Manager Engineering / Application Support

About Us: Manulife is a leading international financial services group that helps people make their decisions easier and lives better. We are committed to using sophisticated technology to provide top-tier services to our customers. Join us in driving technological excellence and operational stability within the insurance sector.

Position Overview: We are seeking an experienced and dynamic Manager of Engineering to lead our Production Support Team. This individual will be responsible for ensuring the smooth operation and maintenance of our technology platforms, providing exceptional support to our insurance technology partners, and leading a team of skilled professionals.

Key Responsibilities:

Leadership and Team Management:

• Lead and manage a production support team, including Operations Engineers and Technical Support Analysts. Experience in hiring, mentoring/coaching, performance management and setting goals/expectations.
• Foster a collaborative and engaging team environment through effective communication and team-building activities.
• Identify and address skill gaps within the team by providing training, mentorship, and opportunities for professional development to ensure ongoing skill enhancement and career growth.
• Supervise the on-call team, providing leadership and acting as the primary escalation point for critical issues to ensure timely and effective resolution.

Project Management

• Task Prioritization: Ability to assess and prioritize support tasks and projects based on urgency, impact, and alignment with organizational goals.
• Roadmap Development: Develop and maintain a strategic roadmap for support initiatives, ensuring alignment with business objectives and customer needs.
• Team Coordination: Efficiently allocate resources and assign tasks to team members, ensuring optimal use of skills and expertise.
• Monitor team workload and capacity to ensure balanced distribution of tasks and prevent burnout.
• Conflict Resolution: Address and resolve conflicts within the team and with external customers in a constructive manner.
• Lead and manage full lifecycle implementation projects/programs for Support teams using leading practices like agile and tools (i.e. JIRA, Jenkins, confluence, DevOps etc.)

Incident Management:

• Lead the incident management process, including identification, prioritization, and resolution of production issues.
• Coordinate and communicate with relevant customers during incident resolution, ensuring timely updates and transparency.
• Conduct root cause analysis for major incidents and drive corrective actions to prevent recurrence.
• Develop and maintain incident management documentation, including incident reports and post-incident reviews, with a focus on tracking metrics to analyze performance and identify areas for improvement.

Operational Excellence:

• Supervise the day-to-day operations of the production support team, ensuring timely resolution of incidents and issues.
• Implement and enforce standard processes for incident management, problem management, and change management.
• Optimize change processes ensuring that the team is the gatekeeper, protective of Insurance Technology’s system health.
• Collaboration and Coordination: Work closely with cross-functional teams, including development squads, Value Stream Partners, and business partners, to ensure alignment and effective communication.
• Collaborate with the Asset Customer and Value Stream Manager to align production support activities with business and technical priorities.

Technical Oversight:

• Ensure the technical currency and ongoing maintenance of production systems and applications.
• Lead the team to deliver on non-functional requirements and acquire necessary approvals on documentation (architecture, risk approvals, support handovers).
• Lead disaster recovery activities for Insurance to ensure the organization can quickly recover from any unexpected events and maintain business continuity.
• Lead and Optimize Observability Platforms: Direct the management and enhancement of observability tools and platforms, ensuring they deliver actionable insights and facilitate proactive incident management.
• Spearhead Performance Tuning Initiatives: Lead the analysis of system performance metrics and logs to identify potential bottlenecks, performance issues, and areas for improvement, driving optimal system efficiency and reliability.

Qualifications:

• 6+ years validated experience in a leadership role in Application Support
• Enjoys a Puzzle - demonstrated problem solving skills, including critical thinking, creativity, and analytical reasoning.
• Demonstrated skill as an effective, eloquent & proactive communicator.
• Solid experience with support and project management.
• Superb communication and interpersonal skills.
• Experience in the insurance or financial services industry is preferred.
• Experience in Vendor & Account management with external partners.
• Solid understanding of the MERN stack (MongoDB, Express.js, React, Node.js).
• Experience with Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Cloud Infrastructure, Microservice Architectures
• Proficiency in .NET technologies
• Experience in balancing needs of Legacy technologies
• ITIL certification is required.

What can we offer?

• 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:

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.

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 https://www.manulife.com/en/about/our-story.html.

Manulife 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 recruitment@manulife.com.

Salary range is expected to be between

If you are applying for this role outside of the primary location, please contact recruitment@manulife.com for the salary range for your location. 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. 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 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 recruitment@manulife.com for more information about U.S.-specific paid time off provisions.