Digital Portfolio & Operations Lead

As a Digital Portfolio & Operations Lead, you will drive the end-to-end Annual Planning process (i.e., Book of Work & SFP) and associated reporting to leadership, define how we manage our Digital Experience portfolio, and act as the key link between the digital experience team and our technology partners. This role will also be responsible for tracking, in collaboration with our finance partner and WAM Marketing strategy leads, the overall Global Digital Experience (GDE) team financials, including BAU workforce and program budget as well as project-based resources. The role demands disciplined execution, strong financial accountability, and the ability to influence senior stakeholders.

Position Responsibilities:

Digital Experience Portfolio Management

Planning & Prioritization

• Coordinate the intake of cross-functional Digital Experience initiatives, driving stakeholder engagement and guiding business case best practices to ensure submissions are accurate, fulsome, and strategically grounded.

• Help shape the scope of BU-specific Digital Experience submissions and feed it into BU-specific prioritization processes.

• Validate and align Shared Digital Experience submissions with key stakeholders, and facilitate prioritization.

Funding & Approval

• Oversee the funding approval process-reviewing materials submitted in GIA (Manulife’s system for Business Case processing) for quality and completeness and coordinating with stakeholders to secure timely approvals.

Delivery Monitoring & Reporting

• Review monthly health and status reports for all portfolio initiatives, tracking spend against plan and understanding the drivers behind variances.

• Identify and surface areas requiring leadership decisions, escalations, or strategic trade-offs-bringing options rather than just problems.

• Serve as the enterprise-wide connector for Digital Experience, ensuring consistency, transparency, and alignment on strategy execution across all stakeholder groups.

• Proactively identify, mitigate, and escalate systemic risks, issues, and dependencies.

• Champion change management by partnering with key stakeholders to ensure proactive engagement and effective support.

• Ensure adherence to enterprise reporting standards and systems, and ensure total traceability and audit readiness for all program data. Integrate the Manulife Outcome Delivery Framework (ODF) and Delegation of Authority (DOA) requirements and thresholds into program ways of working.

GDE Team Financials

• Lead financial operations and portfolio governance across the GDE organization, overseeing budget planning and tracking for Business-as-Usual workforce and program expenses, as well as Project initiatives under the corporate funding models (i.e., SFP and Book of Work) while supporting annual planning cycles (current year execution and next year forecasting).

• Drive rigorous financial tracking and reconciliation processes, facilitating bi-weekly reviews with our finance partner and cross-functional alignment with our GDE LT to ensure accuracy, transparency, and effective resource allocation and transitions.

• Enhance financial visibility and decision-making by developing and maintaining centralized reporting (e.g., workforce, open roles, program budgets), enabling leadership with timely, actionable insights.

• Provide strategic financial analysis and operational support, including cost centre assessments, executive reporting, and expense validation, ensuring alignment, issue resolution, and forward-looking workforce planning.

Strategic Partnership with Technology and Digital Experience across Segments

• Build and sustain the bridges between Digital Experience and Technology within GWAM, across Segments (e.g. GWAM and Canada Segment on Unified Programme), and Global teams

• Collaborate closely with Product Owners and Technology partners to ensure portfolio performance is clearly understood and that initiatives are meeting delivery outcomes, KPIs, and financial targets.

• Proactively identify gaps in the handoff between Digital Experience and Technology, and actively work to close them-enabling smoother, faster delivery.

• Flag issues requiring executive decision-making with clarity, context, and recommended paths forward.

• Bring a connector’s mindset to every interaction: your role is not only to manage programs but to build the relationships and shared understanding that make ambitious digital transformation possible.

Required Qualifications:

• Experience: 6-10+ years of experience in portfolio management, strategic planning, business operations, digital transformations, finance or PMO leadership roles, with direct accountability for portfolio governance, funding approvals, prioritization and financial oversight.

• Portfolio & Governance Expertise: Proven experience managing complex portfolios of initiatives, including business case development, investment prioritization, funding governance, executive approvals, and portfolio health reporting.

• Financial Acumen: Demonstrated experience managing budgets, forecasts, workforce planning, and financial tracking within large organizations. Ability to translate financial data into actionable insights, identify risks, and provide recommendations that support investment and resource allocation decisions.

• Executive Communication & Reporting: Exceptional written and verbal communication skills with experience developing executive-level presentations, portfolio reporting, and governance materials for senior leaders.

• Stakeholder Management & Influence: Proven ability to build trusted relationships and influence stakeholders across business, technology, finance, product, and leadership teams. Skilled at driving alignment, facilitating prioritization discussions, and navigating complex organizational environments.

• Execution & Continuous Improvement: Highly organized and detail-oriented with the ability to establish and improve operational processes, governance practices, reporting frameworks, and controls while managing multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.

• Education: Bachelor’s degree required.

• Additional skills: Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities; able to simplify complexity into clear, actionable recommendations. Advanced Excel and PowerPoint skills are essential.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience supporting digital strategy and/or digital transformation in a product-led organization.

• Familiarity with agile ways of working and tools (e.g., Jira, Rally, Confluence).

• Comfort contributing to digital product work across discovery-to-delivery (roadmaps, backlogs, journeys, adoption metrics).

• Experience in financial services.