Senior Data & AI Solution Architect

The Senior Data & AI Solution Architect is accountable for designing and governing end-to-end data and AI solutions that translate business requirements into secure scalable and production-ready architectures. This role operates as the hands-on architecture authority across the solution lifecycle driving design decisions defining solution blueprints resolving trade-offs and guiding engineering and data science teams through implementation. The architect ensures solutions are aligned with enterprise standards regulatory expectations and operational readiness while enabling the delivery of modern data platforms analytics and AI/GenAI use cases.

Position Responsibilities:
Solution Architecture Ownership

• Design end-to-end data and AI solutions (data pipelines analytics ML/GenAI use cases).
• Produce HLDs/LLDs define NFRs (scalability performance security cost).
  

Architecture Decisioning

• Lead design decisions and trade-offs (e.g. batch vs streaming cost vs performance).
• Review and approve solution designs aligned with enterprise standards.
  

Delivery & Implementation Support

• Guide engineering and data science teams during build and deployment.
• Resolve technical blockers and ensure production readiness.
  

Applied Data & AI Patterns

• Implement patterns for ingestion lakehouse ML pipelines and GenAI (RAG vector search).
• Enforce MLOps/LLMOps (versioning evaluation monitoring).
  

Azure Solution Design

• Architect solutions leveraging Azure (ADLS Databricks Synapse/Fabric Azure ML/OpenAI).
• Define CI/CD and IaC-based deployment patterns.
  

Integration & Data Governance

• Design API data contracts and event-driven architectures.
• Ensure data quality lineage and interoperability.
  

Security & Responsible AI

• Embed security privacy and AI governance controls (model risk guardrails).

Operational Readiness

• Define monitoring observability and cost optimization strategies.

Required Qualifications:

• 5 years of experience in data/analytics architecture with 3 years designing AI/ML solutions in production (GenAI experience strongly preferred).
• Bachelors degree in computer science Engineering Information Systems Data/AI or a related field. Masters degree preferred.
• Proven experience architecting on Azure across data and AI services (e.g. Data Lake/Databricks/Synapse/Fabric as applicable; Azure AI services) ideally within financial services and/or insurance.
• Strong understanding of data governance data modeling integration metadata management and privacy/security controls; able to extend these practices to AI/GenAI governance.
• Strong architecture leadership skills: drive decisions manage trade-offs and influence across teams while maintaining delivery focus.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills with the ability to translate complex data/AI concepts for technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience with modern engineering practices (IaC CI/CD) and with MLOps/LLMOps concepts such as model/prompt versioning evaluation monitoring and deployment patterns.
• Relevant certifications in Azure (Architecture/Data/AI) are a plus.

Preferred Qualifications:
Hands-on experience implementing:

• RAG architectures
• Vector databases / semantic search
• Prompt orchestration frameworks

Experience with:

• Lakehouse architectures and data products
• Domain-driven/data mesh environments

Familiarity with:

• Model risk management
• Responsible AI frameworks in regulated industries
• Azure certifications (Solutions Architect Data Engineer AI Engineer).

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.

#LI-Hybrid

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.