Strategy Lead

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

The Strategy Lead is an integral contributor to development, governance and realization of Manulife’s Strategy in Singapore. The role partners cross functionally and with local and regional teams to assist with strategy development, linking strategic goals/priorities to initiatives with defined outcomes/benefits to deliver transformation. In doing so, the role enables and supports the business to build realistic plans of attack that align investment to resource commitment, measures of success and benefits.

Responsibilities:

Strategy development, strategic planning and deliverables

• Support the implementation of the Strategic Planning process in Singapore, including assisting development of functional strategies, as well as co-ordinating the development of Plan documents with various Local and Regional stakeholders.
• Support the development of strategic deliverables / reports (including annual strategic plan, strategy presentations, GM Scorecards, Board Papers, Rating Agency papers, CEO Comms, Townhall papers, business reviews, memos and any other ad-hoc requests), for at local and regional level various strategic forums.
• Supporting the Head of Strategy and wider leadership team to assist, as required, with the development and monitoring of key strategic initiatives, enabling the delivery of business strategic objectives
• Lead / support the creation of new strategic projects including, framing and sizing of opportunities, evaluation of options for decisioning, establish delivery dependencies and KPIs, working closely with leaders across the organization.
• Build best in class reporting and analytics; provide proactive recommendations to drive enhancements across reporting and analytics

Industry and competitor analysis

• Work with multiple local and regional stakeholders to research and compile relevant market and competitive intelligence profiles, including building actionable insights, as well as staying abreast of relevant external developments.

What we are looking for:

• Bachelor’s degree with at 5-8 years’ relevant experience in financial services (life insurance industry preferred).
• Previous strategy, actuarial, finance or corporate development experience working for a multinational company, accounting firm, investment bank, private equity or strategy consulting firm.
• Knowledge of enterprise PMO, PMO governance, and/or investment planning.   
• Strong PowerPoint skills: ability to manoeuvre complex information and distil into key meaningful insights and high impact slides to tell a story
• Strong financial modelling skills/data analysis: ability to build complex financial models and translate financial information and actuarial/accounting data into useful and applicable information.  
• Project management: experience executing projects by developing deliverables timelines and effectively managing stakeholders. 
• Stakeholder management: effectively manage senior 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.   
• Communication: excellent speaking and writing skills are required to convey key messages in a succinct manner.  
• PowerPoint, Word and Excel:  expert skills on PowerPoint with the ability to tell a story and sell a message. Can analyse large quantities of data, generate charts in Excel. Should have the ability to translate what the data is saying into applicable and useful information.    
• Candidates with less experience will be considered for the Strategy & Transformation Analyst position

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 are required 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 has the initiative 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.  
• Detail oriented: important to pay extra attention to detail to ensure the highest quality of work is submitted to senior management for their review. 
• Perseverance, team player and hard work ethic: seeing things to completion despite obstacles is a key requirement.
• Research, analysis and problem-solving strong problem-solving abilities by identifying issues, taking a logical approach to finding an answer based on research and sound analysis.

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 recruitment@manulife.com.