People Services AI Product Lead

Manulife John Hancock; Toronto; On-site; CAD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Manulife John Hancock is seeking an AI Product Lead for PeopleComms to translate colleague and business needs into scalable AI-enabled products and connect capabilities across the HR tech landscape. You will shape the solutions behind this future, turning emerging possibilities into practical improvements in how colleagues work, grow, and access support.

You will collaborate with PeopleComms, technology, and enterprise teams to fuse feedback, analytics, human-centered design, and service data

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in HR technology, product management, or related field.
• Strong understanding of HR functions, service delivery, and employee lifecycle events.
• Experience with HR technology, AI-enabled services, or digital service delivery.
• Experience with Jira backlog management and Agile delivery.

Responsibilities

• Lead discovery with Global People Services, COEs, HR SMEs, and business product owners to define business problems and high-value AI opportunities.
• Convert opportunities into clear product decisions, requirements, user stories, and prioritized backlog items.
• Shape product vision and roadmap using research, data, and feasibility considerations.
• Make transparent trade-offs across experience, value, safeguards, and long-term supportability.
• Provide product demos, stakeholder updates, and executive-ready materials explaining capabilities and risks.
• Define outcomes and use adoption, quality, and feedback to communicate impact and adjust priorities.
• Partner to enable release readiness through UAT planning, test scenario validation, and post-release learnings.
• Work with privacy, compliance, risk, security, architecture, and governance teams to embed enterprise requirements.
• Translate product intent into technical requirements with architects and engineers across workflows and integrations.
• Use evidence to iterate, scale, pause, or retire capabilities.
• Influence change readiness, training, and enablement plans with practical guidance.

Skills

HR tech product management

Cross-functional collaboration

Stakeholder influence

User stories & backlog management

Tools

Jira backlog management

Job description

PeopleComms AI Product Lead

The Opportunity

At Manulife, we are creating AI- powered experiences that enable colleagues to thrive and better support our customers. Our PeopleComms Technology North Star is to make every interaction simple, personalized , connected, and intuitive. Realizing this ambition requires the right technology, data, integrations, and intelligence to operate as one connected ecosystem .

As the PeopleComms Ai Product Lead you will help shape the solutions behind this future across the broader PeopleComms experience ecosystem. You will translate colleague and business needs into scalable AI-enabled products, connect capabilities across our people technology landscape, and turn emerging possibilities into practical improvements in how colleagues work, grow, and access support .

You will look beyond initial requests to uncover the underlying need , challenge assumptions, assess trade-offs, and recommend solutions that balance colleague value, business outcomes, enterprise safeguards , and technical feasibility. Success requires curiosity, sound judgment, and the ability to influence decisions through evidence and insight.

Working across PeopleComms , technology, and enterprise partner teams, you will bring together colleague feedback, analytics, Human-Centered Design, operational insights, and emerging trends to shape priorities and continually improve the product .

Your impact will be measured by how effectively strong ideas become valuable, sustainable solutions that evolve with colleague needs .

Key Responsibilities

• Lead discovery with Global People Services, COEs, knowledge owners, HR SMEs, and business product owners to define the business problem, desired colleague experience , and highest-value AI-enabled opportunities .
• Convert approved opportunities into clear product decisions, requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria, and prioritized Jira backlog items.
• Help shape the product vision and roadmap using colleague research, journey insights, service data, business value, dependencies, and delivery feasibility.
• Make transparent product trade-offs across experience, value, operational impact, enterprise safeguards , and long-term supportability .
• Provide product demos, stakeholder updates, and executive-ready materials that explain capabilities, planned enhancements, risks, decisions, and trade-offs.
• Define outcomes and use adoption , quality , feedback, and operational data to communicate impact, identify improvements, and adjust priorities .
• Partner with the AI Solutions BA & Test Lead to enable release readiness through UAT planning, test scenario validation, defect triage, acceptance criteria alignment, and post-release learnings.
• Partner with technology, architecture, cybersecurity, privacy, legal, compliance, risk, and governance teams to build enterprise requirements into product design and delivery without losing sight of the intended colleague experience.
• Translate product intent into technical requirements and support design decisions with architects, engineers, technical teams, and experience owners across workflows, agents, integrations, prompts, knowledge grounding, and feedback mechanisms.
• Use evidence from testing, adoption, quality, and colleague feedback to support decisions to iterate, scale, pause, or retire capabilities.
• Influence communication, change readiness, training, and enablement plans by translating product changes into practical stakeholder guidance.

What You Bring

• 5+ years of progressive experience in HR technology, product management , business analysis, digital employee experience, HR operations enablement, or a related discipline.
• Strong understanding of HR functions, HR service delivery, employee lifecycle events, HR policies, and colleague support channels.
• Experience with HR technology, employee experience platforms, AI-enabled services, or digital service delivery, with the ability to move from ambiguous stakeholder needs to clear problem statements, options, recommendations, requirements, and practical product outcomes.
• Experience with Jira backlog management, story creation, acceptance criteria, backlog refinement, sprint support, and cross-functional delivery coordination.
• Experience facilitating stakeholder workshops, discovery sessions, Human-Centered Design activities, user interviews, or journey mapping.
• Experience navigating regulated enterprise environments and incorporating privacy, compliance, risk, security, architecture, and responsible AI considerations into product decisions .
• Strong product judgment, analytical thinking, problem-solving, documentation, and communication skills, including the ability to evaluate trade-offs, assess downstream impacts, recommend practical solutions, and deliver executive-ready updates and credible product demonstrations.
• Ability to influence without authority and work effectively across diverse, cross-functional teams and time zones.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experie