consistency and quality.
• Enable a growing population of AI creators-from professional developers to advanced business technologists-by reducing cognitive load and embedding best practices into the platform by default.
• Stay current on emerging AI development paradigms (e.g., agent frameworks, orchestration, AI-assisted development) and apply them pragmatically to improve developer productivity and solution quality.
• Reinforce the platform’s role as a force multiplier, where AI and automation collapse the gap between intent and implementation, enabling teams to deliver high-quality, governed AI solutions faster and at scale.

Governance, Risk & Responsible AI

• Ensure platform delivery aligns with Responsible AI, security, privacy, and risk management standards, partnering with centralized governance teams.
• Support the vision of “governance as an enabler” by embedding pathway that by design enable controls, evidence, and compliance into delivery processes.
• Ensure the “safe path is the fast path” by enabling teams to innovate confidently within standardized guardrails.

Operating Model & Change Leadership

• Shift to a product-led, InnerSource operating model, enabling teams to build locally and scale globally.
• Promote reuse, shared ownership, and contribution to common platform capabilities.
• Drive transparency through clear communication, outcome-focused reporting, and disciplined program governance.
• Act as a visible change leader, helping teams navigate ambiguity while maintaining delivery momentum.

Qualifications:

Experience

• Experience leading complex, cross-functional programs within large, regulated, or global organizations.
• Experience delivering internal development platforms or shared enterprise capabilities, preferably involving AI, data, or cloud technologies.
• Hands-on experience working with AI-enabled or data-driven initiative, in close partnership with technology teams.
• Demonstrated success driving programs with a clear value realization focus, not only delivery of outputs.

Capabilities

• Understanding of AI platform concepts, including agents, orchestration, governance, and lifecycle management.
• Ability to translate strategic AI vision into executable delivery plans.
• High level of comfort operating in transformational environments.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills.

Leadership Attributes

• Passion for new and emerging technologies, especially AI, paired with pragmatic delivery discipline.
• Enterprise mindset focused on scale, reuse, and sustainable value creation.
• Credible, trusted delivery leader who brings structure, clarity, and momentum.
• Change agent who can align diverse teams around a shared platform vision and outcomes.

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.

#LI-Hybrid

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

Salary range is expected to be between

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 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 hr@manulife.com for more information about U.S.-specific paid time off provisions.