Director, Design - Global Design System
Director, Design - Global Design System
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Job Description
The Opportunity
As Director Design Global Design System at Manulife you will play a key leadership role in a Global Design System team responsible for shaping scaling and driving adoption of an enterprisewide design system that serves multiple business units across Canada Asia and the US. This system will enable consistency efficiency accessibility and innovation across Manulifes public secure and mobile digital experiences. You will partner closely with design engineering and product teams across regions to define the visual language interaction patterns and usability guidelines that ensure a seamless highquality experience for millions of users.
This is a pivotal leadership role within Manulifes Global Design System team requiring deep expertise in enterprise design systems accessibility and design operations. You will champion human centered design visual and interaction standards and design governance driving system adoption and enabling teams to work more efficiently and creatively. The ideal candidate has successfully led enterprisewide design systems and understands the organizational technical and cultural complexities of embedding a design system into the fabric of a global enterprise.
Responsibilities:
Global Design System Strategy & Leadership
Define and implement a scalable enterprisegrade design system that supports Manulifes digital transformation across all regions advocating for design excellence accessibility and usability.
Define the visual language interaction patterns and usability guidelines that ensure a highquality experience for millions of users.
Balance global standardization with regional flexibility ensuring usability across diverse markets and regulatory landscapes.
Partner with executive leadership product and engineering teams to align the design system with business priorities.
Governance Adoption & Enablement
Establish governance models contribution frameworks and adoption strategies to ensure system sustainability.
Lead crossfunctional alignment ensuring the design system is embedded into product design workflows across global teams.
Define design principles usage guidelines and best practices to ensure consistency and scalability.
Optimize for multilingual multicultural and multiregulatory challenges ensuring designs can be localized and adapted without breaking system integrity.
Facilitate design reviews audits and contribution models ensuring highquality system evolution and usage.
Establish and oversee training onboarding and community engagement initiatives to drive system adoption across Manulifes digital teams.
Develop and track KPIs that measure adoption efficiency gains and business impact.
CrossFunctional Leadership & Stakeholder Influence
Serve as a primary design system advocate navigating organizational complexity to influence decisionmaking at all levels.
Partner with regional design leads to ensure the system meets regional needs while maintaining overall consistency.
Cultivate collaboration between design engineering and product management teams ensuring smooth integration into digital workflows.
Build and cultivate a global design system community mentoring teams on best practices and fostering a culture of design system ownership.
Technical & Operational Execution
Own the evolution of design tooling documentation and workflows ensuring sflawlessintegration enterprise platforms (Figma Storybook React Angular etc).
Work closely with engineering leadership to ensure designtocode consistency accessibility compliance (WCAG) and performance optimization.
Maintain a structured backlog of design system updates prioritizing enhancements based on business needs and user feedback.
Identify and handle external partnerships and vendors as needed to support system expansion.
What motivates you
You obsess about customers listen engage and act for their benefit.
You think big with curiosity to discover ways to use your agile approach and enable business outcomes.
You thrive in teams and enjoy getting things done together.
You take ownership and build solutions focusing on what matters.
You do what is right work with integrity and speak up.
You share your humanity helping us build a diverse and inclusive work environment for everyone.
What we are looking for
- 10 years of experience in UX leadership design systems or enterprise product design preferably within a global enterprise or multijurisdictional organization.
- Consistent track record of building and scaling enterprise design systems within large global organizations balancing standardization with regional/local adaptation.
- Deep expertise in UI/UX best practices accessibility (WCAG) design systems and designtodevelopment collaboration.
- Experience with governance models adoption strategies and design system operations.
- Experience working in complex matrixed organizations with multiple business units and partners.
- Exceptional collaborator management influence and communication skills able to influence senior collaborators drive alignment and advocate for design at an executive level.
- Handson experience with enterprise design tools and frameworks (Figma Storybook React Angular JIRA Confluence etc.).
- Familiarity with Agile Lean UX and enterprise digital delivery models.
- Experience navigating multilingual multicultural and regulatory complexities in global design and content.
What can we offer you
A competitive salary and benefits packages.
A growth trajectory that extends upward and outward encouraging you to follow your passions and learn new skills.
A focus on growing your career path with us.
Flexible work policies and strong worklife balance.
Professional development and leadership opportunities.
Our commitment to you
Valuesfirst culture
We lead with our Values every day and bring them to life together.
Boundless opportunity
We create opportunities to learn and grow at every stage of your career.
Continuous innovation
We invite you to help redefine the future of financial services.
Delivering the promise of Diversity Equity and Inclusion
We foster an inclusive workplace where everyone thrives.
Championing Corporate Citizenship
We build a business that benefits all collaborators and has a positive social and environmental impact.
#LIHybrid
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 pregnancyrelated 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 .
Primary Location
Working Arrangement
Salary range is expected to be between
$105750.00 CAD $190350.00 CADIf you are applying for this role outside of the primary location please contact for the salary range for your location. The actual salary will vary depending on local market conditions geography and relevant jobrelated factors such as knowledge skills qualifications experience and education/training. Employees also have the opportunity to participate in incentive programs and earn incentive compensation tied to business and individual performance.
Manulife offers eligible employees a wide array of customizable benefits including health dental mental health vision short and longterm 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 paid time off provisions.
Required Experience:
Exec
Employment Type
Full-Time
