Lead Full Stack Engineer, Agentic AI at Manulife · Toronto

Lead Full Stack Engineer, Agentic AI Location: Boston, Massachusetts The Lead Full Stack Engineer role at Manulife/John Hancock, will focus on Global Retirement Technology, offering the opportunity to sit at the intersection of enterprise engineering and cutting-edge Agentic AI. The position contributes to the company's transformation mission by designing and operationalizing autonomous AI agents that automate complex workflows, enhance developer productivity, and improve customer retirement journeys. The successful candidate will serve as a technical leader and architect — shaping how AI is adopted safely and responsibly across a large financial services organization. They'll gain hands-on experience building real-world AI agent systems at enterprise scale, with exposure to governance, compliance, and cross-divisional strategy. This will be a high-impact opportunity for an engineer to lead meaningful innovation while mentoring teams and influencing platform direction. Position Responsibilities Design and implement autonomous AI agents (planner-executor, RAG-based) to automate internal workflows (code review, incident triage) and customer-facing journeys (plan enrollment, personalized nudges) Architect microservices, event-driven, and serverless cloud solutions; design APIs and event streams enabling safe agent action Embed AI governance controls including guardrails, prompt/content filtering, PII handling, bias checks, and human-in-theloop escalation Lead root cause analyses, observability integration, and AIOps for CI/CD and incident response Evaluate third-party AI platforms and model providers; lead cost/performance trade-off discussions Mentor engineers in AI-safe design, prompt engineering, agent orchestration, and evaluation practices Define success metrics (task completion rates, MTTR, customer outcomes) and operate agents with SLIs/SLOs Required Qualifications 10+ years in Senior Digital Engineering roles, partnering with Architecture groups Hands-on experience with Java Spring Boot, .NET, React, Node.js, Python, and SQL at large scale Experience with cloud platforms, specifically AKS, with containerized services and model serving Proficiency with DevOps tooling: GitHub Actions, SonarQube, Fortify, Snyk Experience with monitoring/logging tools such as New Relic Knowledge of data platforms such as Azure Databricks and building compliant data pipelines Experience on large transformation projects including AI adoption roadmaps and governance Bachelor of Science in Computer Science or equivalent Financial Services experience preferred Preferred Qualifications Experience with LLMs and orchestration frameworks such as LangChain/LangGraph and agent patterns (Planner-Executor) Building RAG systems using vector databases (e.g., Azure AI Search) and knowledge graphs; prompt engineering and evaluation Model hosting and inference experience (Azure OpenAI Service, Llama/OSS models) with cost/latency optimization Safety, compliance, and governance expertise: policy enforcement, PII/PCI handling, and auditability in regulated environments Strong MLOps/LLMOps skills: data curation, evals, telemetry, and prompt/version management 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. If you are applying to this role in Massachusetts, please note the salary range is $127,330.00 - $ 236,470.00 USD. Additionally, employees also have the opportunity to participate in incentive programs and earn incentive compensation tied to business and individual performance. 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 Boston, Massachusetts Working Arrangement Hybrid Salary range is expected to be between $127,330.00 USD - $236,470.00 USD 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/John Hancock 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/401(k) savings plans and a global share ownership plan with employer matching contributions) and financial education and counseling resources. Our generous paid time off program in the U.S. includes up to 11 paid holidays, 3 personal days, 150 hours of vacation, and 40 hours of sick time (or more where required by law) each year, and we offer the full range of statutory leaves of absence. 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. Know Your Rights I Family & Medical Leave I Employee Polygraph Protection I Right to Work I E-Verify Company: John Hancock Life Insurance Company (U.S.A.) Additional Locations: Toronto, Ontario