Program analyst Jobs in Waterloo, ON

Business Analyst role on the Document Management Platform team is a high-impact opportunity to shape how John Hancock communicates with its customers at key moments, especially for new products and long-term care. You’ll sit at the intersection of business, technology, and operations, turning complex requirements into clear, implementable solutions on the SmartCOMM platform.

Your work will directly support John Hancock’s mission to make decisions easier and lives better by ensuring communications are accurate, timely, and easy to understand. In this role, you’ll gain deep domain expertise, end-to-end delivery experience, strong cross-functional collaboration skills, and increased technical and analytical capabilities, all while having visible impact on critical customer-facing processes.

Office location: Boston - USA, or Toronto - Canada or Waterloo - Canada

Work arrangement: Hybrid - 3 days from Office (from nearest office), 2 days from Home; Working remotely option is not available.

Position Responsibilities:

Requirements Analysis & Data Mapping

• Review and interpret XSDs and related data models from admin systems to ensure required data elements are available to support SmartCOMM templates and communications.

• Gather and analyze mock-ups and business inputs for new or updated customer communications (e.g., letters, statements, invoices) and participate in walkthroughs with business and admin stakeholders.

• Translate business needs and mock-ups into clear Business Requirements Documents (BRDs), use cases, and detailed field-level mapping specifications between source systems (XSD/XML) and SmartCOMM templates.

• Create, maintain, and validate end-to-end data mapping documentation, ensuring completeness, accuracy, and alignment with business rules, regulatory requirements, and design standards.

Stakeholder Engagement & Communication

• Serve as a primary liaison between business partners, admin/system teams, SmartCOMM developers, and external vendors to ensure shared understanding of scope, requirements, and constraints.

• Communicate requirements, BRDs, and mapping specifications clearly to the development and QA teams, addressing follow-up questions and clarifications in a timely manner.

• Facilitate resolution of technical and requirements-related questions, balancing business needs, technical feasibility, and platform standards.

Integration & Vendor Coordination

• Coordinate integration activities with admin systems to ensure data feeds, APIs, and file exchanges support the required document generation and distribution workflows.

• Collaborate with print/output vendors (e.g., RRD) and internal partners to support successful delivery of physical and digital communications, including testing and operational readiness.

Testing, Quality, and Defect Management

• Plan, coordinate, and support end-to-end testing of SmartCOMM solutions, from data extraction through document generation and delivery across all channels (PDF, print, digital).

• Partner with admin/system teams to secure required test data, extracts, and XMLs for QA and UAT purposes.

• Review and analyze QA queries and defects, validating against requirements and design; work with stakeholders to determine whether findings represent true defects or acceptable behavior and drive resolution.

Governance, Reporting, and Continuous Improvement

• Participate in core team, governance, and prioritization meetings to report on status, risks, issues, and dependencies related to SmartCOMM initiatives.

• Provide clear, concise, and timely updates on requirements progress, mapping completion, integration readiness, and testing outcomes to stakeholders and leadership.

• Identify opportunities to standardize templates, mappings, and processes across communications, contributing to continuous improvement of the Document Management Platform and SmartCOMM delivery practices.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Information Systems, Computer Science, Software Engineering or related field; equivalent combination of education and experience considered.

• Minimum 4 years of IT industry experience is required coupled with 0–2 years of experience in a Business Analyst, business systems, or related analytical role (internships, co‑op, or project experience acceptable).

• Technical & Domain Skills (Role-Specific)

• Experience with REST API integration/services.

• Foundational understanding of software development and system integration concepts.

• Strong understanding of XML/XSD and basic data mapping is required

• Training will be provided for SmartCOMM-specific patterns.

• Analysis & Requirements Skills

• Ability to gather information from stakeholders and help document requirements in a clear, structured format (e.g., process flows, simple BRDs, user stories, acceptance criteria).

• Strong attention to detail with the ability to analyze and validate data, mock‑ups, and test results against documented requirements.

• Basic understanding of testing concepts (system, integration, UAT) and willingness to support test planning and defect triage.

• Communication & Collaboration

• Strong written and verbal communication skills; able to summarize issues and requirements clearly for both business and technical audiences.

• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a team environment and collaborate across business, IT, and vendor partners.

• Comfortable participating in meetings, asking clarifying questions, and following up on action items.

• Comfort working with standard productivity and collaboration tools (e.g., Excel, PowerPoint, Visio/Miro, Confluence/SharePoint, Jira/Azure DevOps).

• Interest in learning customer communications technologies (SmartCOMM or similar CCM tools) and document management processes.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Exposure to financial services, insurance, or technology projects is an asset but not required.

• Large environment complexity exposure is desired but not a must

• 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.

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 .

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 .

Referenced Salary Location

Boston, Massachusetts

Working Arrangement

Hybrid

Salary range is expected to be between

$90,160.00 USD - $167,440.00 USD

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 for the salary range for your location.

Manulife/John Hancock 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/401(k) savings plans and a global share ownership plan with employer matching contributions) and financial education and counseling resources. Our generous paid time off program in the U.S. includes up to 11 paid holidays, 3 personal days, 150 hours of vacation, and 40 hours of sick time (or more where required by law) each year, and we offer the full range of statutory leaves of absence.

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 .

I I I I

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