Director, AI Product & Business Partner - Distribution

Manulife John Hancock; Hong Kong; On-site; HKD 1,200,000 - 2,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Manulife John Hancock seeks a Director of AI Product & Business Partner for Distribution to lead the AI domain, strategy, and product ownership. You will drive end-to-end AI initiatives, partner with senior Distribution leaders, and ensure AI solutions are embedded into sales and advisor workflows.

You will oversee governance, risk, and value realization while guiding a high-performing squad of data scientists and engineers to deliver measurable business outcomes.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or higher in Statistics, Mathematics, CS/Engineering, Economics, or related.
• Master’s degree preferred for senior leadership.
• 10+ years in AI, data science, analytics, or digital product management with proven impact.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Distribution Domain Squad and act as the AI partner to Distribution leadership.
• Develop and maintain the AI/analytics roadmap aligned with business strategy and growth.
• Identify and sponsor high-value AI use cases to improve sales productivity and distribution performance.
• Own the Distribution AI product portfolio and delivery from ideation to adoption.
• Apply advanced analytics and Generative AI to sales, lead gen, segmentation, and personalization.
• Ensure governance, risk management, and compliant AI practices across the lifecycle.
• Lead a cross-functional squad, advocate data-driven decision making, and drive business value.

Skills

AI strategy

Stakeholder management

Cross-functional leadership

Python

SQL

Generative AI

Education

Bachelor's degree in a STEM/analytics field

Master's degree preferred

Tools

Python

SQL

Big data platforms

Job description

Director, AI Product & Business Partner - Distribution

Position Responsibilities:

1. Domain Leadership & Strategy

Lead the Distribution Domain Squad and act as the primary AI partner to Distribution leadership.

Develop and maintain the Distribution AI and analytics roadmap aligned with business strategy and growth objectives.

Identify, prioritize, and sponsor high-value AI and analytics use cases that improve sales productivity, lead generation, customer engagement, advisor effectiveness, and distribution performance.

Partner with senior business stakeholders to define opportunities, investment priorities, success metrics, and expected business outcomes.

Establish a culture of data-driven decision making across Distribution functions.

2. Business Partnership

Build strong relationships with Distribution executives, sales leaders, and channel heads.

Translate business challenges into AI and analytics opportunities with clear value realization plans.

Act as a trusted advisor to business leaders on AI, advanced analytics, Generative AI, and emerging technologies.

Drive executive-level discussions on AI strategy, prioritization, risks, and expected business impact.

3. AI Product Ownership & Value Realization

Own the Distribution AI product portfolio and roadmap.

Lead end-to-end delivery of AI and analytics initiatives from opportunity identification through deployment and business adoption.

Work closely with business and technology stakeholders to define product vision, requirements, success metrics, and delivery priorities.

Ensure solutions are embedded into business processes and decision-making workflows.

Define and track KPIs to measure adoption, business value, productivity gains, revenue uplift, and customer impact.

Drive realization of tangible business benefits and communicate outcomes to senior management.

4. Advanced Analytics & AI Solutions

Apply advanced analytics, machine learning, and Generative AI to address Distribution business challenges, including:

• Sales productivity and advisor effectiveness
• Lead generation and propensity modelling
• Customer segmentation and personalization
• Cross-sell and upsell opportunities
• Customer retention and persistency improvement
• Distribution performance management
• AI-powered sales and advisor assistants

Evaluate emerging AI capabilities and identify opportunities to scale successful solutions across the enterprise.

5. Governance & Risk Management

Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements, model governance standards, responsible AI principles, and enterprise AI controls.

Partner with Risk, Compliance, Legal, and Technology teams to ensure appropriate oversight throughout the AI solution lifecycle.

Support model monitoring, performance tracking, and ongoing governance activities.

6. Squad Leadership

Lead a Distribution Domain Squad comprising data scientists and AI engineers, together with relevant cross-functional delivery partners, to deliver measurable business outcomes.

Drive squad planning, prioritization, and execution against the Distribution AI roadmap.

Foster close partnership with Distribution leadership and cross-functional stakeholders to accelerate adoption of AI solutions.

Promote a culture of customer focus, business value realization, and continuous improvement.

Develop squad capabilities in AI, analytics, and business consulting while creating a high-performing delivery environment.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Engineering, Actuarial Science, Economics, Business Analytics, or a related discipline.
• Master's degree preferred.
• 10+ years of experience in AI, data science, advanced analytics, digital product management, or related fields.
• Proven track record of partnering with senior business leaders and influencing strategic decisions.
• Experience leading cross-functional teams and delivering business transformation initiatives.
• Demonstrated success delivering AI, analytics, or digital products that generated measurable business outcomes.
• Previous experience within life insurance, wealth management, banking, or financial services strongly preferred.
• Strong understanding of insurance distribution channels, sales management, and customer acquisition strategies preferred.
• Strong knowledge of machine learning, predictive analytics, optimization techniques, and statistical modelling.
• Experience with Generative AI, LLMs, AI agents, and enterprise AI solutions.
• Working knowledge of Python, SQL, and modern analytics platforms.
• Experience working with large-scale enterprise data environments.
• Strong understanding of AI governance, model risk management, and responsible AI practices.
• Ability to translate technical concepts into business language for executive audiences.
• Excellent business acumen with a demonstrated ability to connect AI investments to business outcomes.
• Strategic thinking and commercial acumen.
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills.
• Excellent communication