Lead Solution Architect

Manulife is seeking a Lead Solution Architect to help design, scale, and modernize secure cloud platforms that support critical business systems across a global financial services organization.

In this role, you’ll provide technical leadership across Azure platform architecture, CI/CD strategy, and infrastructure as code. You’ll partner closely with engineering teams and stakeholders to deliver resilient, cost‑effective, and secure cloud solutions. You will also have the opportunity to explore how emerging AI capabilities can meaningfully enhance modern application platforms—moving beyond experimentation to real‑world impact.

This role is ideal for someone who enjoys shaping platform direction, mentoring others, and balancing pragmatic delivery with long‑term sustainability.

Why Manulife:

• At Manulife, we’re focused on building digital platforms that support millions of customers worldwide—securely, responsibly, and at scale. Our engineering teams value thoughtful architecture, continuous improvement, and inclusive collaboration.

• You’ll join a culture that encourages learning, mentorship, and influence, where diverse perspectives help shape how modern cloud platforms and emerging technologies— including AI—are adopted with purpose and integrity.

Position Responsibilities:

• Design and evolve secure, scalable Azure platform architectures that support modern application workloads

• Define and improve CI/CD strategies, infrastructure standards, and reusable platform patterns

• Lead technical discovery with stakeholders to understand business goals, constraints, and risk tolerance

• Evaluate existing Azure and DevOps environments and recommend modernization improvements

• Guide teams on cloud architecture decisions related to networking, identity, security, observability, and resiliency

• Support containerized and orchestrated workloads using modern deployment models

• Establish and promote DevSecOps practices, including secure access, policy enforcement, and compliance automation

• Mentor engineers and contribute to shared engineering standards and best practices

• Communicate architectural trade‑offs clearly to both technical and non‑technical audiences

• Work effectively in environments with evolving requirements and incomplete information

• Explore and prototype AI‑enabled workflows, tooling, or platform capabilities where they add meaningful value

Required Qualifications:

• Strong experience designing, implementing, and operating Azure cloud environments

• Hands‑on experience with infrastructure as code tools such as Terraform or Pulumi

• Experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines using tools like GitHub Actions or Jenkins

• Solid understanding of cloud networking, identity, and security principles

• Experience improving reliability, availability, and observability of production systems

• Ability to influence technical direction and mentor others without direct authority

• Comfort working across teams and communicating complex technical topics clearly

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes, AKS)

• Familiarity with DevSecOps, SRE, or FinOps practices

• Experience with observability tooling such as Azure Monitor, Prometheus, Grafana, ELK, Datadog, or New Relic

• Exposure to AI‑assisted development, Copilot tooling, or OpenAI SDKs

• Client‑facing or consulting experience

• Strong documentation and diagramming skills (e.g., architecture decision records, system diagrams)

What Success Looks Like:

• Secure, reliable, and scalable Azure platforms with measurable improvements in performance and cost efficiency

• Reusable IaC modules and CI/CD templates adopted consistently across teams

• Clear architectural guidance and modernization roadmaps that reduce risk and accelerate delivery

• Elevated engineering practices through mentorship and cross‑team collaboration

 

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.

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, OntarioHybrid

Salary range is expected to be between

$113,260.00 CAD - $210,340.00 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.