Director, AI

Manulife John Hancock; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 210,000 - 320,000; Full time

Job summary

Manulife John Hancock seeks a Director of AI to lead an AI team supporting Long Term Care initiatives. The role combines technical depth with business strategy, guiding engineers and data scientists to build scalable AI and GenAI solutions that deliver measurable business impact.

You will manage a team responsible for modeling, deployment, governance, and collaboration with risk, compliance, and executives. Strong leadership is essential.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in AI, data science, ML, analytics, software eng., or related fields.
• 3+ years in leading or managing technical teams.
• Hands-on background as individual contributor in AI or data science.
• Proven experience delivering AI/ML solutions from concept to production.
• Strong experience with traditional data science and predictive analytics.
• Deep knowledge of GenAI/LLMs, prompt engineering, RAG, embeddings, guardrails.
• Advanced programming in Python and SQL.
• Experience with cloud platforms, preferably Azure.

Responsibilities

• Lead AI, ML, and GenAI solution delivery to support LTC business strategy.
• Manage and develop a team of AI Engineers and Data Scientists.
• Own complex AI initiatives from problem definition to deployment and value measurement.
• Partner with business leaders to identify high-value AI opportunities.
• Provide technical leadership across data science, predictive modeling, and production AI engineering.
• Guide scalable, modular AI pipelines and model governance practices.
• Oversee deployment of production AI services using modern cloud and DevOps practices.
• Ensure AI solutions are secure, scalable, and aligned with risk and compliance.

Skills

AI leadership

Team management

GenAI & LLMs

Python

SQL

Azure cloud

MLOps

Model governance

Education

Bachelor's degree in a technical field

Tools

Azure OpenAI

Databricks

Job description

The Director, Artificial Intelligence will lead an AI team supporting the Long Term Care (LTC) program in John Hancock and Manulife . This role is accountable for building and scaling AI solutions that improve business processes, generate strategic insights, and enable measurable impact across the organization.

This is a leadership role that requires a strong combination of technical depth, business judgment, people leadership, and delivery excellence . The Director will manage a team of AI Engineers, Data Scientists, and technical professionals responsible for designing, developing, deploying, and maintaining production-grade AI and machine learning solutions.

The ideal candidate is passionate about AI, a continuous learner, and someone who actively follows the latest trends in AI, GenAI, LLMs, machine learning, data science, software engineering, and cloud technologies . The candidate should have strong hands-on experience as an individual contributor in AI or data science and be able to guide teams through complex technical decisions. This includes experience across both traditional predictive analytics, machine learning , and MLOps as well as newer areas such as GenAI, LLMs, RAG, prompt orchestration, guardrails, LLMOps .

The Director will work closely with business, technology, risk, compliance, operations, and executive stakeholders to identify opportunities, shape strategy, deliver high-quality AI solutions, and communicate impact in clear business terms.

Position Responsibilities:

• Lead the development and delivery of AI, ML, and GenAI solutions that support the Long Term Care business strategy in John Hancock and Manulife.
• Manage and develop a team of AI Engineers, Data Scientists, and technical professionals, providing coaching, technical guidance, performance management, and career development.
• Own complex AI initiatives from business problem definition through solution design, model development, engineering, deployment, adoption, and value measurement.
• Partner with business leaders and stakeholders to identify high-value AI opportunities, translate business needs into technical solutions, and ensure AI products deliver measurable outcomes.
• Provide technical leadership across traditional data science, predictive modeling, machine learning, GenAI, LLMs, and production AI engineering.
• Guide the team in building modular, scalable, reusable AI and GenAI pipelines, including model development, feature engineering, model registries, automated retraining, and production deployment practices.
• Oversee the deployment of production-grade AI services using modern cloud, MLOps, DevOps, and software engineering practices, including containerization, CI/CD, monitoring, observability, and model governance.
• Ensure AI solutions are reliable, secure, scalable, cost-effective, well-documented, and aligned with enterprise architecture, security, risk, and compliance standards.
• Lead the evaluation and adoption of GenAI patterns and tools, including LLMs, RAG, vector search, prompt engineering, guardrails, Azure OpenAI, Databricks, and internal AI platforms.
• Drive strong engineering and model management practices, including testing, monitoring, model performance tracking, drift detection, challenger testing, and continuous improvement.
• Communicate AI strategy, delivery progress, risks, business value, and model impact to senior leaders and cross-functional partners in a clear and practical way.
• Build strong partnerships across business, technology, data, security, risk, compliance, and operations teams to support adoption and long-term success.
• Stay current with advances in AI, GenAI, data science, engineering, cloud platforms, and emerging technology, and bring practical innovation into the team's roadmap.
• Support recruitment, onboarding, and development of strong AI, data science, and engineering talent.

Required Qualifications:

• 8+ years of experience in AI, data science, machine learning, analytics, software engineering, or related technical fields.
• 3+ years of experience leading or managing technical teams, including Data Scientists, AI Engineers, Machine Learning Engineers, or similar roles.
• Strong hands-on background as an individual contributor in AI, data science, machine learning, or AI engineering.
• Proven experience delivering AI or ML solutions from concept to production, including business problem framing, model development, deployment, monitoring, and value measurement.
• Strong experience with traditional data science and predictive analytics, including supervised learning, model validation, performance measurement, and business interpretation of model outputs.
• Strong knowledge of GenAI and LLM-based solution patterns, including prompt engineering, RAG, embeddings, vector databases, guardrails, model evaluation, and responsible AI practices.
• Advanced programming experience in Python and SQL.
• Experience with cloud platforms, preferably Azure, and modern AI/ML platforms such as Azure