Global Head of Underwriting Innovation and Research

Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services provider that helps people make their decisions easier and lives better. With our global headquarters in Toronto, Canada, we provide financial advice and insurance, operating as Manulife across Canada, Asia, and Europe, and primarily as John Hancock in the United States. Through Manulife Investment Management, the global brand for our global wealth and asset management segment, we serve individuals, institutions, and retirement plan members worldwide. Our principal operations are in Asia and Canada, and the United States, where we have served customers for more than 155 years. We trade as 'MFC' on the Toronto, New York, and the Philippine stock exchanges and under '945' in Hong Kong.

The Global Head of Underwriting Innovation and Research is a senior strategic leader who will play a key part in shaping the future of underwriting and claims across the enterprise. This role partners closely with senior executives and cross‑functional teams to drive thought leadership, accelerate disruptive innovation in the health and protection space, and introduce new tools, methodologies, and technologies that transform underwriting and claims experiences for customers, distribution partners, and internal teams.

In partnership with segment leads, this executive will lead the research and practical application of emerging medical, technological, and AI advancements—assessing their implications on risk selection, business models, and operational processes. This role is accountable for converting insights into actionable recommendations and world‑leading capabilities.

Position Responsibilities:

Vision & Strategic Leadership

• Actively monitor global trends—technological, medical, behavioral, and societal—to anticipate and interpret industry disruptions.

• Translate insights into strategic opportunities that reshape underwriting models and elevate competitive positioning.

• Continually evolve the enterprise-wide vision for disruptive advancement in underwriting and claims.

• Partner with markets and business leaders to shape a multi‑year transformation roadmap.

• Ensure the organization is not simply keeping pace with industry change but helping define it.

Operational Excellence

• Partners with the business to enable strategic underwriting changes that improve operational efficiency, underwriting accuracy, and customer insurability.

• Implement advanced analytics, automation, and emerging technologies that enhance customer experience and risk selection.

• Lead global research and continuous improvements to the underwriting algorithm to stay ahead of medical and technological advancements.

• Promote a culture of underwriting excellence that enables strong business results and sustained leadership.

Ecosystem Engagement

• Engage ecosystems including insurtechs, health networks, academic labs, data platforms, design studios, and early‑stage innovators.

• Harness external intelligence to identify breakthrough opportunities and accelerate market‑ready innovation.

• Position the company externally as a collaborator of choice for industry‑shaping partnerships.

• Represent the organization at strategic forums, innovation networks, and thought‑leadership events.

Experimentation & Pilot Acceleration

• Support the design and delivery of pilots across markets—from discovery to testing to validation—with speed, rigor, and discipline.

• Ensure pilots are human‑centered, meaningful, and designed to scale (not stall).

• Support markets in de‑risking experimentation while enabling bold innovation.

Global Collaboration & Adoption Enablement

• Work shoulder‑to‑shoulder with underwriting and claims teams globally to drive solution adoption.

• Remove barriers, simplify complexity, and create conditions that allow new ideas to take root and grow across diverse markets.

• Build global communities of practice that share insights, accelerate learning, and strengthen capability maturity.

 Stakeholder Leadership

• Build strong alignment across Underwriting, Operations, Technology, Risk, Distribution, and Product functions.

• Communicate complex concepts, progress, and insights with clarity, conviction, and strategic framing.

• Foster enterprise‑wide engagement and sponsorship for underwriting and claims innovation.

Team Growth & Culture Shaping

• Cultivate a team mindset rooted in curiosity, courage, pattern‑spotting, and interdisciplinary thinking.

• Bring together and develop global talent across underwriting, claims, technology, behavioral science, design, and adjacent fields.

• Create a broader organizational culture where “What if?” becomes the default mindset.

• Empower teams to think differently, challenge conventions, and pursue bold ideas responsibly. 

Required Qualifications:

• Ideally has worked in transformative and disruptive environments, scaling data-driven Health capabilities with AI (e.g: Google Health, Whoop, etc).

• Technological proficiency, experience with digital tools, data-driven decisioning, automation, and emerging AI technologies.

• A deep understanding of AI, data analysis, predictive analytics and the ability to apply these skills to predict longevity and health outcomes based on individual health profiles

• Experience applying AI/ML, automation, digital health intelligence, and advanced analytics within complex organizations.

• Exceptional strategic thinking and change management skills.

• Effective communication with/influence of stakeholders, strong negotiation skills and ability to build and maintain trust.

• Ability to guide cross‑functional team through ambiguity and experimentation.

• Extensive leadership experience in underwriting innovation, risk assessment, insurance transformation, health technology, or related fields.

• Demonstrated ability to lead in a global matrixed environment and deliver impact across diverse markets.

• An understanding of competitive dynamics, customer experience and needs and emerging risks would be an asset.

• Experience in life underwriting & claims management would be an asset.

This posting supports an ongoing hiring initiative for existing and/or future vacancies.

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].

Salary & Benefits

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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] 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.