The Director of Marketing Strategy and Business Management leads strategic planning, business reporting, budget management, and team engagement for Retirement and Wealth Marketing. Working with marketing leaders and business partners in Canada and the US, this role translates business priorities into marketing plans, aligns investment and resources, coordinates competing priorities, and tracks progress against objectives. The Director brings together performance insights and reporting to support leadership decisions, identifies opportunities to improve efficiency, and coordinates employee feedback and action planning to strengthen team engagement and effectiveness. This role is a member of the Retirement and Wealth Marketing leadership team and reports directly to the Head of Retirement and Wealth Marketing.
Position Responsibilities:
Marketing Strategy and Planning
- Lead the development and alignment of annual and in-year marketing plans.
- Translate enterprise and business priorities into clear marketing objectives and investment choices.
- Coordinate dependencies, trade-offs, and changes across portfolios and initiatives.
Business Management and Operating Rhythm
- Establish planning, governance, reporting, and decision-making forums.
- Prepare decision-ready materials and ensure timely follow-through on commitments.
- Identify and escalate delivery risks, resource constraints, and cross-functional dependencies.
- Define and monitor marketing KPIs and campaign effectiveness across regions, including monthly business reporting to global marketing and quarterly reporting on key KPIs and accomplishments.
- Use AI, insights and analytics to support planning and executive reporting, evaluate activities, and identify opportunities for shared approaches and efficiencies across regions.
- Surface data limitations and opportunities to improve measurement.
Budget Management and Financial Oversight
- Lead annual budget planning for Retirement and Wealth Marketing, working with marketing leaders and Finance to align funding with business priorities and planned initiatives.
- Manage ongoing budget tracking and forecasting, providing a consolidated view of spending, commitments, and anticipated expenses.
- Coordinate monthly budget and expense reviews with Finance and marketing leaders; assess actual versus planned spending and cost pressures, and recommend forecast, spending and resource adjustments to support priorities within approved budgets.
- Prepare financial reporting for leadership that explains budget performance, risks, trade-offs, and decisions required.
- Partner with Finance and Procurement on financial assumptions, vendor and marketing technology selection, commitments, and required approvals.
- Serve as the central contact for strategic funding requests, supporting business cases that define requirements, costs, expected outcomes, and KPIs to track success.
NPS Insights, Reporting and Operations
- Lead NPS insights, reporting and operations for Retirement and Wealth with business and analytics partners, connecting customer feedback, performance trends and key drivers to action plans and leadership decisions.
- Manage regular reporting on Retirement and Wealth KPIs, including rNPS, tNPS and CDA, tracking progress against targets and highlighting gaps, risks and actions required.
- Lead preparation for the Retirement and Wealth tNPS Acceleration Forum, including performance insights, reporting materials, action plan progress and decisions required.
- Coordinate action plan tracking and follow-through with accountable business partners, maintaining visibility of owners, milestones and progress, and escalating barriers to delivery.
Leadership and Stakeholder Management
- Demonstrate leadership and collaborate with marketing leaders, business partners, Finance, Analytics, agencies, and vendors across the department and firm.
- Influence strategy and prioritization, and build alignment on ownership, decision rights, and expected outcomes.
- Support team capability development and change adoption.
Employee Engagement:
- Track employee engagement, collect ongoing department feedback, and analyze quarterly marketing team meeting surveys to identify common themes and actionable solutions.
- Recommend department sharing opportunities based on feedback and survey results.
- Coordinate action planning with department heads and establish regular follow-up checkpoints.
AI Enablement and Transformation Leadership
- Champion AI adoption across Marketing, identifying and implementing capabilities that improve productivity, decision quality, customer outcomes and organizational effectiveness. Advise leaders on emerging technologies, foster experimentation and continuous learning, and measure value from AI investments.
Required Qualifcations:
- Bachelors degree
- 8-10+ years of experience in the asset management or related industry; agency experience required
- Management experience preferred
- Knowledge of the investment industry, markets, products and investment concepts
- Knowledge of the asset management regulatory environment and guidelines
- Excellent organizational and prioritization skills
- Excellent communication and presentation skills
- Creative, innovative and connected thinker with a solution-oriented approach
- Ability to build and maintain collaborative relationships across the organization
- Budget and financial management skills are critical, with expertise in planning, forecasting, expense and variance analysis, and financial reporting; ability to partner with Finance on funding priorities and trade-offs within approved budgets.
- Ability to apply AI, technology and data to planning, insights, reporting and operations to improve efficiency, collaboration, performance measurement and business outcomes.
- Intellectual curiosity and adaptability, with the ability to lead change and help teams adopt AI, new technologies and new ways of working.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Bilingualism (English and French) is an asset. If the successful candidate is in Québec, proficiency in both languages will be required to support clients from various provinces outside of Quebec.
When you join our team:
- As part of our global team, we’ll support you in shaping the future you want to see.
- 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.
The role being advertised is an existing vacancy.
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 hr@manulife.com.
Referenced Salary Location
Toronto, Ontario
Working Arrangement
Hybrid
Salary range is expected to be between
$125,100.00 CAD - $175,100.00 CAD
Employees also have the opportunity to participate in incentive programs and earn incentive compensation tied to business and individual performance. 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. If you are applying for this role outside of the primary location, please contact hr@manulife.com for the salary range for your location.
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 hr@manulife.com for more information about U.S.-specific paid time off provisions.
We use data and analytics technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), and automated processing tools, to analyze and process the information you provide to us or third parties in the application process. For more information, please refer to our personal information collection statement.
