Director Program Manager

Role Purpose

The Director, Project Management Office (PMO) is a senior leadership role responsible for enterprise‑level delivery execution, Agile Release Train (ART) performance, and program governance across critical technology and business initiatives.

This role acts as the servant leader for large, complex Agile Release Trains, ensuring predictable, high‑quality delivery through strong Program Increment (PI) planning, cross‑team alignment, dependency management, and continuous improvement.

The Director will work closely with Product, Technology, Architecture, and Business Leadership to translate strategic priorities into disciplined, outcome‑driven execution.

A strong background in wealth management, Insurance or financial services is highly preferred, with proven experience operating in regulated, risk‑aware environments.

Key Responsibilities

Enterprise Agile & Release Train Leadership

• Provide overall leadership and accountability for multiple Agile Release Trains (ARTs) within the PMO portfolio.
• Be part of Agile Product Team and Act as the senior Release Train Engineer (RTE), ensuring ARTs operate with discipline, transparency, and alignment to enterprise priorities.
• Champion Scaled Agile (SAFe) practices, ensuring consistent adoption across teams while allowing pragmatic flexibility where appropriate.

Program Increment (PI) Planning & Execution

• Lead and govern PI Planning, ART Sync, System Demos, and Inspect & Adapt events, ensuring clear objectives, realistic commitments, and measurable outcomes.
• Ensure dependencies, risks, and capacity constraints are identified early, managed proactively, and escalated appropriately.
• Drive end‑to‑end PI execution, tracking progress against planned objectives and facilitating course correction when required.

Delivery Management, Flow & Metrics

• Establish and monitor delivery excellence standards, including flow, predictability, quality, and value realization.
• Own ART‑level metrics and dashboards, including:
  • Predictability and plan vs. actual delivery
  • Flow efficiency and throughput
  • Dependency health and risk indicators
• Use data‑driven insights to coach teams and leaders, improve outcomes, and support executive decision‑making.

Coaching, Servant Leadership & Capability Building

• Serve as a servant leader, coach, and mentor to RTEs, Scrum Masters, Project Managers, and delivery leaders.
• Build a high‑performing PMO culture rooted in accountability, psychological safety, continuous improvement, and outcome focus.
• Support enterprise‑wide Agile maturity growth, moving teams from execution‑focused delivery to value‑driven outcomes.

Stakeholder & Executive Engagement

• Act as a trusted partner to senior business and technology stakeholders, ensuring delivery transparency and alignment with strategic intent.
• Translate complex delivery information into clear, executive‑ready insights for leadership, governance forums, and investment decisions.
• Balance competing priorities across regulatory, operational, and strategic initiatives.

PMO Governance & Continuous Improvement

• Define and continuously evolve PMO governance, standards, and ways of working suited to Agile and SAFe environments.
• Ensure alignment between portfolio funding, roadmap planning, and delivery execution.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives to enhance speed, quality, accountability, and customer impact.

Required Skills & Experience

Agile & SAFe Expertise

• Deep understanding of SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) and strong working knowledge of Scrum, Kanban, and Lean‑Agile practices.
• Hands‑on experience leading Agile Release Trains as a Release Train Engineer (RTE), including PI Planning and ART execution.
• Experience operating Agile delivery at enterprise scale.

Leadership & Coaching

• Proven ability to lead, coach, and mentor senior delivery leaders and teams.
• Strong servant‑leadership mindset with the ability to influence without authority.
• Demonstrated success in driving cultural and behavioral change at scale.

Delivery & Analytical Skills

• Strong experience in delivery metrics, dashboards, and performance analysis.
• Excellent analytical, problem‑solving, and decision‑making capabilities.
• Ability to manage ambiguity and complexity in fast‑changing environments.

Tools & Technology

• Proficiency with enterprise Agile tooling, including:
  • Jira
  • Confluence
• Comfort operating in data‑driven delivery and reporting environments.

Industry Experience

• Wealth management or financial services experience strongly preferred.
• Understanding of regulatory, compliance, and risk considerations in financial institutions is a significant advantage.

Communication & Stakeholder Management

• Exceptional facilitation, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to communicate effectively at team, program, and executive leadership levels in both Japanese and English

Internal Guidelines about Work from Home:

Hybrid Model, following Manulife’s Working Better guidelines.

Over time:

0-40 hours/month.

Salary:

Based on our Work Rules, we will consider your experience, skills and knowledge when we decide the salary.

Commutation allowance and Variable Incentive Bonus are paid based on our Work Rules.

Working Hours:

Standard Working Hours: 9:00am - 5:00pm  (Include 1 hour break. Flex-time system available)

Benefits:

Social Insurance (Health Insurance, Employees' Pension, Unemployment Insurance, Worker's Accident Insurance), Benefit One, Training system (include Japanese lesson / English lesson), Childcare Leave/Family care Leave, Baby-sitter support program, wiwiw System (Support program for those who take Childcare Leave), Retirement Pension (only for Regular employee).

Holidays/Vacations:

Saturdays and Sundays

National Holidays

Year-end and new year holidays (December 30, December 31, January 2 and January 3)

Annual Paid Holiday

For Regular employee, other special holidays are available (e.g. Anniversary Leave, etc.)

Location:

Hatsudai Head Office, Tokyo Opera City, 3-20-2 Nishi Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Japan

What motivates you?

• You obsess about customers, listen, engage and act for their benefit 
• You think big, with curiosity to discover ways to use your agile mindset and enable business outcomes 
• You thrive in teams, and enjoy getting things done together
• You take ownership and build solutions, focusing on what matters 
• You do what is right, work with integrity and speak up
• You share your humanity, helping us build a diverse and inclusive work environment for everyone 

Our commitment to you

• Our mission; to be a part of making Decisions Easier and Lives Better
• A leadership team dedicated to your growth and success 
• A bold ambition and set of goals to be a leader in driving transformation in our industry 
• Our best. Every day. 

Learn more about opportunities with us at jobs.manulife.com    

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.