Hybrid Director, Operations Strategy – Transformation

at Manulife

• Job title: Director, Operations Strategy – Transformation
• Job type: Full Time
• Experience level: Lead
• Salary: CA$136,290 - CA$186,290 per year
• Degree requirement: Bachelor's Degree
• Location requirements: Hybrid, Waterloo, Canada

About the role

• Director of Operations Strategy leading back-office transformation initiatives for Canadian Group Benefits business. Collaborating across teams and translating strategy into measurable outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Lead a small, high-performing team in delivering initiatives of varying scale and strategic importance
• Ensure initiatives deliver intended business outcomes through direct accountability and influence
• Develop integrated initiative roadmaps, ensuring success metrics align with business priorities
• Lead milestone planning, impact reviews, budgeting, and governance activities
• Prioritize strategies and make clear recommendations to senior leadership
• Oversee change management activities to enable successful adoption of transformational initiatives
• Drive timely decisions, actions, and issue resolution
• Monitor execution progress, provide visibility into risks and milestones, and ensure accountability to timelines
• Track initiative outcomes to ensure benefits and financial commitments are realized
• Design effective performance-tracking approaches to keep teams aligned and on track
• Facilitate annual strategy development and offsite leadership sessions
• Support and enhance the overall Strategic Planning Process across Operations
• Develop compelling executive-level presentations and business cases that clearly articulate insights, recommendations, and outcomes
• Present initiative performance and strategic insights to senior stakeholders, enabling clear understanding and informed decisions
• Drive alignment across stakeholders and enable decision-making by identifying trade-offs and influencing outcomes when necessary
• Motivate, mentor, and develop both direct and indirect team members
• Act as a change agent who builds awareness, engagement, and commitment to the transformation agenda

Requirements

• 10+ years of combined education and experience in strategy roles within large multinational organizations, ideally in financial services
• Experience leading small teams and navigating complex, fast-moving, and ambiguous environments
• Extensive experience in strategic planning, execution, and reporting
• Strong analytical skills and comfort with financial and quantitative analysis
• Exceptional PowerPoint and storytelling capabilities
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior leaders and drive decisions to implementation
• A reputation for being practical, solutions-oriented, and dependable in delivery
• Strong facilitation and communication skills
• High attention to detail and commitment to delivering executive-ready work
• Strong problem-solving abilities informed by research, structured thinking, and thoughtful analysis
• Proven experience leading projects and managing stakeholders effectively
• Strong business acumen, customer focus, and strategic execution capability
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in diverse teams
• Experience in top-tier consulting, investment banking, or corporate strategy roles is an asset

Benefits

• health, dental, mental health, vision, short- and long-term disability, life and AD&D insurance coverage
• adoption/surrogacy and wellness benefits
• employee/family assistance plans
• retirement savings plans (including pension and a global share ownership plan with employer matching contributions)
• financial education and counseling resources
• generous paid time off program in Canada (includes holidays, vacation, personal, and sick days, and statutory leaves of absence)