VP Operations Excellence

Manulife Canada is the largest segment within Manulife, and the Canada segment has been committed to customers in our home market for over 135 years. We serve the needs of one in six adults across the country, including members of approximately 27,000 businesses and organizations. Our Canadian business lines are: group life, health, and disability insurance solutions for employers; insurance and guaranteed investment products including life, critical illness, segregated funds, and annuities sold via retail advisors; and Affinity group insurance offerings including life, health, travel, disability, and creditor insurance solutions sold through the Manulife CoverMe® brand, mortgage brokers, travel advisors, and sponsor groups and associations; and flexible banking products through Manulife Bank.

Manulife Canada, Operations is one of the largest Operations teams at Manulife with 5,000 employees located across Canada, Philippines, and India. The COO for Manulife Canada is seeking a VP, Operations Excellence for Canada Operations to Serve as the executive leader for Operations Excellence, directly accountable for the strategic direction, execution, and outcomes of Canada Operations.

This role provides leadership to the rest of the Operations senior leadership team to ensure cohesive, aligned actions and delivery of key business objectives. A key focus for this role in the near-term will be to strengthen our core operations and digital customer leadership. This role is designed to lead and oversee the enabling capabilities that will manage through the complexity of multiple business lines in one geography. If you want to be at the heart of change and transformation and are excited by the opportunity to enable Operations to execute with excellence and help our businesses win in our home market; this role is an opportunity for you.

Position Responsibilities:

• Create and embed a consolidated Canada Ops approach to all of what we do touching the customer and employee. There is an opportunity to create enabling capabilities for this function to improve our ability to execute.

• Drive increased focus on shareholder commitments; in Ops this means improving our collective financial acumen, driving better benefits realization on business cases, and improving our forecasting capabilities so that we can effectively manage our expense line.

• Define and execute key segment and global Ops strategic initiatives (workforce strategy, operating & service model reviews, etc.) to continue to drive efficiency in our processes and effectiveness in our customer experience.

• Champion the adoption and integration of AI and automation across all of Canada Ops with a focus on empowering teams through upskilling, end to end process design, and evolving our automation roadmaps.

Detailed Accountabilities

• Lead critical initiatives related to strategy implementation that could include select enterprise-focused mergers and acquisitions, research and development, multi business unit initiatives, and large-scale transformation and change efforts.

• Provide governance and counsel for Operations leadership team to enable execution of key business initiatives and ensure cohesive and aligned action across all business lines.

• Lead and leverage internal support partners (Finance, Risk, Compliance, Technology, HR teams) to enable close collaboration in achievement of overall Canada and Global Operations goals.

• Oversee the Canada Ops portfolio of initiatives; governance, decision-making, and benefits realization processes related to these initiatives, including engaging with executive leaders to build understanding, dedication and consensus.

• Fulfill a business advisory/value enhancement role in supporting management across the Ops group in the development and execution of our strategy to ensure it is lined up with both the Segment strategy and Global Function strategy and drives profitability across our segments.

• As the Ops landscape changes with technology advancements; lead our low code / no code center of expertise, drive our implementation of AI, while investing in employee upskilling and change management initiatives.

• Embed the customer experience in the heart of all that we do across Operations.

• Be the owner of the Canada Ops narrative for the various venues we are in (MOR, Business reviews, Strategic updates, etc.). Develop ongoing reporting and presentations to communicate key messages in a consistent manner, ensuring a Canada segment Ops view across all business lines.

• Build, deploy, and evolve Ops capabilities relating to the customer experience, employee experience, financial acumen, and strategic execution.

• Drive the coordination and execution of the Ops Senior Leadership Engagement strategy across various forums (including town halls, leadership meetings, Director Forums, etc.).

• Provide support to the COO on non-day to day production issues and initiative.

Required Qualifications:

• Demonstrated passion about both the customer and employee experience.

• At least 10 years of related business experience gained from financial institutions, strategic consulting, risk management, or other similar experience.

• Background in operations leadership and/or execution is preferred; with an interest in continuing to develop your career in Operations.

• Demonstrated ability to build a leading-edge team that drives new-age thinking. Curious about technology advancements (AI, Agentic AI), the role of Data and its collective ability to reimagine how Operations is executed.

• Experience in agile, waterfall, project management principles and lean/six sigma.

• Demonstrated ability to lead complex initiatives and effectively work through others with a focus on organizational change management.

• Highly developed analytical, problem-solving, influencing, and negotiating skills.

• Ability to operate with discretion, recognizing evolving agendas of key stakeholders.

• Strong verbal and written communication skills and interpersonal skills needed to effectively build relationships and connect with executives, internals partners, and customers. Outstanding communications judgment at all levels with both technical and non-technical audiences.

• Ability to work effectively within a matrixed, geographically dispersed team, using knowledge acquired across the organization and within a global workforce.

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.