Digital Product Owner

Company 1 - The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company; Southwestern Ontario; Hybrid; CAD 71,000 - 118,000; Full time

Job summary

Manulife/John Hancock is seeking an experienced Digital Product Owner to lead digital product initiatives in a hybrid work setting in Waterloo, Ontario. You will champion a user-centric culture, translate business needs into clear user stories, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to shape roadmaps and delivery.

You’ll guide data-driven decisions, support change management, and work with stakeholders to improve consumer journeys while delivering tangible value to users.

Qualifications

• 1–2 years of product management experience delivering digital products.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience preferred.
• Experience supporting digital product teams with end-to-end servicing workflows.
• Ability to translate business needs into clear user stories and requirements.
• Strong collaboration between business and technology partners.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to product strategy and craft roadmaps.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align with roadmap priorities.
• Write user stories, prioritize backlog, and manage delivery trade-offs.
• Analyze product data to identify trends and support data-driven decisions.
• Support change management and go-to-market activities with training and communications.
• Engage customers and apply frameworks like SWOT and RACI to steer strategy.

Skills

Product management

User storytelling

Cross-functional collaboration

Agile methodologies

Data analysis

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Jira

Rally

Adobe Experience Manager

Job description

We are seeking an experienced Digital Product Owner to lead the implementation of our digital product initiatives, ensuring they meet business goals and exceed customer expectations. In this role, you will champion a user-centric culture, acting as the voice of both the business and the customer, and guiding the strategy and usability of our digital products. You will collaborate with a cross-functional team to develop innovative product strategies that simplify consumer journeys and deliver outstanding solutions. Your insights will drive process improvements and innovation, making a significant impact on our digital offerings, while consistently delivering value to our users.

Position Responsibilities:

• Contribute to product strategy development by analyzing user feedback and competitive insights and assist in crafting product roadmaps aligned with strategic goals.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to understand collaborator needs and ensure alignment with roadmap priorities, using modern architecture principles for product execution.
• Participate in agile events, facilitate product development by writing user stories, prioritizing the backlog, and conducting trade-offs, while maintaining communication on delivery progress.
• Conduct product data analysis to supervise performance, identify trends, and advise decisions, using structured prioritization methods for objective, data-driven outcomes.
• Support change management and go-to-market activities by implementing adoption plans, engaging collaborators, and collaborating with teams to deliver training and communication materials.
• Develop significant connections with customers, expertly overcome obstacles, and apply frameworks like SWOT Analysis and RACI Matrix to steer strategic directions.

Required Qualifications:

• 1-2 years of experience in product management with a consistent track record of delivering successful digital products.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience preferred. Relevant practical experience may also be considered.
• Foundational experience supporting digital product teams, with exposure to end-to-end servicing workflows (e.g., claims, withdrawals, address changes).
• Demonstrates the ability to collaborate with partners and contribute to identifying manual touchpoints and opportunities for digital improvement.
• Foundational experience working with technical teams to support the translation of business needs into clear user stories and or requirements.
• Demonstrates the ability to bridge communication between business and technology partners.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, along with effective communication and interpersonal abilities for collaborating with teams and departments.
• Basic understanding of the group retirement industry, with a preference for experience in digital experiences, and familiarity with product lifecycle stages.
• Experience in developing personalization strategies to improve user engagement and achieve measurable business outcomes, with an awareness of data privacy regulations.
• Exposure to CMS tools, particularly Adobe Experience Manager, and basic knowledge of agile methodologies like Lean, Scrum, and Kanban.
• Familiarity with work management tools such as Jira and Rally for task tracking, sprint planning, and performance reporting.
• Ability to engage collaborators and align product vision, using data analytics for informed decision-making and tracking performance, with awareness of AI trends as an asset.
• Bilingualism (English and French) is an asset. If the successful candidate is in Québec, proficiency in both languages will be required to support clients from various provinces outside of Quebec.

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 crafting the future you want to see.

About Manulife

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.

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 [e-mail].

Salary and Benefits

Referenced Salary Location Waterloo, Ontario
Working Arrangement Hybrid
Salary range is expected to be between $70,500.00 CAD - $117,500.00 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 [e-mail] 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 [e-mail] 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.

Recent Awards

• 2026 Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award Winner
• Manulife Named one of Forbes World’s Best Employers 2025
• Financial Times World’s Best Employers Asia-Pacific 2026
• We’ve been recognized as one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers 2026
• #1 Life Insurer for AI Maturity by Evident 2026

Our Mission

We're Manulife. And we’re on a mission to make decisions easier and lives better. Better is what drives us. It’s what inspires us to find new ways to support customers and colleagues in living longer and healthier lives. It’s the reason we’re dedicated to investing in digital innovation and industry-leading AI, and accelerating a sustainable and economically inclusive future. Joining us means you’ll be empowered to learn and grow your career. We’ll recognize and support you in a flexible environment where well-being and inclusion are more than just words. And as part of our global team, you’ll help shape the future you want to see – and discover that better can take you anywhere you want to go. We’re proud of our accomplishments and recognition.