Senior Product Owner in Halifax, Nova Scotia

We are a leading financial services provider committed to making decisions easier and lives better for our customers and colleagues around the world. From our environmental initiatives to our community investments, we lead with values throughout our business. To help us stand out, we help you step up, because when colleagues are healthy, respected and meaningfully challenged, we all thrive. Discover how you can grow your career, make impact and drive real change with our Winning Team today.

Working Arrangement

Hybrid

Job Description

Manulife is on a journey to become a customer obsessed, digital leader; we’re redefining, and we need you! Individual Insurance Canada (IIC) has designed the broadest product shelf and offer the most innovative tools to help our customers every step of the way. We have a clear vision of our strategy, and the result will be exceptional experiences for our customers.

The Individual Insurance Product Owners are part of the IIC Operations Transformation & Delivery team responsible to establish our go-forward Agile organization on our quest to achieve our Mission: “ Decisions made easier. Lives made better ”.

What role will I play?

As a Senior Product Owner within the Guaranteed Investment Product and Distributor Services Value-Stream, you will work closely with a team of Product Owners, delivery teams and Business partners to deliver insurance products, services and capabilities to our customers and advisors. This is a fast paced, changing environment where every day brings something new, and innovative ideas are encouraged. Your contributions will help evolve the customer and advisor experience through simplified and intuitive design; putting the client’s needs first by providing the right tools and solutions to facilitate a positive digital experience.

In our quest to enhance and deliver new digital and self-service capabilities for our customers and advisors, your collaborative nature will bring together internal players from various functions including, but not limited to Technology, Sales, Marketing, Compliance and Operations. You possess an excellent balance of analytical, communication, and leadership skills and are comfortable challenging others to continually improve our offering.

As a Senior Product Owner, you will be responsible for:

• defining, planning and delivery of products, services and capabilities for features/epics

• explaining the ‘What’ and ‘Why’ of the features to the delivery squad and stakeholders through use of storyboards and other tools available

• create and refine user stories in collaboration with stakeholders while maintaining and continuously prioritizing product and release backlog

• clearly identifying acceptance criteria, assumptions, risks and dependencies along with owning the acceptance testing in conjunction with business partners

• conducting analysis and incorporate findings, feedback and insights from customer and business research

• facilitating discussions with stakeholders regarding features in development, obtaining feedback, to make decisions on MVP and adjust user stories accordingly to close the feedback loop with stakeholders

• developing and maintaining appropriate tracking and reporting of features post-launch to evaluate future investment

• support, advise and mentor more junior product owners

Who are you?

• You don’t like to sit idle, and enjoy working in fast-paced environments – you tend to gravitate to roles where every day can present something new

• You obsess about customers, seeking ways to listen, engage and act for their benefit

• You think big, with a constant curiosity to discover ways to use an agile mindset and enable the business to achieve its outcomes

• You thrive in teams establishing relationships, believing getting it done together drives innovation

• You take ownership with an ambitious mindset that builds solutions, focusing on what matters

• You do what is right, working with integrity and speaking out when needed

• You share your humanity, building a diverse and inclusive work environment for everyone

Experience and Qualification:

• 5-7 years of relevant work experience

• Knowledge and experience working with scrum/agile framework along with common tools such as Confluence, JIRA, release planning

• Experience working in the Investments industry, focused on Guaranteed Investment Products

• Experience working with customer websites and technology within the Manulife environment.

• Strong organizational and problem-solving skills while working in a face-paced environment with changing priorities.

• Excellent verbal & written communication skills including the ability to clearly articulate business needs to technical resources

• Ability to influence and resolve conflict without having direct authority; confidence to raise issues as required

• Ability to foster positive relationships and optimally lead various sized groups to attain collaborative and innovative solutions

• Proactively identify potential problems to prevent unfavorable outcomes

• Adaptable and extraordinary aptitude for change; reprioritize conflicting workloads and deliverables

• Ability to empower, coach and mentor individuals and teams

What can we offer you?

• A competitive salary and benefits packages.

• A growth trajectory that extends upward and outward, encouraging you to follow your passions and learn new skills.

• A focus on growing your career path with us.

• Flexible work policies and strong work-life balance.

• Professional development and leadership opportunities.

#LI-Hybrid

About Manulife and John Hancock

Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services group that helps people make their decisions easier and lives better. With our global headquarters in Toronto, Canada, we operate as Manulife across our offices in Asia, Canada, and Europe, and primarily as John Hancock in the United States. We provide financial advice, insurance, and wealth and asset management solutions for individuals, groups and institutions. At the end of 2022, we had more than 40,000 employees, over 116,000 agents, and thousands of distribution partners, serving over 34 million customers. At the end of 2022, we had $1.3 trillion (US$1.0 trillion) in assets under management and administration, including total invested assets of $0.4 trillion (US $0.3 trillion), and segregated funds net assets of $0.3 trillion (US$0.3 trillion). We trade as ‘MFC’ on the Toronto, New York, and the Philippine stock exchanges, and under ‘945’ in Hong Kong.

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 .

Salary & Benefits

The annual base salary for this role is listed below.

Primary Location

Waterloo, Ontario

Salary range is expected to be between

$78,975.00 CAD – $142,155.00 CAD

If you are applying for this role outside of the primary location, please contact 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 for more information about U.S.-specific paid time off provisions.