AVP, Head of Data Governance and Enablement, Asia Data Office

Asia Data Office ("ADO") is a team of Data professionals enabling data as an asset for delivering business outcomes for the various markets in Asia as well as in the Asia segment. The ADO team of Data Analysts, Architects, Engineers and Business Intelligence Analysts are dedicated to ensuring quality data is made available for use cases in all areas that require data provisioning including Business Intelligence, Digital Applications, Advanced Analytics and Generative AI.

The position of Head of Data Enablement and Governance will report to the Chief Data Officer, Asia Data Office.

In today’s data-driven world, strong data governance is a business necessity because it ensures that an organization’s data is accurate, secure, consistent, and used responsibly. Given the sensitive nature of customer information—such as health records, financial details, and personal identifiers—strong Data Governance is essential to maintain trust, comply with regulatory requirements, and protect against data breaches. It also ensures consistency and quality in the data used for underwriting, claims processing, customer service, and analytics.

As Manulife looks to increasingly adopt AI and digital tools, data governance becomes even more critical to ensure that these technologies are grounded in reliable, ethical, and well-managed data.

The Head of Data Governance plays a critical leadership role in ensuring that a company’s data is managed as a strategic asset. In a life insurance company, this role is especially important due to the sensitivity, complexity, and regulatory requirements surrounding customer and policyholder data.

The Head of Data Enablement and Governance will lead the strategy and execution of data management and governance across Manulife Asia’s data platform. This role is pivotal in ensuring data is accurate, secure, accessible, and ethically used to drive business performance and customer outcomes.

This leader will oversee a multidisciplinary team of data analysts, governance SMEs, developers, and risk and controls specialists. They are responsible for establishing and operationalizing data governance frameworks, policies, and standards—defining data ownership, ensuring regulatory compliance, and enabling data accessibility for analytics and AI initiatives.

Success in this role requires a strong foundation in data and technology, coupled with deep expertise in information risk, controls, and governance. Equally important are exceptional stakeholder management skills, business acumen, and the ability to influence and collaborate across all levels of the organization, including executive leadership.

By embedding governance into everyday operations and fostering a culture of data trust, this role plays a critical part in unlocking the full value of data across the Asia segment whilst protecting our data at the same time.

Position Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership & Governance Implementation

• Hold overall accountability for the implementation of Global Data Governance policies, standards, and strategies across Asia.
• Drive the adoption of industry best practices for data governance tooling and oversee effective deployment.
• Act as the technology owner for technical solutions that support governance and data management standards.

Data Governance & Quality Management

• Lead the development of capabilities and technology solutions in key data governance areas, including data sharing, access management, data quality, data lineage, metadata management, data cataloging, and records management.
• Oversee the Data Quality Program across Asia, ensuring robust profiling, reporting, monitoring, and remediation to meet business requirements and standards.
• Identify and manage critical data assets and elements with clear definitions and ownership.
• Oversee the implementation of data access, security, privacy and compliance standards, ensuring compliance with data classification, access control, customer consent management, data quality management principles, legal and regulatory requirements.

Measurement, Audits & Compliance

• Track Data Governance KPIs to measure program effectiveness and demonstrate business value across Asia, ensuring alignment with senior leadership goals.
• Support audit processes related to Data Governance, Data Quality, Access Management, and Data Privacy domains to ensure regulatory compliance and risk mitigation.

Leadership, Budgeting & Team Development

• Provide leadership in budget planning, team recruitment, and organizational development for the Data Enablement & Governance function.
• Coach, mentor, and direct a diverse team of business and data analysts, governance specialists, developers, and risk and control experts.
• Lead cross-functional data governance initiatives across the Asia segment, managing medium-sized teams to drive business impact.

Key Shared Accountabilities:

Strategic Leadership & Governance Implementation

• Implementation of Global Data Governance Policies & Strategies: Involves collaboration with regional data governance leads and compliance teams to adapt policies to local regulatory requirements.
• Development of Data Governance Capabilities & Technology Solutions: Requires collaboration with IT teams who provide technical expertise, business units to define functional needs, and security teams to ensure adherence to risk policies.

Data Governance & Quality Management

• Oversight of the Data Quality Program: Shares accountabilities with Business units who rely on accurate data, data stewards to help execute profiling and remediation, and compliance team to ensure data integrity aligns with regulatory expectations.
• Data Governance Tooling Selection & Deployment: Works with IT teams to evaluate technical feasibility, procurement to manage vendor relationships, and finance team to ensures cost-effectiveness.
• Data Access & Privacy Standards Implementation: Requires close collaboration with Legal and compliance teams to ensure regulatory adherence, cybersecurity teams to set security protocols, and business units to manage access permissions.

Measurement, Audits & Compliance

• Audit Participation for Data Governance & Quality: Requires collaboration with risk teams to assess gaps, IT to ensure compliance with tech policies, and internal audit to review documentation and controls.

Leadership, Budgeting & Team Development

• Leadership, Budgeting & Team Development: Works with HR with recruitment, finance team to support budget planning, and senior leadership for strategic direction for talent development.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in information technology, Computer Science, Mathematics or a related field.
• 10-12 years of deep experience in data governance implementation, preferably in the financial industry.
• Proficiency in one or more of the following data governance and data quality management tools: MS Purview, Databricks Unity Catalog, Informatica Cloud Data Governance for Catalog & Data Quality, Precisely Data Integrity Suite, OneTrust Data Discovery & Classification, Talend Data Fabric.
• Robust understanding of the following technologies: SQL, Oracle RDBMS, MS Synapse, MS ADLS, MS Azure Data Factory, MS Cosmos DB, DataBricks, PowerBI.
• Good understanding of emerging technologies like OpenAI or other GenAI products.
• Excellent organizational and problem-solving abilities
• Knowledge of information risk management and regulatory compliance related processes, controls and tools
• Strong verbal and written communication with the ability to effectively articulate and communicate technical vision, possibilities, and outcomes across all levels in the organization.
• Excellent partner management, influencing, conflict resolution and negotiation skills

Problems/Challenges:

• Consistency and Compliance: Ensuring consistent implementation of data governance policies across diverse regulatory environments in Asia.
• Data Quality: Managing a comprehensive data quality program to maintain high standards, which requires robust tools and processes.
• Technology Integration: Recommending and integrating industry-standard data governance tools with existing systems, while keeping up with the latest technologies.
• Stakeholder Management: Building strong relationships and aligning various stakeholders with the data governance strategy.
• Privacy and Access Control: Implementing robust data privacy and access controls while ensuring regulatory compliance.
• Performance Measurement: Developing KPIs and reporting mechanisms to track and demonstrate the business value of data governance initiatives.
• Team Leadership: Leading and developing a diverse team to ensure high performance and adaptability.
• Audit and Compliance: Managing audits and compliance with data governance, quality, and privacy standards.
• Budget Management: Balancing technology investments with budget constraints.
• Change Management: Driving adoption of new processes and technologies through effective change management.
• Emerging Technologies: Integrating emerging technologies like AI into the governance framework.
• Cultural Differences: Navigating cultural and organizational differences across various markets in Asia.

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 recruitment@manulife.com.

Working Arrangement