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Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Hybrid
Empowering People Through Technology: Join Manulife’s Global HR Transformation
At Manulife, we are transforming how our people experience work. Our PeopleComms Technology team enables simple, personalized, and compliant People Services solutions for colleagues worldwide. We value innovation, collaboration, and human-centered design, helping every employee thrive.
The Opportunity
At Manulife, we are reimagining how colleagues and leaders access People Services through AI-enabled experiences. As our People Services AI capabilities evolve, this role will help shape how HR processes and services are delivered in the flow of work.
As People Services AI Solutions & Configuration Lead, you will serve as the technical configuration and solution design expert within our People Services AI squad. You will partner across HR, technology, advanced analytics, architecture, governance, and product teams to design, configure, optimize, and continuously improve AI-enabled People Services solutions.
Working at the intersection of HR technology, AI innovation, employee experience, and platform capability, you will evaluate emerging technologies, translate business needs into scalable technical solutions, and help ensure our platforms evolve to meet changing colleague expectations.
This is not a traditional configuration role. You will be expected to influence solution direction, challenge assumptions, evaluate design options, identify platform opportunities, and recommend approaches that balance colleague experience, business value, governance requirements, and technical sustainability.
You will stay ahead of rapidly evolving AI capabilities across Workday, Microsoft, and related technology ecosystems, helping Manulife identify practical opportunities to improve employee experiences while maintaining compliance, scalability, and operational excellence.
Key Responsibilities
Serve as the technical configuration lead for AI-enabled People Services solutions, ensuring scalable, supportable, and sustainable designs.
Translate business requirements, user stories, and product roadmap priorities into configuration designs, technical solutions, and platform enhancements.
Design, configure, and optimize AI-enabled capabilities within Workday and related platforms.
Evaluate emerging Workday AI capabilities and recommend opportunities to improve employee and manager experiences.
Act as a subject matter expert for Workday AI products and capabilities, including Workday Self-Service Agent, Agentic AI solutions, and future platform innovations.
Lead configuration design discussions, solution reviews, and technical impact assessments with HR and technology stakeholders.
Partner with Product Leads, Business Analysts, Architects, Developers, and Test Leads throughout the delivery lifecycle.
Analyze current-state processes and identify opportunities for automation, simplification, intelligence, and self-service.
Design and configure workflows, business processes, integrations, decision logic, automation, and AI-enabled experiences.
Participate in backlog refinement, sprint planning, estimation, and delivery planning activities.
Develop and maintain technical documentation, configuration standards, design decisions, support materials, and implementation guidance.
Assess upstream and downstream impacts of proposed changes across HR processes, data, security, reporting, integrations, and employee experiences.
Support release planning, testing activities, defect triage, production validation, and continuous improvement efforts.
Partner with privacy, security, compliance, risk, and architecture teams to ensure solutions meet enterprise standards and governance expectations.
Provide technical leadership, coaching, and mentorship to team members while helping establish configuration standards and best practices.
Monitor industry trends, vendor roadmaps, release notes, and emerging AI innovations to proactively identify opportunities for People Services.
What You Bring
7+ years of progressive experience configuring, implementing, or supporting Workday solutions in a complex enterprise environment.
Deep expertise in Workday configuration, including business processes, security, calculated fields, condition rules, notifications, and related platform capabilities.
Demonstrated experience leading complex solution design and configuration initiatives involving multiple stakeholder groups and business functions.
Strong understanding of HR processes, employee lifecycle events, HR service delivery, and employee experience principles.
Experience translating ambiguous business requirements into scalable technical solutions and configuration designs.
Experience evaluating design trade-offs, identifying impacts, and recommending future-state solutions.
Ability to challenge assumptions constructively and influence decisions through expertise, evidence, and practical recommendations.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to diagnose root causes and identify sustainable solutions.
Experience leading technical discussions with business stakeholders, architects, product teams, and technology partners.
Strong communication skills with the ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical audiences.
Experience working in Agile delivery environments and supporting cross-functional product teams.
Proven ability to manage competing priorities and navigate ambiguity in a rapidly evolving technology landscape.
AI Platform Experience
Candidates should possess experience configuring, designing, supporting, or evaluating one or more of the following capabilities:
Workday AI products and emerging Workday Agentic AI capabilities.
Workday Assistant and conversational experiences.
Workday Developer Agent.
Workday Business Process Optimizer Agent.
Workday Extend and Extend Pro.
Flowise or similar orchestration platforms.
Microsoft Copilot ecosystem and Copilot agents.
AI-powered workflow automation and digital employee experiences.
Prompt design, orchestration, knowledge grounding, and AI-enabled self-service solutions.
Assets / Nice to Have
Experience with Workday Assistant, Workday Agent System of Record, Workday Illuminate, or other Workday AI capabilities.
Experience with Workday Extend Pro development and implementation.
Experience supporting AI-enabled employee service experiences, virtual assistants, chatbots, or conversational AI platforms.
Experience with ServiceNow HR Service Delivery (HRSD), employee service portals, or HR case management platforms.
Experience with Microsoft Copilot Studio, Azure AI services, Azure OpenAI, or enterprise AI platforms.
Experience with integrations, APIs, automation platforms, or workflow orchestration technologies.
Experience facilitating Human-Centered Design workshops, discovery sessions, and solution design activities.
Experience supporting Privacy Impact Assessments, compliance reviews, security reviews, or responsible AI governance activities.
Workday Pro Certification(s).
Agile, Scrum, AI, architecture, HR technology, HCD, or related certifications.
Post-secondary education in Information Technology, Human Resources, Business, Computer Science, or a related field.
Success Measures
Business requirements are translated into scalable, maintainable, and effective technical solutions.
AI-enabled capabilities improve colleague experience, service accessibility, and operational efficiency.
Configuration decisions balance innovation, usability, governance, scalability, and long-term sustainability.
Technical impacts, dependencies, risks, and trade-offs are identified and managed proactively.
High-quality documentation, configuration standards, and technical artifacts support ongoing support and future enhancements.
Strong collaboration between Product, Testing, Architecture, Technology, HR, and Governance teams enables effective delivery.
Emerging AI and Workday capabilities are evaluated and leveraged appropriately to create measurable business value.
Stakeholders view the role as a trusted advisor who provides practical, evidence-based recommendations rather than simply executing requests.
Why Join Us?
Help shape the future of AI-enabled People Services at Manulife.
Work at the intersection of HR technology, Workday innovation, AI, and employee experience.
Influence how thousands of colleagues interact with People Services in the flow of work.
Evaluate and deploy emerging AI capabilities from Workday and Microsoft.
Contribute to responsible, practical, and human-centered AI adoption across HR.
Ready to make an impact? Apply today and help shape the future of HR technology at Manulife.
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.
#LI-Hybrid
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
Waterloo, OntarioWorking Arrangement
Salary range is expected to be between
$85,300.00 CAD - $135,300.00 CADEmployees 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.
