Director, Front-End Development, Global Design System

The Opportunity

As Director, Front-End Development, 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 enterprise-wide design system that serves multiple business units across Canada, Asia, and the US. This system will enable consistency, efficiency, accessibility, and innovation across Manulife’s public, secure, and mobile digital experiences. You will partner closely with engineering, design, and product teams across regions to establish governance, ensure adoption, and evolve the system to meet diverse business and customer needs.

As part of Manulife’s Technology organization, this is a pivotal leadership role within a multi-functional team supporting enterprise digital transformation. You will lead a software development team supporting and evolving a React.js based component library that supports all of Manulife’s digital experiences on multiple platforms and systems, with an immediate focus on Adobe Experience Manager Cloud implementation. The ideal candidate has successfully led software development of enterprise-wide 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, enterprise-grade design system that supports Manulife’s digital transformation across all regions.

• Be responsible for the overall software development cycle for Manulife’s Global Design System React component library, including mobile apps, web, CMS

• Assist in architecture design and implementation plans for AEM Cloud projects

• Balance global standardization with regional flexibility, ensuring usability across diverse markets and regulatory landscapes.

• Partner with executive leadership, engineering, product, and design teams to align the design system with business priorities.

Governance, Adoption & Enablement

• Establish governance models, contribution frameworks, and adoption strategies to ensure system sustainability

• Provide oversight and management of technical architecture and delivery by supporting, coaching, and mentoring cross-discipline teams.

• Build and cultivate a global design system community, fostering a culture of design system ownership.

• Establish and be responsible for training, onboarding, and community engagement initiatives to drive system adoption across teams.

• Develop and supervise KPIs that measure adoption, efficiency gains, and business impact.

Cross-Functional Leadership & Stakeholder Influence

• Serve as a primary design system advocate, navigating organizational complexity to foster collaboration and influence decision-making at all levels

• Lead multi-functional alignment, partnering with regional and local technology teams to develop the best technical design and implementation approach, ensuring the design system is embedded into workflows

• Collaborate and contribute to software project proposals by reviewing requirements, capabilities, and infrastructure

• Mentor team members, ensuring software development adheres to best practices and quality standards through code and design reviews.

Technical & Operational Execution

• Lead the evolution of tooling, documentation, and workflows, ensuring seamless integration with enterprise platforms (Figma, Storybook, React, Angular, etc).

• Work closely with design leadership to ensure design-to-code 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.

• Stay abreast of industry trends and emerging technologies, providing strategic guidance on their integration for business advantage.

• 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 proven experience in technology, preferably within a global enterprise or multi-jurisdictional organization.

• High-degree of experience supporting and working with Design Systems

• Hands-on experience directing a team to deliver technical solutions

• In-depth knowledge of cloud computing infrastructure, web and/or mobile app development, marketing technology (CMS, DAM, Search, Marketing Automation, etc)

• Practical experience with Responsive Design and Single Page Application development using standard processes and modern frameworks such as React and Angular

• 3+ years experience using React with Javascript and/or Typescript

• Proven use of modern CSS and HTML practices to build performant and accessible web experiences

• Experience with web accessibility compliance, performance, and cross-device support

• Understanding of tooling including ESLint, Webpack, NPM, Babel

• Experience with alternative JS frameworks (Angular, Vue) a plus

• 3+ years exposure developing Adobe AEM/CQ websites and applications

• Knowledge of AEM Editable Templates, the AEM style system, and AEM Core Components to enable effective website customization and design

• Familiarity with the ACS Commons Library for expedient and efficient development processes

• Strong expertise in Agile, Lean UX, and enterprise digital delivery models

• Exceptional partner management, influence, and communication skills

• Experience working in sophisticated matrixed organizations with multiple business units and partners

• Experience navigating multi-lingual, multi-cultural, and regulatory complexities in global design and technology

• Background in IT lifecycle management and governance a plus

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 work-life balance.
• Professional development and leadership opportunities.

Our commitment to you

• Values-first 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 partners and has a positive social and environmental impact.

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