Lead Ai Design System Designer

As Lead AI Design Systems Designer on the Global Design System team at Manulife, you will play a key role in the Global Design System team responsible for scaling and evolving GEM, Manulife's enterprise-wide design system, which serves multiple business units across Canada, Asia, and the US. GEM enables consistency, efficiency, accessibility, and innovation across Manulife's public, secure, and mobile digital experiences. You will partner closely with design, engineering, and product teams across regions to advance the AI enablement layer that makes GEM the default system for every AI-assisted design and development workflow.

This role requires deep expertise in enterprise design systems, AI tooling integration, design tokens, machine-readable documentation, and the technical and organizational complexities of embedding a design system into the fabric of a global enterprise. You will align with the GDS Core team and the broader Digital Storefront program, helping to shape, establish, and continuously improve the governance and ways of working that guide GEM. The ideal candidate has successfully worked on enterprise-wide design systems and understands how to make those systems machine-readable, governable, and adoptable at scale through emerging AI tooling.

AI tooling is now the fastest-growing channel for design system adoption. When a designer prompts Figma's agent or a developer prompts a coding assistant, the design system they receive by default is the one that wins.

Job Requirements:

•    5+ years of experience building and scaling design systems in complex, multi-product, or multi-brand enterprise environments, preferably within financial services, insurance, or other regulated industries.
•    Advanced Figma architecture expertise: variables, complex component structures, design tokens (including Tokens Studio), and the Figma API. Candidates must understand how to structure Figma files not just for designers, but for programmatic extraction by AI agents and engineering pipelines.
•    Applied AI experience, not just familiarity: LLMs, MCP server integration, and agentic coding environments such as Claude Code or Cursor. Hands-on experience with Figma MCP, Code Connect, DTCG tokens, and Style Dictionary.
•    Experience with JSON schema design, component metadata architecture, and machine-readable documentation formats. Prior work making design system artifacts consumable by AI systems and engineering pipelines is a significant advantage.
•    Proven track record of working on enterprise-wide design systems within large, global organizations, balancing standardization with regional and local adaptation.
•    Comfort bridging design and code: HTML/CSS, design token pipelines, and version control (Git). Experience establishing shared governance models with frontend engineering and delivering design systems through enterprise CMS platforms such as AEM is a significant advantage.
•    Deep working knowledge of WCAG 2.2 and AODA, with experience embedding accessibility into system foundations rather than auditing it after the fact.
•    Experience developing design principles and heuristics structured for consumption by AI systems, or direct familiarity with Figma's AI Models practice and related agentic design tooling.
•    Experience designing conversational or agent-based experiences, or strong instincts for how people ask systems questions.
•    Experience working in complex matrixed organizations with multiple business units and partners across geographies and time zones.
•    Familiarity with Agile, Lean UX, and enterprise digital delivery models.
•    Exceptional stakeholder management and influence skills — able to align design, engineering, product, and platform teams with differing priorities across regions.

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

Montreal, QuebecHybrid

Salary range is expected to be between

$88,800.00 CAD - $138,800.00 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.