Associate Director - Distribution Transformation Office

At Manulife, our ambition is to be a digital customer leader across all markets we operate in. To achieve the goal, Agency Digital Office Program has been launched to drive different digital initiatives in order to assist our agency work easier, faster and better. 

Distribution Transformation Team is seeking a Associate Director who is forward-thinking to drive the development of the digital tools/AI-powered tools and to formulate change management plan for the adoption in order to support the business growth and business transformation across all channels.

Position Responsibilities:  

• The Product Owner acts as the voice of the business and voice of the agents/banks/brokers for a component of the customer journey, representing and driving business needs within a particular squad to ensure business and end-user satisfaction.
• This role contributes to the realization of digital strategy, vision, and OKRs by aligning and prioritizing business goals with actionable results.  

• Focuses on tactical delivery of agency digital tools or its features, aligned to the value stream and segment priorities 

• Drives the strategy, planning and delivery of key capabilities aligned to the Value Stream customer journey at the squad level, including features 

• Collaborates closely with business stakeholders to achieve squad-level outcomes for business priorities & initiatives 

Individual Accountabilities: 

• Voice of the Business and channels

• Responsible for business outcomes in alignment with the Company Must Win priorities 

• Acts as the voice of the business and voice of the agents/bank/broker within the squad to ensure business and end-user satisfaction 

• Maintains a good understanding of business and end users pain points, needs, and preferences 

• Maintains a good understanding of relevant personas and customer journeys in order to advocate for the ideal experience 

• Understands industry, competitive, general business and AI trends to enable strategic planning and delivery of outcomes in alignment with segment priorities 

• Formulate and execute the change management strategies to drive business results in terms of adoption       

• Conduct and facilitate agency focus groups to collect feedback for continuous improvements and development  

• Ensures the voice of the customer/stakeholder is prominent and accurate in the definition of user stories 

• Act as an internal consultant and trusted advisor to other departments within Distribution Operations in terms of project management and to ensure consistent practice or design applied to different tools/projects 

Backlog Management 

• Drives the strategy, planning and delivery of key capabilities aligned to the agent & customer journey at the squad level, including features 

• Primarily leads the squad in ensuring value creation for the business and agents by owning the squad backlog and ensuring that the highest value work is always being executed 

• Work with squad to define hypotheses, run experiments (surveys, concept testing, analytics tools, A/B testing), and analyze data to make decisions on user stories that influence the direction of delivery 

• Builds and grooms the user story backlog for one or more squads (prioritizing based on value) 

• Ensures the backlog is visible, clear and understood by all squad members 

• Incorporates feedback from stakeholder demos, interviews, user research, and engineering into the squad backlog 

• Accepts the work outputs (i.e. completed user stories) of the squad by ensuring all stories meet the definition of done 

Squad Alignment & Communication 

• Provide coaching support for agile practices and product content knowledge 

• Specify and effectively communicate desired outcomes for current and future capabilities 

• Leads or assists in demonstrations of the squad’s outputs (i.e. working software) 

• Reviews and contributes to the agency digital roadmap 

• Drafts the squad’s specific objectives and key results (OKRs) in alignment with those of the value stream 

• Keep track and report the adoption progress with plan to management and regional office 

Required Qualifications: 

• Curious, open-minded, self-motived, fast learner and team player 

• Able to work independently, proactively and possess “Can-do” attitude in a dynamic and unstructured environment, influence stakeholders at different level including Regional Office and our agency with an entrepreneurial team spirit 

• Comfortable communicating with Executives at senior levels within the organization and agency leaders 

• Ability to challenge constructively on requirements or assumptions whilst maintaining positive and professional relationships 

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills and ability to influence and drive outcomes 

• Strong project management skills 

• Good communication skill with fluent in Cantonese, English, and Mandarin  

• Minimum 8 years relevant working experience in project management. Advantage with AI experience.

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 [email protected].

Hybrid