Director, Canada Strategy

At Manulife Canada, the Strategy & Transformation team sits at the center of the organization, partnering closely with the Canada CEO and Segment leaders to shape and advance the company’s long-term direction.

We work across business lines and functions to translate Segment strategy into aligned priorities, maintain an integrated view of the strategic portfolio, shape high-impact initiatives, and improve the processes through which strategic and investment decisions are made.

As Director, Canada Strategy, you will help shape Manulife Canada’s strategy and advance its most critical priorities. You will combine enterprise perspective, structured problem solving, and constructive challenge to help senior leaders make clear choices and mobilize action.

This high-visibility role spans strategy reviews, strategic initiatives, and business and functional deep dives. The Director will act as a trusted advisor to senior leaders and help connect Canada Segment priorities with business unit and functional plans.

This role is ideal for a strategy leader who has shaped enterprise or business-unit strategy in a complex organization or top-tier consulting environment and is equally comfortable developing strategy, facilitating executive decisions, and moving priority initiatives toward execution.

Position Responsibilities:

Strategy Cascade and Enterprise Visibility

• Translate Canada Segment strategy into clear priorities, expectations, and decision criteria for business units and functions.
• Lead periodic strategy reviews and structured check-ins to assess progress, test whether priorities remain valid, and identify where leadership intervention is required.
• Maintain an integrated view of the strategic portfolio, including both funded initiatives and material work outside the formal book of work, to identify gaps, overlaps, dependencies, and emerging risks.
• Synthesize business unit and functional strategies to assess how they collectively advance Canada Segment objectives.
• Help develop and communicate the narrative of the Canada Segment strategy to Enterprise leadership and the Board.

Strategic Initiatives and Enterprise Problem Solving

• Lead high-priority, cross-business strategic initiatives from problem definition through recommendation, mobilization, and transition to accountable execution owners.
• Frame and evaluate strategic choices, including where to enter, exit, invest, partner, acquire, simplify, or double down.
• Develop fact-based recommendations through structured problem solving, market and competitive analysis, financial assessment, scenario analysis, and stakeholder input.
• Develop business cases and implementation roadmaps, establish intended outcomes and success measures, and secure senior leadership alignment.
• Support partnership and M&A assessments, including strategic fit, value creation logic, key risks, and integration considerations, in collaboration with relevant subject-matter experts.

Business and Functional Deep Dives

• Lead periodic vertical and horizontal deep dives across businesses and functions, for example – Distribution, Technology, Operations, and other enterprise capabilities.
• Act as the Canada Segment’s thought and challenge partner to functions, testing strategic ambition, investment priorities, operating choices, and alignment with business needs.
• Identify cross-business opportunities, shared capabilities, and structural barriers that may not be visible within individual portfolios.
• Facilitate alignment across business and functional leaders where priorities, accountabilities, or investment choices are unclear.

Executive Advisory and Team Leadership

• Provide independent, forward-looking advice to senior executives and facilitate decisions on complex or ambiguous strategic topics.
• Develop concise executive and Board-ready materials that clarify the issue, choices, trade-offs, recommendation, and required decision.
• Build alignment across business units, functions, and enterprise partners through effective facilitation, influence, and constructive challenge.
• Lead and develop a high-performing, inclusive team with strong capabilities in strategic judgment, structured problem solving, executive communication, and delivery.
• Coach direct reports and peers, allocate resources to the highest-value priorities
• Strengthen the Strategy & Transformation team’s methods and capabilities – including via the adoption of AI, better operating rhythms, common approaches, etc.

Leadership Capabilities

• Strategic Judgment: Connect enterprise context, market evidence, economics, and execution realities to make clear recommendations.
• Structured Problem Solving: Break ambiguous issues into testable hypotheses, focused analyses, and practical choices.
• Influence and Constructive Challenge: Build credibility with senior leaders while testing assumptions and surfacing trade-offs.
• Executive Communication: Distill complex issues into concise, decision-oriented narratives and Board-ready materials.
• Enterprise Collaboration: Create alignment across business units and functions without relying on formal authority.
• Mobilization and Execution: Translate strategy into clear outcomes, accountabilities, success measures, and an executable path forward.
• Talent Development: Coach and develop high-performing strategy talent and raise the quality of thinking across the team.

Required Qualifications:

• 8–10+ years of progressively senior experience in corporate strategy, business strategy, management consulting, corporate development, transformation, or a related field.
• Experience in financial services and/or a top-tier consulting firm strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience shaping enterprise or business-unit strategy across multiple businesses, functions, or geographies.
• Strong financial acumen, including experience developing business cases, assessing investment choices, and evaluating value creation and risk.
• Demonstrated ability to structure ambiguous problems, develop and test hypotheses, synthesize quantitative and qualitative evidence, and translate analysis into practical recommendations.
• Strong track record of influencing senior stakeholders, facilitating difficult decisions, and delivering measurable outcomes in complex, matrixed environments.
• Experience with strategic planning, portfolio prioritization, operating model assessment, transformation, and benefits realization.
• People leadership experience, including coaching and developing high-performing teams.
• University degree in Business, Finance, Economics, or a related field.
• MBA, equivalent graduate degree, or relevant professional designation preferred.

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.

The role being advertised is an existing vacancy.

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].

Referenced Salary Location

Toronto, OntarioHybrid

Salary range is expected to be between

$145,130.00 CAD - $195,130.00 CAD

Employees also have the opportunity to participate in incentive programs and earn incentive compensation tied to business and individual performance. 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. If you are applying for this role outside of the primary location, please contact [email protected] for the salary range for your location.

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 [email protected] for more information about U.S.-specific paid time off provisions.

We use data and analytics technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), and automated processing tools, to analyze and process the information you provide to us or third parties in the application process. For more information, please refer to our personal information collection statement.