Product Owner

Manulife is on a journey to become a customer obsessed, digital leader.  We’re transforming, and we need you! The Affinity Travel delivery team is looking for a passionate, engaged, and collaborative Product Owner to help us deliver on our strategy.   

Position Responsibilities 

Product Discovery and Strategy: 

• Contribute to the creation and ongoing refinement of Product Roadmaps that align with strategic goals and customer needs. 

• Participate in discovery activities with cross-functional teams to understand stakeholder requirements and inform backlog priorities. 

• Translate business objectives into clear User Stories and Acceptance Criteria. 

• Use qualitative insights to support prioritization and decision-making at the team level 

• Support the creation of basic business cases for new features or enhancements. 

Product Delivery and Implementation: 

• Lead day to day backlog management ensuring work is well defined, prioritized, and ready for development. 

• Participate in agile ceremonies including Sprint Planning, Backlog Refinement, Daily Standups, and Sprint Retrospectives. 

• Make tactical trade-off decisions that balance scope, timeline, and quality within the team’s delivery boundaries. 

• Provide ongoing delivery updates to stakeholders and collaborate with teams to maintain alignment on sprint goals and timelines. 

• Ensure User Stories meet defined acceptance criteria and requirements. 

• Monitor product health and escalate risks or technical constraints that impact delivery. 

Change Management and Go-to-Market Activities: 

• Support change management plans, communications, and training efforts for new product releases. 

• Partner with marketing, operations, and sales teams to prepare for and execute go-to-market activities. 

• Gather feedback post-release to support continuous improvement and adoption. 

Required Qualifications:

• 2 to 3 years of relevant work experience agile methodology or project management

• Experience working in the Insurance industry is an asset; general business acumen with the skills to increase/mature business acumen

• Strong knowledge of agile principles, project and program management tools, techniques, and methodologies

• Use of common agile tools and applications like Confluence, JIRA, etc.

• SAFe or, PMP or, CSPO designation, Change Management experience and/or certifications considered an asset

• Ability to work autonomously and collaboratively across teams / stakeholder groups

• Strong ability to clarify and document requirements, resolve blockers, and align expectations across teams. 

Preferred Qualifications:

• Strong organizational and problem-solving skills 

• Anticipate, mitigate and manage issues / challenges to overcome obstacles to execution and delivery 

• Excellent verbal & written communication skills 

• Ability to influence and resolve conflict without having direct authority; confidence to raise issues as required

• Ability to foster positive relationships and effectively lead various sized groups to attain collaborative and innovative solutions; motivate, coach and mentor individuals and teams

• Aptitude for change management; reprioritize conflicting workloads and deliverables

• Ability to build strong working relationships with cross-functional partners to ensure shared understanding of product goals. 

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:

• 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

Waterloo, OntarioHybrid

Salary range is expected to be between

$70,500.00 CAD - $117,500.00 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.