Senior Specialist, Organizational Effectiveness

The Senior Advisor, Strategic Programs & Engagement is a highly visible role supporting strategic priorities across Canada Operations. Reporting to the Transformation Enablement Lead, this position partners closely with senior leaders and the Canada COO Office to advance executive communications, employee engagement, organizational effectiveness, and strategic initiatives.

As a key member of a lean and collaborative team, the successful candidate will help translate business priorities into meaningful communications, coordinate enterprise-wide initiatives, support leadership engagement activities, and enable successful execution of organizational priorities. This role serves as a connector across multiple stakeholder groups and requires strong communication, program management, relationship-building, and change enablement capabilities.

This opportunity is ideal for a strategic and proactive professional who enjoys working in a fast-paced environment, influencing without authority, navigating ambiguity, and partnering with leaders to deliver meaningful business impact

Position Responsibilities:

Executive Communications & Leadership Support

• Partner with senior leaders and the Canada COO Office to support executive communications and organizational messaging.
• Develop executive presentations, briefing materials, leadership updates, speeches, talking points, FAQs, and communication plans.
• Translate complex business priorities, strategies, and operational initiatives into clear, compelling, and engaging communications.
• Support internal and external speaking engagements, leadership forums, town halls, and employee events.
• Ensure alignment, consistency, and effectiveness of messaging across multiple audiences and initiatives.
• Provide communication support for key organizational announcements, priorities, and leadership initiatives.

Strategic Programs & Organizational Initiatives

• Support the planning, execution, coordination, and communication of strategic initiatives across Canada Operations.
• Partner with stakeholders to drive progress on high-priority business initiatives and organizational goals.
• Coordinate multiple workstreams, deliverables, timelines, and stakeholder groups to advance strategic programs.
• Identify dependencies, risks, opportunities, and barriers to execution while helping initiatives move forward successfully.
• Facilitate collaboration across teams and functions to support enterprise objectives and operational priorities.
• Prepare materials and recommendations that support decision-making and executive discussions.

Employee Engagement & Organizational Effectiveness

• Support employee engagement, culture, learning, and organizational effectiveness initiatives across Canada Operations.
• Help design and deliver programs that strengthen employee experience, leadership connection, and organizational alignment.
• Contribute to leadership development, onboarding, learning, talent, and employee experience programs.
• Coordinate engagement events, employee forums, recognition initiatives, and learning experiences.
• Gather stakeholder and employee feedback to identify opportunities for continuous improvement.
• Support initiatives that foster collaboration, inclusion, communication, and employee connection.

Leadership Events & Communication Programs

• Lead and support planning for town halls, leadership forums, employee events, and organizational communication activities.
• Coordinate agendas, presentations, communications, and event execution activities.
• Develop creative approaches to employee engagement and leadership communication.
• Support end-to-end delivery of high-visibility organizational events and experiences.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in executive communications, strategic programs, employee experience, change management, internal communications, leadership development, business strategy, operations enablement, or related disciplines.
• Exceptional written, verbal, and presentation development skills.
• Demonstrated experience developing executive-level communications and presentations.
• Proven ability to manage multiple priorities and deliver high-quality work in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills with the ability to work across multiple teams and functions.
• Experience coordinating complex initiatives and driving outcomes through collaboration rather than direct authority.
• Strong business acumen and ability to connect multiple workstreams into cohesive strategies and execution plans.
• High level of professionalism, judgment, discretion, and executive presence.
• Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Office, particularly PowerPoint and Word.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting executive leaders, C-suite leaders, or executive office teams.
• Experience within financial services, insurance, corporate strategy, operations, or large enterprise environments.
• Experience leading or supporting employee engagement, learning, or leadership development initiatives.
• Familiarity with change management principles and organizational transformation programs.
• Experience supporting leadership forums, town halls, enterprise communications, or strategic organizational initiatives.

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 distributed 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

$73,725.00 CAD - $122,875.00 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.