Technical Program Manager-Health & Wellness

Manulife/John Hancock; Boston (MA); Hybrid; USD 92,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Disability insurance

Life insurance

401(k) with match

Paid time off

Wellness programs

Job summary

John Hancock Insurance in Boston seeks a Technical Program Manager to lead technology-driven initiatives across the life insurance value chain. You will coordinate with Marketing, Distribution, product owners, experience teams, and technology leaders to translate business goals into coordinated delivery plans.

You will guide SDLC, risk management, and cross-functional alignment while emphasizing AI readiness, data integration, regulatory controls, and measurable customer outcomes in a hybrid

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or higher in computer science, information systems, business administration, or related field.
• 3-5 years of technical program management expertise.
• 3+ years delivering technology solutions in the life insurance industry (required).
• 3+ years experience in health, wellness and/or behavioral insurance markets.
• Familiarity with life, annuity or health insurance regulatory concepts and product change cadence.
• PM skills with Agile and SDLC methodologies.
• Understanding of Agile metrics and Scrum processes.
• Experience with AI data integration, API contracts, and production monitoring.

Responsibilities

• Oversee SDLC for initiatives supporting John Hancock Insurance priorities from initiation to post-launch support.
• Deliver technology solutions within scope, budget, schedule, and regulatory requirements.
• Apply technical expertise to implement technology strategies and ensure quality delivery.
• Provide cross-functional leadership and align product architecture with IT service areas.
• Identify and mitigate technical risks impacting project success.
• Collaborate with business leads to align technology components with goals and milestones.
• Foster a culture of innovation and collaboration within the team.

Skills

Project management

Agile methodologies

SDLC

Cross-functional leadership

Communication skills

Risk management

Strategic thinking

Education

Bachelor's degree in computer science / information systems / business

Tools

PM software tools

Job description

The Technical Program Manager (TPM) will lead strategic initiatives that use technology, customer insight, and behavioral science to help John Hancock Insurance create more engaging health and wellness experiences. Partnering with Marketing, Distribution, product owners, experience teams, and technology leaders, the TPM will translate business goals and customer needs into coordinated delivery plans across the life insurance value chain. This role will connect campaign, engagement, product, and platform capabilities; guide development, testing, implementation, and business readiness; and ensure solutions deliver measurable customer and business outcomes on schedule, within budget, and in accordance with regulatory and risk commitments.

Position Responsibilities:

• Initiative management: Overseeing the full Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) for initiatives that support John Hancock Insurance priorities, from initiation and delivery through implementation, stabilization, and post-launch support across policyholder, producer, and operations journeys.
• Initiative Delivery: Responsible and accountable for all aspects of technology delivery, including initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control, closure, and post-initiative evaluation, to meet scope, budget, schedule, regulatory, operational-readiness, and customer commitments.
• Technical expertise: Using their background in understanding software engineering and technology to implement technology strategies and ensure effective software delivery.
• Cross-functional leadership: Providing cross-functional leadership and building alignment for efforts such as product architecture and synchronizing the ask with the IT organization service areas to deliver services.
• Technical risk management: Identifying and mitigating technical risks that could impact project success.
• Value Creation: Works closely with Business Initiative lead to build schedule, milestones, goals, and scope by aligning and incorporating technology aspects from components, solutions, feasibility and delivery.
• People & Culture: Foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, while actively driving alignment and productivity for aligned Team.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or higher in computer science, information systems, business administration, or related field.
• 3-5 years of technical program management expertise in related field.
• 3+ years delivering technology solutions in the life insurance industry (required), with direct exposure to marketing and distribution areas and downstream capabilities (preferred).
• 3+ years experience in the health, wellness and/or behavioral insurance markets and related product development, distribution or marketing.
• Familiarity with life, annuity or health (L&AH) insurance-related regulatory and business concepts and the operational cadence of product changes and partnerships.
• Project management skills with proficiency in project/initiative management software tools and methodologies including Agile and Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).
• Understanding of Agile metrics, scrum, and similar agile methodology to track progress, measure team performance, and identify areas of improvement.
• Working knowledge of the data, integration, and platform capabilities required for AI solutions, including secure access to approved enterprise data, data quality and lineage, retrieval-augmented generation, API integration, prompt and model versioning, evaluation frameworks, observability, and production monitoring.
• Proven track record of delivering complex and large-scale IT solutions, including modernization and integration work (APIs, data pipelines) in regulated environments.
• Working knowledge of insurance regulatory/compliance considerations that impact ability to partner with Compliance/Legal to ensure controls and evidence are in place.
• Experience with test governance (test-driven development (TDD), parallel testing, defect triage with business SMEs, and sign-off processes).
• Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence and negotiate with peers and leaders.
• Strong strategic thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making skills, with the ability to balance short-term and long-term objectives and trade-offs.
• Highly adaptable, flexible, and resilient, with the ability to thrive in a dynamic and fast-paced environment.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Excellent organizational and problem-solving abilities to manage through creative tension.
• Influencing and execution the work without direct management of resources.
• Strong verbal and communication skills with the ability to effectively articulate and communicate technical vision and the ability to translate the outcomes into possibilities, options and execution.
• Comfortable with leading communications including presentations to senior leadership, sponsors and stakeholders for business cases and roadmaps.
• Learns constantly, from both success and failure, and remains open to change/continuous improvement.
• Responds well to ambiguity and works efficiently to clarify situations and outcomes.
• Experience partnering with Marketing and Distribution business areas to translate product and regulatory requirements into technology deliverables with clear acceptance criteria and traceability.
• Ability to design and manage integrations across a technology ecosystem (product/rate data sources, rules engines, document generation, e-signature, CRM/portal, case management), including API contracts, versioning, and backward compatibility.
• Ability to drive non-functional requirements for platform specifications (user experience, high availability, resiliency, observability, and data privacy/security for producer/customer data).
• Excellent problem-solving, organizational, analytical and critical thinking skills including high discretion/judgment in decision making.
• Excellent documentation and communication skills and interpersonal relationship skills including negotiating and relationship management skills with ability to drive achievement of objectives.
• Recognized as an expert within IT specialty and/or business and broader organization with broad-based expertise across area and related functions.
• Ability to interact professionally with all organizational levels.
• Ability to partner with business and technology leaders to identify and prioritize AI opportunities across quoting and illustration, application intake, underwriting and new business, policy issue and delivery, in-force servicing, producer support, customer service, claims, and operations while defining success measures, controls, and adoption plans.
• Ability to manage execution plans to a budget and to provide regular updated financial forecasts for labor and non-labor expenses.
• Ability to develop and integrate metrics into the projects and operations that clearly demonstrate the value of IT to the business (e.g., illustration turnaround time, quote-to-apply conversion, straight-through processing).
• Ability to identify and manage risks associated with initiative delivery and team dynamics, including product launch timelines, regulatory deadlines, and producer-impacting changes.

Salary & Benefits:

• Referenced Salary Location Boston, Massachusetts.
• Working Arrangement Hybrid.
• Salary range is expected to be between $92,475.00 USD - $160,290.00 USD.
• Employees also have the opportunity to participate in incentive programs and earn incentive compensation tied to business and individual performance.
• 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.
• If you are applying for this role outside of the primary location, please contact [e-mail] for the salary range for your location.
• Manulife/John Hancock 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/401(k) savings plans and a global share ownership plan with employer matching contributions) and financial education and counseling resources.
• Our generous paid time off program in the U.S. includes up to 11 paid holidays, 3 personal days, 150 hours of vacation, and 40 hours of sick time (or more where required by law) each year, and we offer the full range of statutory leaves of absence.

Equal Opportunity

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].

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• 2026 Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award Winner
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• #1 Life Insurer for AI Maturity by Evident 2026

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We're proud of our accomplishments and recognition. Recent awards include: 2026 Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award Winner, Manulife Named one of Forbes World's Best Employers 2025, Financial Times World's Best Employers Asia-Pacific 2025, 2026 We've been recognized as one of Canada's Top 100 Employers 2026, #1 Life Insurer for AI Maturity by Evident 2026. To receive our latest job opportunities directly to your inbox, create an account or sign in and navigate to the 'Job Alerts' section located in the top right corner of the page. From there, you can sign up to receive job alerts. Our ambition is to be the number one choice for customers. Learn more at https://www.manulife.com/.