Associate Director, Business Transformation

We are seeking an Associate Director / Senior Manager, Payments to lead business analysis for our payments transformation agenda and manage a small team of Business Analysts. This role will drive the modernization of our collections and payouts, accelerate digital payment adoption, and strengthen risk, control, and operational efficiency across customer, agent, and operations journeys.

The successful candidate will work closely with Business, IT, Operations, Risk, Finance, Distribution, and external banking / payment partners. You will be accountable for requirements quality, solution design integrity, and end‑to‑end payment journey excellence, while coaching and developing BA talent in the payments domain.

Position Responsibilities:

1. Leadership & People Management

• Lead and manage a team of Business Analysts focused on payments, including work allocation, coaching, performance feedback, and skills development.

• Set analysis standards and best practices for payment initiatives (templates, modelling, documentation, review checklists).

• Provide thought leadership on payment strategy and digital adoption.

• Act as an escalation point for complex requirements, design decisions, and cross‑team dependencies.

2. Payments Business Analysis & Solution Design

• Lead end‑to‑end business analysis for payment initiatives across collections, payouts, refunds, digital wallets, bank transfers, cards, and real‑time payments.

• Translate business objectives into clear, testable requirements (business requirements, functional specifications, user stories, process flows, acceptance criteria).

• Design and optimize customer and agent payment journeys (e.g. premium payments, claims payouts, surrenders, loans, commissions, incentives, and premium refunds).

• Ensure payment solution designs align with payment hierarchy and digital payout strategies.

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3. Platform & Integration Ownership (Business Perspective)

• Provide business leadership on payment platform evolution and integrations with banks and payment service providers.

• Shape business requirements for multi‑currency and cross‑border payments, including efficient local foreign currency payouts.

• Oversee definition and governance of payment data and codes required for reporting, reconciliation, risk, and finance.

• Work with architecture and technology teams to ensure solutions are scalable, resilient, and compliant with enterprise standards.

4. Risk, Compliance, and Controls in Payments

• Partner with Risk, Compliance, Legal, and Finance to ensure payment solutions adhere to regulatory and internal policy requirements (e.g. AML, sanctions, KYC, data privacy, conduct).

• Define and document controls, validations, and exception handling for payment journeys, including monitoring and reconciliation needs.

• Champion initiatives to reduce cheque dependency, increase digital payouts

5. UAT Leadership

• Lead User Acceptance Testing (UAT) for payment initiatives, ensuring end‑to‑end journeys and critical business scenarios are clearly defined and thoroughly tested.

• Work closely with QA and Testing teams to enhance test coverage, scenario depth, and early defect detection across payment flows.

• Champion shift‑left practices by reviewing requirements and designs for testability, completeness, and alignment with agreed quality standards.

6. Stakeholder Management & Delivery Governance

• Facilitate and lead workshops with Business, IT, Operations, Finance, Distribution, Contact Centers, and external banks/PSPs to shape and refine payment solutions.

• Represent the payments domain in steering committees, design authorities, and release planning as needed.

• Support Agile delivery (e.g. backlog prioritization, sprint planning, reviews) and act as a senior business representative for payment scope.

• Provide status updates, risk/issue escalation, and decision support to senior management on payments initiatives.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Information Systems, IT, Finance, or related discipline.

• 10+ years of Business Analysis experience in financial services, with substantial exposure to payments, cash management, or collections & disbursements.

• At least 3–5 years in a leadership or people management role, preferably leading Business Analysts or functional teams.

• Strong understanding of payment processes and journeys, including premium collection, claims payout, policy surrender, loan disbursement, commissions, incentives, and refunds.

• Professional certifications in Business Analysis, Agile, Payments, or Insurance are advantageous.

Preferred Skills & Experience:

• Proven ability to lead complex, cross‑functional payment initiatives from concept through to implementation.

• Excellent analytical, problem‑solving, and critical‑thinking skills

• Excellent requirements engineering skills with demonstrated focus on clarity, testability, and traceability.

• Solid technical literacy (systems integration concepts, data models, APIs/events) and comfort working with architects and engineers.

• Experience working closely with QA/Testing teams, particularly on integration‑heavy or high‑risk payment journeys.

• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, able to influence and align diverse business and technical stakeholders.

• Experience in Agile / Scrum environments and familiarity with backlog management tools such as JIRA / Confluence

• Exposure to data migration and reconciliation in finance or payments contexts is a plus.

• Proficiency in English and Chinese (both written and spoken) is required. Ability to communicate effectively in Mandarin is also required to support cross‑market collaboration.

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.

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 [email protected].