Director, Expense FP&A - Canada Segment at Manulife in Toronto

Director, Expense FP&A - Canada Segment

Location: Toronto, Ontario

Role Overview:

The Director, Expense FP&A - Canada Segment is a senior finance leader responsible for providing strategic financial leadership, advisory, and oversight across the Canada Segment. This role leads the FP&A function supporting Canada's major business units, including Retail Insurance, Group Benefits, Affinity, Bank, Wealth, and Shared Services, acting as the primary finance business partner to Canada Business Unit leadership teams.

The role is focused on enabling superior financial performance, forecast predictability, expense discipline, and decision support while helping business leaders balance growth, productivity, investment priorities, and affordability objectives. The successful candidate will build strong partnerships across the Canada Segment, leveraging data-driven insights to influence strategic decisions, optimize expenses, and support enterprise transformation initiatives.

Why This Role?

Position Responsibilities:

Strategic FP&A Leadership & Business Partnership (≈50%)

• Lead the end-to-end expense FP&A agenda for the Canada Segment, including forecasting, planning, risks and opportunities, management reporting, and executive presentations.

• Serve as the primary finance business partner to Canada Business Unit leaders across Retail Insurance, Group Benefits, Affinity, Bank, Wealth, and other segment functions.

• Provide proactive financial guidance, insights, and recommendations to support strategic, operational, and investment decisions.

• Improve forecast accuracy, transparency, and predictability through strong financial analysis, business engagement, and disciplined planning processes.

• Partner with Business Unit leadership teams to identify productivity opportunities, optimize expense performance, and support achievement of financial targets.

• Support executive discussions related to growth initiatives, business cases, operating expense management, workforce planning, and investment prioritization.

• Collaborate closely with Group Finance, Global Functions Finance, and other partners to ensure alignment across planning and reporting activities.

Expense Management, Governance & Decision Support (≈25%)

• Provide financial oversight and challenge across Canada Segment operating expenses, ensuring alignment with strategic objectives and affordability targets.

• Lead expense reviews, variance analysis, and root-cause assessments to identify emerging risks and opportunities.

• Support governance and approval processes for significant investments, productivity initiatives, organization changes, and business cases.

• Ensure expenditures are managed in accordance with enterprise financial policies, governance standards, and control requirements.

• Deliver timely and actionable insights to support business performance discussions and leadership decision-making.

Process Excellence, Automation & Transformation (≈15%)

• Advance the FP&A agenda through process simplification, automation, and enhanced analytics.

• Improve the efficiency, scalability, and effectiveness of planning, forecasting, and management reporting processes.

• Leverage data, tools, and self-service reporting capabilities to provide enhanced business insights and decision support.

• Support broader Finance Transformation initiatives and implement best practices to modernize FP&A capabilities.

Finance Leadership & Operating Model Excellence (≈10%)

• Contribute to the evolution of the Expense FP&A operating model, driving consistency, accountability, and execution excellence across the finance organization.

• Act as a trusted advisor to senior Finance leaders on expense management strategies, forecasting methodologies, and performance improvement opportunities.

• Foster collaboration across Segment Finance, Corporate Functions, and Enterprise FP&A teams to drive aligned outcomes and insights.

People Leadership

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of FP&A professionals, fostering a high-performance, collaborative, and inclusive culture.

• Build organizational capability through talent development, succession planning, and continuous learning.

• Establish clear accountability for results while supporting employee engagement, growth, and career progression.

Required Qualifications:

• 10+ years of progressive Finance experience with deep expertise in FP&A, business partnering, and executive stakeholder management.

• Experience supporting large business units, segments, or P&L organizations within financial services or similarly complex environments.

• Proven ability to influence senior leaders and drive business decisions through financial insights and trusted advisory relationships.

• Demonstrated experience leading forecasting, planning, expense management, and performance reporting processes.

• Strong track record of driving process improvement, transformation, and operational excellence initiatives.

• Experience managing and developing high-performing teams.

• Undergraduate degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business, or a related field.

• CPA, CFA, MBA, or equivalent professional designation preferred.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Strategic mindset with the ability to connect financial performance, business strategy, growth objectives, and expense management.

• Exceptional relationship-building and influencing skills, with the ability to partner effectively with senior executives and business leaders.

• Strong commercial acumen and ability to translate complex financial data into actionable business insights.

• Excellent communication, executive presentation, and financial storytelling capabilities.

• Proven ability to balance long-term strategic priorities with short-term operational execution.

• High degree of judgment, accountability, and governance orientation.

• Advanced analytical and problem-solving skills with a passion for continuous improvement and modern FP&A practices.

• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment while managing multiple priorities and stakeholder requirements.

• Bilingualism (English and French) is an asset. 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.

#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

Toronto, OntarioHybrid

Salary range is expected to be between

$125,100.00 CAD - $175,100.00 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.