Principal Designer-Foundations

About us

Manulife is a leading international financial services group serving over 33 million customers across the globe. We are hard at work to transform our organization into a digital, customer-centric market leader - evolving our customer interactions into innovative, elegant, and highly functional digital experiences delivering high value.

The barrier to the financial services industry can be complex but it doesn’t have to be; our mission is to simplify financial services by making decisions easier and lives better.

The role

Our Product Design team is looking for an experienced Principal Product Designer to lead the design of our public-facing web properties built in Adobe Experience Manager (AEM). This is a hybrid role that requires you to be in office 3 days a week.

In this role, you’ll define the future of our public web experiences in Canada, blending strategic vision with exceptional design craft. You’ll work closely with cross-functional partners to deliver scalable, accessible, and engaging solutions for millions of users. A critical responsibility will be collaborating with our Global Design Systems team to advance design systems and best practices within our AEM Cloud environment, ensuring consistency and innovation across all touchpoints.

We work in the open, encourage transparency, and are committed to delivering user-driven experiences. If you're passionate about making a meaningful impact and elevating the digital experience for Canadians, we want to hear from you!

Hands on design in Figma (50%)

• Leading ideation sessions and design reviews

• Act as a subject matter expert for AEM design best practices and component-driven design

• Own end-to-end design for public-facing web experiences, including AEM components, templates, and responsive layouts

• Co-create the development of user flows, content models, and wireframes that align with business and user needs

• Collaborate with publishers and developers to validate implementation and maintain design integrity

Managing projects (20%)

• Partnering with Product, Publishing, and Marketing to define and balance business and user needs

• Oversee end-to-end coordination between design and stakeholders across public-facing initiatives

• Ensuring cohesive design implementation across AEM-based properties

• Working in an agile environment for quick prototype-test-iterate cycles

Craft leadership (15%)

• Lead with a customer-centric mindset, strengthening design culture and quality across the Product Design Team

• Set clear design standards and success metrics to ensure impactful, high-quality web experiences

• Support team growth through hiring and talent development

Enhancing and expanding our design system (15%)

• Contributing to and evolving our AEM component library

• Ensuring consistency and accessibility across AEM components, patterns and templates

• Collaborating with our Canada and Global Design System teams to align across geographies

You are

• Committed to quality - Strive to deliver best-in-class, compelling user experiences.

• Confident - Gracefully defend your design decisions with clarity and expertise

• Data-driven & user-focused: Back your work with research and challenge opinion-driven decisions.

• Deeply empathetic - Balance user interests with business goals

• A realistic visionary - Think big while balancing scope, limitations, and future possibilities.

• Own your craft- Passionate about solving core product problems and owning all aspects of UX/UI.

• A strong communicator - Translate work into a language that can be understood across audiences.

• A self-starter - You don’t wait for instructions. You assess the situation, take charge and make things happen.

• People first - Elevate the team allowing them to shine fostering growth with no ego.

We’re looking for

• Proven experience leading a design team in craft and quality

• 4+ years of hands-on product design experience with Figma expertise

• Deep understanding of end-to-end web product design, including user validation, content modeling, wireframing, prototyping, and high-fidelity visuals

• Demonstrated experience collaborating with Product, Engineering, Research, Marketing and Content teams within Agile environments

• Experience designing for AEM or other enterprise CMS platforms

• Strong portfolio showcasing public-facing web design work

Nice to haves

• Experience in the Insurance or Financial sector

• Experience with Jira

• Design system experience

• Familiarity with accessibility best practices

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

Salary range is expected to be between

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.