VP, US Strategy and Transformation

Manulife • Boston, MA

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services provider that helps people make their decisions easier and lives better. With our global headquarters in Toronto, Canada, we provide financial advice and insurance, operating as Manulife across Canada, Asia, and Europe, and primarily as John Hancock in the United States. Through Manulife Investment Management, the global brand for our global wealth and asset management segment, we serve individuals, institutions, and retirement plan members worldwide. Our principal operations are in Asia and Canada, and the United States, where we have served customers for more than 155 years. We trade as 'MFC' on the Toronto, New York, and the Philippine stock exchanges and under '945' in Hong Kong. The Vice President, US Strategy & Transformation is a senior leadership role responsible for driving the US segment’s most critical strategic initiatives, enterprise integration, and transformation initiatives. Reporting to the US CEO, this role acts as a trusted advisor, strategic integrator, and execution leader—ensuring clarity, alignment, and momentum across complex, cross-functional priorities. This role is designed to lead initiatives that are CEO- or enterprise-driven, cut across traditional functional boundaries, and require strong problem-solving, orchestration, and execution discipline. The VP will play a central role in shaping strategy, aligning priorities to financial outcomes, and ensuring effective delivery across the US business.

Requirements

• Senior leadership experience in strategy, transformation, management consulting, or complex operating environments.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional initiatives without direct authority.
• Strong strategic thinking paired with execution discipline.
• Experience working closely with C-suite leaders and Boards.
• Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to synthesize complex topics into clear, executive-ready narratives.
• High degree of judgment, discretion, and comfort operating in ambiguity.

Responsibilities

• Strategic Initiatives Lead high-priority, internal growth and transformation initiatives that are CEO- or enterprise-sponsored.
• Drive initiatives that require cross-segment and cross-functional coordination, alignment, and execution.
• Provide structured problem-solving leadership in ambiguous, complex environments.
• Ensure momentum, clear ownership, decision-making, and escalation where required.
• Translate strategic intent into executable plans with measurable outcomes.
• Maintain a continuous view of competitive dynamics, industry trends, and emerging business models across the US life & annuities landscape.
• Partner with the US CEO to shape strategic direction based on market signals to inform pivots, areas to explore, and strategic trade-offs.
• Identify implications of competitive moves, regulatory shifts, and consumer behavior changes to inform planning, prioritization, and investment decisions.
• Own and lead the US segment strategic planning process, including overseeing the 5-year strategy, annual strategic priorities, outcomes, and success metrics,
• Develop and maintain USLT-, ELT-, and Board-level materials and meeting content.
• Translate enterprise strategy into a coherent, actionable US plans and initiatives.
• Ensure alignment between financial goals, strategic priorities, and execution plans.
• Support leadership alignment and readiness ahead of key decision points.
• Act as a trusted advisor and thought partner to the US CEO.
• Serve as connective tissue across the US Leadership Team, enterprise partners, and functional leaders.
• Surface emerging risks, issues, and opportunities early—beyond formal reporting mechanisms.
• Maintain strong informal network through trusted internal relationships.
• Prepare leadership teams for effective decision-making and execution by ensuring clarity of context, trade-offs, and implications.
• Own the US portfolio governance model and enterprise “book of work” .
• Lead ongoing portfolio review processes to:
• - Reassess priorities over time
• - Determine what to start, stop, scale, or deprioritize.
• - Manage sequencing, dependencies, and capacity constraints.
• Monitor delivery health, execution risk, and interdependencies across initiatives.
• Drive focus, trade-off decisions, and resource alignment across the portfolio.
• Interface with enterprise and global partners to ensure alignment (e.g., enterprise transformation teams, technology and delivery functions).
• Examples include annual planning processes, monthly portfolio reviews, investment committee inputs, and cross-functional governance forums.

What This Job Offers

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