Technical Program Manager-Health & Wellness

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

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

401(k) retirement plans

Paid time off

Job summary

John Hancock is seeking a Technical Program Manager to lead strategic technology initiatives across the life insurance value chain. You will partner with Marketing, Distribution, product owners, experience teams, and technology leaders to translate business goals into coordinated delivery plans, guiding development, testing, and readiness for measurable outcomes.

The role emphasizes cross-functional leadership, risk management, and delivering complex IT solutions in a regulated environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or higher in computer science, information systems, business administration, or related field.
• 3-5 years of technical program management experience in related field.
• 3+ years delivering technology solutions in life insurance with marketing/distribution exposure.
• 3+ years in health/wellness/behavioral insurance markets and product development.

Responsibilities

• Oversee SDLC for initiatives supporting John Hancock Insurance priorities.
• Lead delivery planning, execution, monitoring, and post-launch evaluation to meet scope, schedule, and regulatory commitments.
• Provide cross-functional leadership and align IT services to deliver impactful technology solutions.
• Identify and mitigate technical risks affecting project success.
• Collaborate with marketing, product, and experience teams to translate business goals into delivery plans.

Skills

Bachelor's degree or higher in CS/IS/B

TPM experience (3-5 yrs)

Agile methodologies

SDLC expertise

Insurance domain knowledge

Stakeholder management

Cross-functional leadership

Regulatory/compliance awareness

APIs & data integration

Education

Bachelor's degree or higher in CS/IS/Business

Tools

PM software

Agile tooling

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&A) 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.

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 global team, we’ll support you in shaping the future you want to see

The role being advertised is an existing vacancy.

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 https://www.manulife.com/en/about/our-story.html.

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

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.

We use data and analytics technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), and automated processing tools, to analyze and process the information you provide to us or third parties in the application process. For more information, please refer to our personal information collection statement.

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Company: John Hancock Life Insurance Company (U.S.A.)