Lead Full Stack Engineer (Director level)

Manulife Lead Full Stack Engineer (Director level) in Toronto, Ontario

The Opportunity

We are seeking an experienced Lead Full Stack Engineer to lead our Global Virtual Assistant Capability. The role involves developing strategy with IT business partners, managing the engineering team, and aligning with business goals. Responsibilities include hands-on coding using Microsoft Azure Technologies, sustaining and innovating the Virtual Assistant capability, and managing stakeholder and vendor relationships.

This role is at the Director level starting as an individual contributor but the possibility of People leadership exists in the future. Strong leadership and people management skills are crucial.

The ideal candidate will have expertise in full stack development, specifically in integrating advanced predictive language models and microservices using the Azure Bot Framework for Customer facing ChatBot.

Effective communication and collaboration with cross-functional teams are essential.

Office location: Ideally Boston - USA or optional Toronto - Canada

Work arrangement: Hybrid - 3 days in office, 2 days from Home (Remote working option is not available)

Key Responsibilities:

1. Strategic Leadership of the Customer facing Virtual Assistant Capability
   • Develop, prioritize and implement the long-term strategic plan for Customer facing Virtual Assistant, aligning it with the company’s business and technology goals.
   • Co-own and drive progress towards target state partnering with the architect.
   • Assess new Technology trends and features for customer servicing, business growth, and efficiency potential.
   • Drive initiatives to improve and optimize the Chatbot platform, ensuring scalability and adherence to best practices.
   • Design, develop, and maintain scalable and efficient full stack applications for virtual assistants using Microsoft Azure technologies.
   • Integrate advanced predictive language models, such as CLU, into our bot initiatives.
   • Utilize the Azure Bot Framework to build and deploy conversational AI solutions.
   • Collaborate with solution architects to ensure robust and scalable architecture design.
   • Develop and maintain microservices to support bot functionalities.
   • Implement front-end solutions using React.js and ensure seamless integration with mobile platforms.
   • Provide regular technical status updates and communicate effectively with stakeholders.
2. Team Leadership and People Management
   • Guide, mentor, and support team members to create a cooperative, high-performance team.
   • Manage team capacity, resource allocation, and performance to ensure timely and quality project delivery while improving overall efficiency and effectiveness of the squads.
   • Create and implement career development plans for team members.
   • Act as the main contact between Engineering Team and stakeholders from various segments, ensuring projects meet business needs and are delivered on time.
   • Foster strong relationships with Vendor, collaborating to assess new tools and services.
   • Communicate with internal leaders and architecture to discuss platform performance, prioritize tasks, and highlight Chatbot’s value.
3. Platform Delivery and Project Execution
   • Direct the planning, execution, and completion of projects, meeting timelines, scope, budget, and business objectives.
   • Manage platform performance and enhancements to keep the system secure, stable, and scalable.
   • Set prioritization to balance immediate project needs with long-term platform development.
   • Apply Agile methodologies for efficient, iterative project delivery and ongoing improvement.
   • Review and align delivery cycles, pipelines, business continuity plans.
4. Governance, Compliance, and Best Practices
   • Develop and enforce governance frameworks for Chatbots to ensure alignment with internal policies, security, and regulations. Establish and track KPIs for platform health, project completion, and business outcomes.
   • Maintain robust data governance with secure, private, and well-managed data protocols.
   • Work with the architects to drive design authority for the deliverables. This includes designing and delivering against lean principles, delivery and quality automation, and integrating best practices to improve platform efficiency end-to-end.
5. Collaboration and Cross-Functional Leadership
   • Collaborate with various business partners and other technology teams to ensure smooth integration with the broader IT infrastructure, including enterprise applications and data sources.
   • Work closely with business to encourage adoption and optimize value from chatbots.
   • Oversee training, user adoption, and change management initiatives to enhance platform usage throughout the organization.
   • Communicate platform maturity and progress towards target state via dashboards, scorecards, etc.
   • Communicate delivery efficiency such as velocity, burn-down metrics, code quality, etc., to IT stakeholders.

Required Qualifications

1. Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
2. At least 8 - 10 years in IT experience
3. Proven experience as a Full Stack Engineer, with a focus on AI and virtual assistant technologies.
4. Strong proficiency with at least 7+ years in C#.NET and experience with solution architecture.
5. In-depth understanding of the Azure Bot Framework and microservices integration.
6. Experience with advanced predictive language models, such as CLU.
7. Proficiency in React.js framework and mobile development.
8. Leadership skills including strategic, thought, and people leadership
9. Excellent communication skills, with the ability to provide clear technical updates.
10. Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to work independently and as part of a team.
11. Extensive experience handling vendor relationships, especially with Amazon, and assessing new products or features.

Skills and Competencies

1. Leadership: Proven skills in leading and developing high-performing teams, promoting teamwork, accountability, and growth.
2. Stakeholder Management: Excellent interpersonal and communication abilities for engaging with senior leaders, executives, and vendors.
3. Vendor Management: Experience managing the partnership with vendors to maximize benefits and evaluate products.
4. Project Management: Skilled in overseeing projects from start to finish, ensuring alignment with business goals, timelines, and budgets.
5. Strategic Thinking: Strong strategic mindset balancing long-term platform growth with short-term needs.
6. Technical Expertise: In-depth knowledge of Chatbot architecture and integrations.

Additional Information

This role requires strong collaboration across teams, an innovative mindset, and the ability to drive both strategic and operational excellence for the Customer facing Virtual Assistant program at a global level. Some travel may be required to engage with key stakeholders and vendor partners. Familiarity with other AI and machine learning frameworks would be desirable.

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-JH

$124,250.00 USD - $230,750.00 USD

Company: John Hancock Life Insurance Company (U.S.A.)