Director, Strategy & Business Architecture

Manulife; Halifax; Hybrid; CAD 110,000 - 206,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading international financial services provider in Halifax is seeking a Director, Strategy & Business Architecture to enhance technology transformation and drive strategic initiatives. The ideal candidate will have over 10 years of experience in managing business transformation and possess exceptional communication skills. This role involves working closely with business leaders to optimize processes and align business and technology strategies, offering a competitive salary and flexible hybrid work environment.

Benefits

Health, dental, and mental health benefits

Retirement savings plans with employer matching

Generous paid time off program

Qualifications

• 10+ years of driving large business transformations.
• Experience in management consulting focused on strategy and transformation.
• Exceptional communication skills, both written and verbal.

Responsibilities

• Develop strategies and assess impact on operating models.
• Lead complex business transformations and capability assessments.
• Drive product/vendor direction and integrate new technologies.

Skills

Large business transformations

Enterprise-wide business view

Influence organizational consensus

Situational analysis

Strategizing business and technology alignment

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in business/marketing/finance/technology

Tools

EA frameworks (Zachman, TOGAF)

Job description

Overview

We are looking for an expert and highly motivated Director, Strategy & Business Architecture to join Canada segment’s Technology & Operations Strategy team!

We are at the forefront of redefining our business and operating model using the latest artificial intelligence and automation innovations. This role will drive Canada's business and technology transformation to support our Digital Customer Leader (DCL) goals. You will work closely with business leaders to craft business strategies and objectives, and perform architectural assessments to define target operating models. These models will enhance end-to-end customer experiences, improve straight-through processing, and optimize our technology portfolio.

We are at an organization that values diverse and big thinking, rewards both behaviors and delivery, and focuses on growth and continuous improvement – all in support of Manulife’s mission to help clients and one another succeed!

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with business and technology leaders to develop strategies, assess their impact on the operating model, identify innovation opportunities, and achieve business success through customer-focused roadmaps.
• Facilitate outcome-based planning and road-mapping, qualify investment ideas, and build business and technology roadmaps that will streamline transition from strategy to execution, accelerate technology innovation, and optimize technology portfolio.
• Lead complex business transformations, complete capability and value stream assessments to address end-to-end business and technology impacts, and ensure ongoing alignment between strategy and implementation.
• Develop a coordinated view of organization’s business architecture to support capability, value stream or customer journey assessments and to define and govern outcome-based transformation roadmaps.
• Keep up to date with the latest technology developments and industry/market trends. Conduct detailed research to find opportunities for technology innovation that can improve or redefine our business model.
• Drive and facilitate product/vendor direction and integrate new technologies from an architectural perspective within the business environment, while optimizing costs and mitigating risks.
• Contribute to achieving important project achievements and overall project goals on time, within budget, and by following relevant standards.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years relevant experience driving large business transformations and leading teams
• A broad, enterprise-wide view of the business and varying degrees of appreciation for strategy, processes, and capabilities, enabling technologies, and governance.
• Ability to recognize structural issues within the organization, functional interdependencies, and cross-silo redundancies and work effectively at all levels of an organization to influence others to move toward consensus.
• Ability to act as liaison conveying information needs of the business to IT and data constraints to the business, while applying equal conveyance regarding business strategy and IT strategy, business processes and workflow automation, business initiatives and IT initiatives, and benefit realization and service delivery.
• Ability to understand contexts, identify patterns and trends, and analyze impact of different change factors. Strong situational analysis and decision-making abilities.
• Extensive experience in strategizing and aligning business and technology plans, adopting new technologies, evaluating and coordinating technology investments, and optimizing application portfolios.
• Experience with capability, value stream and customer experience assessments, SWOT analysis, definition, and governance of outcome-based transformation roadmaps.
• Experience using model-based representations and business architecture blueprints, that can be adjusted as required to collect, aggregate, or disaggregate complex and conflicting information about the business.
• Exceptional communication skills and the ability to communicate appropriately at all levels of the organization; this includes written and verbal communications as well as visualizations.
• Previous experience in management consulting with focus on strategy and transformation is a must.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in business, marketing, finance, or technology, along with a minimum of 10 years in strategic business and tech roles.
• Comprehensive familiarity and proficiency in EA frameworks (Zachman, TOGAF) and Business Architecture Guild standard methodologies.

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.

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 the Manulife site.

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

$110,530.00 CAD - $205,270.00 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.