Join our Architecture Strategy & Enablement Team!
Reporting to our Global Chief Architect, our AVP, Architecture Strategy & Enablement leads the strategic orchestration of architectural practices across the global technology organization.
This role is accountable for defining and driving the architecture strategy, embedding governance and controls, and driving measurable value through analytics, prioritization, and innovation.
A key focus is connecting architectural innovation to business outcomes—ensuring that emerging ideas are validated, prioritized, and scaled to accelerate delivery, reduce risk, and optimize cost.
Position Responsibilities:
Strategy, Prioritization & Value Realization
Develop and maintain the global architecture strategy and roadmap, enterprise transformation and regulatory goals.
Lead the prioritization of technical initiatives based on quantifiable business value, delivery acceleration, risk mitigation, and cost efficiency.
Develop and sustain a value framework for evaluating and communicating the outcomes of architectural investments throughout the portfolio.
Ensure architecture efforts are focused on high-leverage areas, through data and research for business priorities.
Governance & Controls
Develop and manage architecture governance frameworks, encompassing decision-making authority, review boards, and paths for blocking issues.
Establish architecture policies, standards, and guardrails that are consumable by engineering and solution teams.
Partner with risk and compliance to embed architectural controls into delivery pipelines and tooling.
Analytics & Architecture Insights
Own architecture benchmarks and metrics, including maturity assessments, technical debt tracking, and architecture adoption.
Build dashboards and insights that quantify the impact of architecture on velocity, resilience, cost, and risk.
Apply data analysis to identify architectural gaps, guide prioritization, and evaluate the value of architecture initiatives.
Innovation to Execution
Lead the evaluation and incubation of new technologies and architectural patterns (e.g., AI, event-driven, composable architectures).
Use analytics to identify areas of architectural inefficiency or opportunity, and target innovation efforts accordingly.
Partner with innovation leads to run pilots and proofs of concept, ensuring they are governed, measurable, and aligned to strategic priorities.
Translate innovation into enterprise-ready architecture capabilities that deliver measurable outcomes and accelerate value realization.
Architecture Initiatives & Programs
Drive cross-cutting architecture initiatives such as estate modernization, lifecycle management, and platform rationalization.
Coordinate execution of strategic programs across business units and technology domains.
Ensure architecture initiatives are resourced, tracked, and aligned with enterprise outcomes.
Compliance & Regulatory Architecture
Ensure architectural practices support regulatory obligations (e.g., operational resilience, data residency, cloud risk).
Act as a liaison between architecture and regulatory partners, translating compliance requirements into architectural controls.
Partner with legal, risk, audit, and compliance teams to ensure traceability and defensibility of architectural decisions.
Position Requirements:
Relevant Technology Leadership experience.
Expertise in crafting architecture plans to support business outcomes.
Commercial awareness to understand market context and pressures, business requirements, competitive positioning, and the market context
Extensive knowledge of current and new technologies/frameworks, integration architecture procedures, and their application to deliver value to the organization.
Excellent communication and presentation skills with the ability to convey complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
When you join our team:
We’ll empower you to learn and grow the career you want.
We’ll recognize and support you in a flexible environment where well-being and inclusion are more than just 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 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.
Referenced Salary Location
Toronto, OntarioWorking Arrangement
Salary range is expected to be between
$126,600.00 CAD - $235,300.00 CADIf 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.