Sponsor Financial Services (SFS) is seeking a highly analytical and governance-focused leader to establish and oversee the financial controls, monitoring, and governance framework across the SFS function. Reporting directly to the Director, Sponsor Financial Services, the Manager, Financial Controls & Governance will play a critical role in ensuring the integrity, completeness, and accuracy of financial and operational processes supporting sponsor billing, deposits, receivables, terminations, commission payments, and related financial activities.
This role serves as the central point of oversight for operational controls, financial risk mitigation, process governance, and deficiency management. The successful candidate will possess a strong understanding of end-to-end business processes and their downstream financial implications, with the ability to connect operational events to accounting outcomes, financial reporting, and General Ledger impacts.
The position requires a strategic thinker who can identify risks before they materialize, challenge existing processes, strengthen control environments, and provide leadership with confidence that key financial transactions are being processed accurately, consistently, and in accordance with established policies and regulatory requirements.
Position Responsibilities:
Financial Controls & Governance
- Design, implement, and continuously enhance the financial controls framework across all Sponsor Financial Services operations.
- Establish governance practices that ensure key financial processes are operating effectively and consistently.
- Develop and maintain a comprehensive inventory of operational controls, control owners, risk assessments, and remediation plans.
- Lead ongoing monitoring and validation of critical controls supporting sponsors related financial transactions.
- Identify control gaps, process deficiencies, and emerging risks, and drive corrective actions to resolution.
- Establish governance reporting that provides transparency to leadership on control effectiveness, deficiencies, remediation activities, and operational risks.
Operational Risk Management
- Proactively assess the financial and operational impact of process changes, system enhancements, new products, and business initiatives.
- Partner with operational teams to ensure risks are identified, evaluated, and mitigated prior to implementation.
- Serve as a key escalation point for operational and financial control concerns.
- Lead root cause analysis for material operational incidents and control failures and develop sustainable corrective actions.
- Maintain oversight of high-risk processes and ensure appropriate controls are operating effectively.
Financial Integrity & GL Oversight
- Develop a thorough understanding of the relationship between operational activities and financial accounting outcomes.
- Assess and challenge business processes to ensure resulting financial transactions accurately reflect intended accounting treatment.
- Analyze operational activities and identify potential impacts to General Ledger accounts and other financial balances.
- Partner closely with Finance, Financial Integrity & Controls (FIC), Compliance, Internal Audit, and Risk Management teams to strengthen financial integrity and reporting accuracy.
- Ensure financial reporting implications are considered in all major operational decisions and process changes.
Reporting & Analytics
- Develop executive-level dashboards and key risk indicators to support decision-making and oversight.
- Identify trends, anomalies, emerging risks, and control exceptions through data analysis and monitoring activities.
- Provide meaningful insights and recommendations to senior leadership based on control performance and operational risk exposure.
Leadership & Continuous Improvement
- Champion a culture of accountability, governance, risk awareness, and continuous improvement throughout SFS.
- Influence stakeholders across multiple functions to drive process improvements and strengthen control effectiveness.
- Lead initiatives to simplify, standardize, and automate controls wherever possible.
- Provide thought leadership on governance best practices and financial controls management.
- Support internal and external audits, regulatory reviews, and management examinations.
Required Qualifications:
- University degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, or a related field.
- CPA designation strongly preferred.
- Additional risk, audit, or governance certifications considered an asset.
- 7+ years of progressive experience in financial operations, financial controls, governance, audit, risk management, accounting, or financial oversight functions.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Demonstrated experience designing and managing control frameworks within large, complex organizations.
- Strong understanding of financial processes, operational risk management, and accounting principles.
- Experience assessing financial impacts of operational processes and translating operational activity into accounting and General Ledger outcomes.
- Proven ability to lead cross-functional initiatives involving multiple stakeholders and business areas.
- Experience supporting audits and remediation programs.
- Deep understanding of internal controls, operational risk, governance frameworks, and deficiency management.
- Strong ability to evaluate control effectiveness and identify gaps before they become issues.
- Ability to connect operational activities to financial results and General Ledger impacts.
- Strong understanding of accounting principles, reconciliations, financial reporting, and transaction flows.
- Ability to see the broader business implications of operational decisions.
- Capable of anticipating downstream impacts and identifying potential risks early.
- Demonstrated ability to apply artificial intelligence (AI) and automation technologies to strengthen governance practices, improve control effectiveness, identify emerging risks and opportunities, and drive operational excellence.
- Exceptional problem-solving and root cause analysis capabilities.
- Ability to synthesize large volumes of operational and financial information into actionable insights.
- Strong executive presence with the ability to effectively challenge, influence, and partner with leaders across teams.
- Demonstrated ability to drive accountability and deliver change within a matrixed environment.
Success Profile
The ideal candidate is someone who naturally asks:
- What is the financial impact of this operational process?
- What could go wrong, and how would we know?
- What controls exist today, and are they sufficient?
- How would this transaction ultimately affect the General Ledger and financial reporting?
- What governance mechanisms are required to prevent future deficiencies?
This individual will be recognized as the trusted authority on controls, governance, and financial integrity within Sponsor Financial Services, ensuring leadership has confidence in the accuracy, completeness, and effectiveness of critical business processes and their financial outcomes
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-HYBRID
The role being advertised is an existing vacancy.
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].
Referenced Salary Location
Waterloo, Ontario
Hybrid
Salary range is expected to be between
$85,300.00 CAD - $135,300.00 CAD
Employees also have the opportunity to participate in incentive programs and earn incentive compensation tied to business and individual performance. The actual salary will vary depending on local market conditions, geography and relevant job-related factors such as knowledge, skills, qualifications, experience, and education/training. If you are applying for this role outside of the primary location, please contact [email protected] for the salary range for your location.
Manulife offers eligible employees a wide array of customizable benefits, including health, dental, mental health, vision, short- and long-term disability, life and AD&D insurance coverage, adoption/surrogacy and wellness benefits, and employee/family assistance plans. We also offer eligible employees various retirement savings plans (including pension and a global share ownership plan with employer matching contributions) and financial education and counseling resources. Our generous paid time off program in Canada includes holidays, vacation, personal, and sick days, and we offer the full range of statutory leaves of absence. If you are applying for this role in the U.S., please contact [email protected] for more information about U.S.-specific paid time off provisions.
We use data and analytics technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), and automated processing tools, to analyze and process the information you provide to us or third parties in the application process. For more information, please refer to our personal information collection statement.
