The Head of Product Development plays a pivotal leadership role in shaping, developing, enhancing, and managing insurance products across their full lifecycle. This role is responsible for translating customer insights, market trends, and regulatory requirements into innovative, customer‑centric product strategies that drive sustainable growth and ensure competitiveness in a rapidly evolving insurance landscape.

By translating customer insights, market trends, and regulatory requirements into innovative, customer‑centric product solutions, the Head of Product Development ensures a competitive and differentiated product portfolio. The role works closely with cross‑functional teams including actuarial, underwriting, legal, compliance, operations, distribution, and technology to deliver high‑quality products that support sustainable growth in a dynamic and evolving insurance market.

Position Responsibilities:

• Build strong partnership with Proposition leads in building a proposition-driven approach to product development that ensures consistent customer and cross-channel alignment.
• Establish structured product management rhythms (reviews, checkpoints, and governance) to balance short-term delivery with long-term innovation.
• Redesign of the product development lifecycle to enable faster, more structured, and commercially aligned go-to-market execution. Leverage AI to improve and fasten works.
• Introduce prioritization frameworks and governance models to replace ad hoc, request-driven workflows with strategic decision-making.
• Elevate the product development team’s role from technical execution to strategic leadership, embedding commercial thinking into product planning and evaluation.
• Strengthen stakeholder engagement across senior leadership to ensure alignment, sponsorship, and visibility of product initiatives.
• Serve as the key interface between product, business leadership, and enabling functions, ensuring clarity of priorities and disciplined execution.
• Support Head of Product Delivery and Governance with ad-hoc projects and presentations.

Required Qualifications:

• A minimum bachelor’s degree in Actuarial, Financial, Business, or related field of study; preferably part-qualified or qualified actuary with a pricing actuarial background.
• Minimum 12 years’ experience in Product Development, Proposition, and/or Pricing functions in Life Insurance industry.
• Understanding business processes and product development cycles.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to balance technical detail and commercial impact.
• Proven leadership skills, strategic thinking, decision making and execution skills.
• Able to provide professional advice, communicate difficult concepts and information, converts technical information into business information and advices.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills (Bahasa and English) with the ability to influence stakeholders across the business.
• Proactive, detail-oriented, and comfortable working in a fast-paced environment. Able and willing to work with AI to eliminate manual works and improve quality.
• Self – driven to proactively identify what needs to be addresses and prioritized to best achieve objectives of the role.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Solid interpersonal skills to effectively build relationships and communicate with other departments

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.

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].

Hybrid