Engagement & Strategic Programs Leader

At Manulife we are focused on helping people make decisions easier and lives better and that starts with creating meaningful experiences for our employees and leaders. As the Engagement & Strategic Programs Leader you will help shape leadership connection employee engagement and capability-building across Retirement Operations. Reporting to the Director Learning & Change you will lead high-impact programs leadership events learning initiatives and strategic communications that bring business priorities to life. This is an opportunity to influence how we connect communicate and build future-ready capabilities across the organization.

Position Responsibilities

• Lead the planning and delivery of high-impact employee engagement leadership connection and development initiatives including Town Halls Employee Briefs People Leader AMAs and key announcements.
• Own the strategy planning and execution of Director-level engagement and development programs including Director communications quarterly calls and virtual/in-person conferences.
• Design innovative employee and leadership experiences that strengthen alignment culture and connection across the organization.
• Oversee future-skilling and capability-building programs including Power Up AI adoption initiatives and integration with broader Learning & Development programs.
• Partner with senior leaders to shape strategic messaging executive presentations communications and engagement content across priority forums and channels.
• Lead end-to-end program management for complex leadership and employee programs including governance timelines dependencies risks decision points and delivery oversight.
• Define outcomes success measures and practical measurement approaches to assess program effectiveness participant experience adoption and business impact.
• Lead coach and develop the team responsible for content development coordination and program execution while driving quality consistency continuous improvement and AI-enabled efficiency.

Required Qualifications

• Proven experience building leading and executing on communications strategies and complex employee programs involving multiple stakeholders competing priorities dependencies risks and executive-level deliverables.
• Strong project and program management capabilities including planning governance milestone tracking risk and issue management and delivery oversight.
• Demonstrated ability to define program benefits outcomes and success measures and to use results and insights to evaluate effectiveness and guide continuous improvement.
• Strong stakeholder management skills with demonstrated success partnering with senior leaders.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills including executive-level presentation and content development.
• Familiarity with AI-enabled tools and emerging technologies that support communications learning or employee experience.
• Experience designing and delivering leadership programs conferences and enterprise engagement initiatives for Director-level or executive audiences.
• Exposure to organizational change transformation or capability-building programs.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in one or more relevant areas such as leadership development learning and development employee engagement internal communications organizational effectiveness or transformation.
• Strategic thinker with the ability to connect programs communications and employee experiences to broader business priorities and outcomes.
• Strong relationship builder who can earn trust influence effectively and build credibility with senior leaders stakeholders and cross-functional partners.
• Confident communicator and storyteller with the ability to translate complex priorities into clear engaging and actionable messaging.
• Highly organized and execution-focused with the ability to manage multiple priorities move work forward and deliver high-quality outcomes in a fast-paced environment.
• Curious innovative and hands-on with a continuous improvement mindset and a willingness to modernize ways of working through new tools approaches and technology.

When you join our team:

• Well empower you to learn and grow the career you want.
• Well recognize and support you in a flexible environment where well-being and inclusion are more than just words.
• As part of our global team well 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 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 .

Referenced Salary Location

Salary range is expected to be between

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 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 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.