Director of Product Design

Join our dynamic and innovative team as the Director of Product Design & Strategy at Manulife. In this role, you will drive transformative experience strategies that improve user happiness and drive business results. Position Responsibilities Define and be responsible for the strategic direction for user experiences across multiple products, ensuring consistency and alignment with the organizational vision. Set the vision and strategic direction for UX/UI design within a suite of products or a line of business, driving excellence in product design. Lead strategic workshops that address sophisticated challenges, driving alignment and decision making at senior levels. Develop frameworks and methodologies for workshop design and facilitation, mentoring teams to ensure impactful and productive sessions. Mentor and develop the design team, fostering standard methodologies and a user‑centered design culture. Work closely with Product Owners to balance product and user needs, providing actionable insights that drive strategic decisions. Create and maintain a cohesive vision for the user experience across all touchpoints, ensuring consistency and alignment with business goals. Be responsible for the use of design exploration, user testing, and research to advise and drive the product roadmap, experience improvements, and prioritization. Boost user satisfaction and streamline service delivery by creating detailed user personas, journey maps, and service blueprints to map the path of customer interaction and engagement. Advocate a user‑centered approach by using data from user tests, analytics, and A/B tests to drive strategic decisions. Develop and maintain comprehensive strategic frameworks to ensure consistency and reliability across projects. Distill research data and communicate insights effectively to cross‑functional teams, including product, engineering, content, and research. Continuously update knowledge of next‑generation user experiences and emerging technologies, contributing to innovative strategic practices. Establish and articulate the vision for new solutions, ensuring they resonate with user needs and expectations. Oversee the adoption and continuous improvement of the design system, ensuring it remains relevant and effective for product designers. Champion inclusive design practices within the design system, fostering a culture of accessibility and diversity. Champion the integration of accessibility criteria across all design projects, promoting inclusive design practices. Required Qualifications Minimum of 10‑15 years of experience in experience strategy or related fields. A bachelor's degree in design, Visual Communications, Human‑Computer Interaction (HCI), Psychology, or a related field is required; a master's degree in design strategy, service design, behavioral science, or a related discipline is strongly preferred. Proficiency in strategic tools such as UserTesting.com, Mural, Figma and Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, XD). Strong understanding of UX principles and familiarity with web standards, front‑end development methodologies, HTML, CSS, JavaScript is a plus. Preferred Qualifications A strong portfolio highlighting a range of strategic projects that illustrate process, level of craft, and results. Demonstrated experience leading strategic projects and teams, including collaboration with cross‑functional teams. Experience with accessibility guidelines and standards, including WCAG and AODA. Proven history of delivering successful strategic projects that have driven impactful design decisions. Experience working in a sophisticated, cross‑functional organization, preferably in an enterprise environment or digital agency. High proficiency in human‑centered design principles, usability, and accessibility. Deep understanding of the end‑to‑end strategic process, including user validation, flows, content modeling, wireframing, prototyping, testing, and high‑fidelity visuals. Excellent critical thinking and ability to conceptualize strategic frameworks from scratch. Persuasive communication and facilitation skills, articulating insights to designers and non‑designers. Familiarity with technical constraints for designing across desktop and mobile platforms. Experience with agile, iterative approaches focused on business and adoption outcomes. When You Join Our Team We’ll empower you to learn and grow in the career you want. We’ll recognize and support you in a flexible environment where well‑being and inclusion are more than words. As part of our global team, we’ll support you in shaping the future you want to see. 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 manulife.com/en/about/our-story.html. Manulife is an Equal Opportunity Employer We embrace diversity and strive to attract, develop and retain a workforce that is diverse as the customers we serve. We are committed to fair recruitment, retention, advancement and compensation, and administer all of our practices without discrimination on the basis of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, family status, disability, or any protected characteristic. To request a reasonable accommodation, contact Working Arrangement Hybrid #J-18808-Ljbffr