Director, Release Train Engineer – Digital Experience Platforms

Manulife; Toronto; Hybrid; CAD 132,000 - 183,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading financial services provider is seeking a Director, Release Train Engineer for their Digital Transformation team in Toronto. You'll be pivotal in leading Agile Release Train (ART) events, mentoring teams, and optimizing flow for effective digital experiences. The ideal candidate will possess strong Agile delivery knowledge, excellent coaching skills, and familiarity with modern digital tools. This hybrid role offers a competitive salary ranging from $132,900 to $182,900 CAD and robust benefits including health and retirement plans.

Benefits

Customizable health benefits

Retirement savings plans

Paid time off program

Qualifications

• Experience in Agile delivery within public and secure environments.
• Proven experience as a RTE or in a similar SAFe leadership role.
• Strong understanding of Agile frameworks and Lean principles.

Responsibilities

• Facilitate ART-level events and ensure alignment with business goals.
• Mentor Scrum Masters and Agile teams in Lean-Agile practices.
• Establish ART Kanban systems and supervise flow metrics.

Skills

Agile delivery

SAFe principles

Lean principles

Facilitation skills

Coaching

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or Engineering

Tools

AEM Cloud

Contentful

API-first architectures

Job description

Join our Digital Transformation team!

As the Director, Release Train Engineer (RTE) – Digital Experience Platforms, you will serve as a servant leader and mentor for the Agile Release Train (ART) team, enabling the delivery of enterprise‑grade digital experiences across sites. This role is critical in orchestrating SAFe / Agile practices, optimizing flow, and ensuring alignment across multiple Agile teams. You will work closely with collaborators across North America and be a key part to the success of Manulife’s Digital Transformation.

Position Responsibilities

ART Leadership

• Facilitate all ART‑level events: Program Increment (PI) Planning, Scrum of Scrums, System Demos, and Inspect & Adapt workshops.
• Ensure readiness across teams and alignment with business goals.
• Track ART progress, manage risks, and resolve dependencies using tools like Kanban and ROAM.

Coaching & Facilitation

• Mentor Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and Agile teams in Lean‑Agile practices.
• Promote self‑organization, teamwork, and continuous learning.
• Drive adoption of SAFe principles and DevOps practices.

Flow Optimization & Delivery

• Establish ART Kanban systems and supervise flow metrics (e.g., predictability, throughput).
• Support continuous delivery pipelines and CI/CD optimization.
• Conduct value stream mapping to identify and eliminate bottlenecks.

Partner Engagement

• Represent North America content priorities across multiple business units.
• Act as liaison between ART teams and business partners.
• Ensure transparency on PI objectives, progress, and risks.
• Manage communications cross‑channel, including internal collaborators, and partner with business teams to manage external customers of experience changes.

Technical Leadership

• Collaborate with engineering teams to integrate AEM Cloud and headless CMS into delivery workflows.
• Ensure compliance with accessibility standards (WCAG) and security requirements.
• Support architectures based on APIs and cloud‑native solutions.

Required Qualifications

• Experience in Agile delivery within public and secure site environments.
• Proven experience as a RTE or similar SAFe leadership role.
• Strong understanding of SAFe, Agile frameworks (Scrum, Kanban), and Lean principles.
• Familiarity with AEM Cloud, headless CMS (Contentful), and API‑first architectures.
• Excellent facilitation, coaching, and servant leadership skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field; SAFe RTE certification 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.

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 [e-mail].

Referenced Salary Location

Toronto, Ontario

Working Arrangement

Hybrid

Salary range is expected to be between

$132,900.00 CAD - $182,900.00 CAD

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