Market Lead, Regional Bancassurance Partnerships, Asia

The Market Lead, Regional Bancassurance Partnerships, Asia plays a pivotal role in strengthening and expanding Manulife’s strategic bancassurance partnership with DBS across Asia. This includes collaboration across Consumer Banking, Private Banking, and SME segments to drive enterprise-wide transformation, deliver on multi-year strategic ambitions, and elevate the overall bancassurance value proposition.

The role requires close coordination with DBS regional and country-level stakeholders, as well as internal teams across Manulife, to ensure seamless execution of strategic priorities. A key focus will be on developing and implementing segmented customer strategies, enhancing digital capabilities, and delivering differentiated propositions for High Net Worth (HNW), mass affluent, and emerging affluent segments.

In addition to managing existing partnerships, this role will also contribute to regional business development efforts by identifying and evaluating new bancassurance opportunities across Asia. The incumbent will play a key role in shaping Manulife’s growth agenda through strategic partner acquisition and market expansion.

This role supports country-level execution, ensuring local teams are equipped and aligned to deliver strategic initiatives effectively, while fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Partnership Management

• Lead the development and execution of regional strategies for the DBS partnership across Consumer, Private, and SME banking segments.

• Co-create transformation initiatives with DBS regional teams to drive customer engagement, digital innovation, and sustainable growth.

• Serve as a key liaison with DBS regional stakeholders, ensuring strong governance, strategic alignment, and effective senior stakeholder engagement.

• Drive best practices in sales quality, conduct controls, and partnership governance frameworks.

Customer Segmentation & Proposition Development

• Collaborate with country teams and product specialists to design and refine segmented customer strategies, with a focus on HNW, mass affluent, and emerging affluent segments.

• Support the development and rollout of differentiated value propositions tailored to the needs of each segment, leveraging data, insights, and market intelligence.

• Ensure integration of product, marketing, and distribution strategies to deliver a seamless and personalized customer experience.

Digital Enablement & Innovation

• Champion digital transformation across the bancassurance channel, including the deployment of digital tools, platforms, and customer journeys.

• Partner with internal and external stakeholders to enhance digital sales enablement, lead generation, and servicing capabilities.

• Stay abreast of emerging technologies and market trends to identify opportunities for innovation and competitive differentiation.

Distribution Strategy & Execution

• Work closely with country distribution teams to ensure effective execution of regional strategies, tailored to local market dynamics and regulatory environments.

• Provide hands-on support during critical delivery phases, such as onboarding new partners, launching new propositions, or executing strategic programs.

• Facilitate cross-market knowledge sharing and best practice adoption to uplift distribution capabilities and performance.

Business Development & Partner Acquisition

• Identify and evaluate new bancassurance partnership opportunities across Asia, aligned with Manulife’s strategic growth agenda.

• Conduct market scans, partner assessments, and feasibility studies to support expansion into new segments or geographies.

• Collaborate with internal stakeholders (e.g., Strategy, Legal, Finance, Product) to develop compelling partnership proposals and business cases.

• Support end-to-end partner onboarding and integration, ensuring alignment with Manulife’s distribution standards and customer experience goals.

Initiative Leadership

• Lead key regional initiatives as assigned by the Regional Chief Partnership Distribution Officer, collaborating with cross-functional teams including Product, Marketing, Operations, Compliance, and Technology.

• Drive project management, stakeholder engagement, and delivery of measurable outcomes for high-impact initiatives.

Country-Level Support & Capability Building

• Provide in-market support to ensure successful implementation of strategic programs and initiatives.

• Act as a trusted advisor to country teams, helping to navigate challenges, accelerate execution, and achieve business targets.

• Partner with country training teams to establish a comprehensive and standardized Insurance Learning & Development framework aimed at enhancing sales capability and productivity

Qualifications & Experience

• 10–15+ years of experience in bancassurance, financial services, or partnership distribution, preferably in a regional or multi-market capacity.

• Proven track record in business development, partner acquisition, and strategic relationship management.

• Deep understanding of customer segmentation, HNW propositions, and digital distribution models.

• Strong strategic thinking, execution capability, and project management skills.

• Excellent communication, collaboration, and problem-solving abilities.

• Willingness to travel across Asia as required.

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.

This Position Description is intended to describe the general nature and level of the work being performed by employees in this job. It is not intended to be a complete list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required for this job classification.

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 [email protected].