Digital Product Owner

As a Product Owner within the Individual Insurance Digital Delivery team, you will work closely with a team of Product Owners, Delivery Teams and Business partners to deliver products, services and capabilities to our customers and advisors.  This is a fast paced, changing environment where every day brings something new, and innovative ideas are encouraged.  Your contributions will help evolve the customers and advisor experience through simplified and intuitive design, putting the client’s needs first by providing the right tools and solutions to facilitate a positive digital experience.  

In our quest to enhance and deliver new digital and self-service capabilities for our customers and advisors, your collaborative nature will bring together internal players from various functions including, but not limited to Technology, Sales, Marketing, Compliance and Operations.  You possess an excellent balance of analytical, communication, and leadership skills and are comfortable challenging others to continually improve our offering. 

As a Product Owner, you will be responsible for: 

• planning and delivery of products, services and capabilities for features/epics 

• identifying, decomposing, refining and prioritizing user stories while eliciting requirements from business partners and clearly identifying acceptance criteria, assumptions, risks and dependencies 

• providing clarity on the ‘What’ and ‘Why’ of customer & business needs to the delivery squad 

• conducting analysis and incorporate findings, feedback and insights from customer and business research 

• leading the acceptance testing in conjunction with business partners 

• collaborating with internal and external stakeholders to ensure successful implementation of features 

• monitoring the outcomes and experience of launched features and iterate where required 

• support, advise and mentor more junior product owners 

Competencies for the role 

• 3-5 years of relevant work experience 

• Experience working in the Life & Living Benefits Insurance industry is an asset

• In-depth knowledge of Scrum and Agile Software Development Methodology and working knowledge of product development architecture 

• Proficiency in the use of analytic and agile tools like Confluence, JIRA, etc. 

• Managing the product backlog and prioritizing them based on changing requirements, developing user stories

• Supporting all stages of product creation including design and development 

• Monitoring and evaluating product progress at each stage of the process 

• Scheduling and facilitating scrum events, meetings, and decision-making processes 

• Strong organizational and problem-solving skills while working in a face-paced environment with changing priorities 

• Excellent verbal & written communication skills including the ability to clearly articulate business needs to technical resources 

• Ability to influence and resolve conflict without having direct authority; confidence to raise issues as required 

• Ability to foster positive relationships and effectively lead various sized groups to attain collaborative and innovative solutions 

• Proactively identify potential problems to prevent unfavorable outcomes 

• Adaptable and great aptitude for change; reprioritize conflicting workloads and deliverables 

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 [email protected].

Referenced Salary Location

Waterloo, OntarioHybrid

Salary range is expected to be between

$70,500.00 CAD - $117,500.00 CAD

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 [email protected] for the salary range for your location.

Manulife 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 and a global share ownership plan with employer matching contributions) and financial education and counseling resources. Our generous paid time off program in Canada includes holidays, vacation, personal, and sick days, and we offer the full range of statutory leaves of absence. If you are applying for this role in the U.S., please contact [email protected] for more information about U.S.-specific paid time off provisions.

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.