Director, Experience & Content Design

Manulife • Toronto, ON

2d • CA$125,100 - CA$175,100 • Hybrid

About The Position

Are you ready to elevate digital experiences to new heights and lead a team of hard-working designers in crafting exceptional user experiences? Join our dynamic and innovative team as a Director of Experience & Content Design. We are seeking a visionary, collaborative, and enterprise minded Digital Experience leader to shape the future state user experience of our digital properties. This role will champion best in class UX practices, contribute to our design system, elevate our content strategy, and partner across the organization to deliver cohesive, user-centric digital experiences. At Manulife, we have high ambitions of being a digital-first organization. We are committed to ensuring our customers enjoy cohesive, personalized experiences that make their lives easier, better, and faster. As a Director of Experience & Content Design, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of our digital properties, creating seamless omni-channel experiences that resonate with users worldwide.

Requirements

• A minimum of 10+ years of dynamic experience in digital experience design and/or product management, with a consistent record of leading successful digital product initiatives at scale.
• Knowledge of the Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) platform—or similar enterprise CMS—supporting authoring workflows, component design, and content governance.

Nice To Haves

• A robust portfolio that showcases a diverse range of design projects, highlighting your design process, craftsmanship, and the successful outcomes of your work. The portfolio should demonstrate your ability to deliver innovative and impactful design solutions.
• A strong advocate for design excellence, demonstrating research insights to advise and drive strategic design decisions. Capable of creating both visionary, forward-thinking concepts and practical, immediately implementable solutions.
• Demonstrated experience in leading and mentoring design teams, with a focus on fostering collaboration with cross-functional teams, including engineering and product management. Proven track record to inspire and guide teams towards achieving design excellence.
• Extensive experience with accessibility guidelines and standards, including WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) and AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act). A commitment to integrating accessibility into all design processes and fostering an inclusive design culture
• Demonstrated history of leading the delivery of successful digital products and services at scale, with a focus on strategic impact and innovation.
• Extensive experience working in and leading sophisticated, cross-functional teams within enterprise environments or digital agencies, driving collaboration and alignment across diverse collaborators.
• Mastery in human-centered design principles, visual design theory, usability, and accessibility, with a track record of integrating these practices into large-scale projects to enhance user experiences.
• In-depth understanding and leadership of the entire digital product design process, including sophisticated user validation techniques, complex user flows, content modeling, wireframing, prototyping, user testing, and the creation of high-fidelity visuals.
• Exceptional critical thinking skills with the ability to conceptualize and drive the development of innovative products from inception to execution, addressing both user needs and business objectives.
• Highly persuasive communication and facilitation skills, capable of articulating complex design ideas and strategies to both design teams and senior non-design collaborators, fostering understanding and agreement.
• Tried ability to lead, prioritize, and run multiple high-stakes work streams in a fast-paced, time-sensitive environment, ensuring strategic alignment and delivery excellence.
• Extensive experience with design systems and advanced tools such as Figma, Mural, and UserTesting.com, with a focus on driving consistency and innovation across digital platforms. Experience in Adobe Experience Manager or Adobe Platforms is an asset.
• Deep familiarity with technical constraints and opportunities for designing across digital platforms, including desktop and mobile (Android and iOS), ensuring seamless integration and performance.
• Strong proficiency in agile, iterative design approaches, with a focus on achieving business and adoption outcomes, enabling rapid market delivery and continuous validation of digital customer experiences.

Responsibilities

• Lead the vision, strategy, and roadmap for the future-state experience of our digital properties across both public websites & secure channels, ensuring they are intuitive, consistent, and aligned to user needs.
• Oversee end-to-end product design for digital experiences, including user research, journey mapping, interaction design, and high-fidelity UI, applying industry best practices
• Lead cross-functional workstreams and efforts that address sophisticated challenges, driving alignment and decision-making at senior levels.
• Support the evolution of our design system to ensure consistency, scalability, accessibility, and brand alignment across all digital experiences.
• Champion the integration of inclusive design practices within the design system, fostering a culture of accessibility and diversity.
• Be responsible for the use of design exploration, user testing, and research to advise and drive the product roadmap, experience improvements, and prioritization.
• Support content strategy evolution for public web properties, defining how we bring content to life in thoughtful ways to drive positive outcomes.
• Mentor and develop a cross-functional team of designers, product managers and content specialists fostering standard methodologies and a user-centered design culture.

Benefits

• health
• dental
• mental health
• vision
• short- and long-term disability
• life and AD&D insurance coverage
• adoption/surrogacy and wellness benefits
• employee/family assistance plans
• various retirement savings plans (including pension and a global share ownership plan with employer matching contributions)
• financial education and counseling resources
• generous paid time off program in Canada includes holidays, vacation, personal, and sick days
• full range of statutory leaves of absence

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed