Strategy Director

Manulife is a leading international financial services group that helps people make their decisions easier and lives better. With our global headquarters in Toronto, Canada, we operate as Manulife across our offices in Canada, Asia, and the United States. We provide financial advice, insurance, and wealth and asset management solutions for individuals, groups, and institutions.

The opportunity

We are seeking a highly driven, independent, and strategic thinker to join our strategy team as Strategy Director. This role will be the key support to the Head of Strategy in ensuring alignment with Manulife Singapore’s strategic goals and assist in tracking progress and KPIs. The ideal candidate will possess strong problem-solving abilities, thrive in ambiguity, and be a proactive self-starter capable of developing strategies and driving it through to execution. This role requires someone who can lead cross-functional initiatives, collaborate across teams, and influence decision-making across levels.

Responsibilities:

• Support the strategic planning process, coordinating the development of plan documents with functional and regional stakeholders.
• Conduct strategic reviews by analyzing business problems, deep diving into current challenges to define clear points of departure, potential strategic options, and actionable plans toward measurable outcomes.
• Support the development and refinement of company-wide strategies, including new strategic initiatives, and collaborating across functions to identifying, prioritizing, developing clear execution roadmaps, and monitoring progress where required.
• Conduct detailed analyses of market and industry performance, identifying trends and insights, to support strategic decisions, including identifying new opportunities.
• Support in the preparation of content development of CEO reports, including but not limited to, strategy presentations, Board Papers, Rating Agency/Investor Relations papers, Business Reviews, and any ad-hoc requests.
• Co-ordinate the roll-out of scorecard across business, including collaborating on regular assessment of the GM scorecard with the regional office.

• Identify opportunities for innovation and improvement within strategic processes and recommend solutions.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in business, Economics, Finance, Actuarial or a related field required; MBA or equivalent advanced degree preferred.
• 5 to 8 years of experience in strategy development, management consulting, corporate
• strategy, or a related role, preference for those with direct insurance or insurance related consulting experience
• PowerPoint, Word, Excel Power BI: expert skills in PowerPoint with the ability to tell a story and sell a message. Can analyze large quantities of data, generate charts in PowerPoint and Excel.
• Stakeholder management: effectively collaborate with members of the Asia Strategy team/local BUs and other functions (such as Controllers, Tax, Actuarial, Legal, IT and Wealth Management) to provide the deliverables needed to drive projects to completion.   
• Proven ability to independently frame problems, identify key drivers, and develop effective strategic solutions.
• Strong business acumen with the ability to balance strategic thinking with execution focus.
• High degree of initiative, resourcefulness, and self-motivation.
• Excellent organizational and time management skills and a strong ability to recognize critical path deliverables to deliver within project timelines.
• Strong verbal and written communication with the ability to effectively articulate and communicate technical vision, possibilities, and outcomes.
• Proven track record of leading cross-functional strategic initiatives from ideation to implementation.
• Experience in a dynamic, high-growth, or transformation-focused environment is a strong plus.
• Effective stakeholder management skills and ability to partner with and influence senior management to drive data culture in the organization.

Challenges:

• Strategic: be able to improve business outcomes by applying strategic thinking and making appropriate recommendations in connection with delivery of long-term sustained performance.
• Analytics: outstanding analytical skills to bring together large volumes of information and highlight the key themes and make recommendations for a senior executive audience.
• Financials: an understanding of insurance financial fundamentals and commercial drivers behind project business cases. Initiative, drive and sense of urgency, and drive to take ownership of tasks.
• Change management/ambiguity: ability to work in a fast-paced environment with incomplete information and ability to continue to push projects based on known information, common sense and asking the right questions.
• Meticulous, diligent, ensuring the highest quality of work. 

What can we offer you?

·       A competitive salary and benefits packages.

·       A growth trajectory that extends upward and outward, encouraging you to follow your passions and learn new skills.

·       A focus on growing your career path with us.

·       Flexible work policies and strong work-life balance.

·       Professional development and leadership opportunities.

Our commitment to you

·       Values-first culture
We lead with our Values every day and bring them to life together.

·       Boundless opportunity
We create opportunities to learn and grow at every stage of your career.

·       Continuous innovation
We invite you to help redefine the future of financial services.

·       Delivering the promise of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
We foster an inclusive workplace where everyone thrives.

·       Championing Corporate Citizenship
We build a business that benefits all stakeholders and has a positive social and environmental impact.

Join Manulife and be part of a dynamic team that is shaping the future of healthcare and insurance. Together, we can empower our customers to live healthier, more secure lives. Apply now to make a difference!

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].