Position Overview:
The Solution Architect is responsible for owning and shaping technical solutions at the value-stream and product level, ensuring architectural alignment, scalability, and adherence to Guardian standards. This role is hands-on and execution-oriented, partnering closely with Tech Leads, Product Owners, and delivery teams to translate business needs into sound, secure, and resilient technology solutions.
This role operates within a federated Enterprise Architecture (EA) model, partnering closely with business technology and platform teams to shape solutions in real time while improving accountability, speed, and delivery alignment. The architect remains connected to the central EA core through enterprise standards, governance, communities of practice, and cross-functional collaboration to ensure consistent, risk-aware technology decisions across domains.
The Solution Architect focuses on solution design, delivery enablement, and technical problem solving, building solutions while collaborating with Business stakeholders, Enterprise Architecture and platform teams to align with broader enterprise patterns.
Key Responsibilities:
Owns product/team-level solution design and delivery architecture
Works with Principal Solution Architect for patterns/guardrails; Head of Portfolio Architecture for BU priorities; Principal Enterprise Architect only when enterprise exceptions or cross-domain conflicts arise
Own product- and team-level technical architecture decisions within a value stream.
Design and document solution architectures, including application, integration, data, and infrastructure components.
Partner with Product Owners and Tech Leads to align roadmaps, MVP scope, and technical trade-offs.
Ensure solutions follow Guardian architecture standards, security requirements, and design patterns.
Collaborate with Enterprise Architecture and platform teams to reuse enterprise capabilities where appropriate.
Identify, manage, and help resolve technical dependencies and impediments impacting delivery.
Provide hands-on guidance to teams on design quality, code structure, and technical approaches.
Lead proof-of-concepts for new business capabilities, Influencing Technology Strategy, Solution Design, Architecture Standards.
Mentor engineers on architecture principles, design decisions, and problem-solving techniques.
Continuously look for opportunities to simplify designs, reduce technical debt, and improve delivery efficiency.
Where applicable, the role will be accountable to build solutions that scale and algin to business and technology requirements.
Available for production incidents with major impact to business operations
You Have:
Strong experience designing and delivering enterprise-scale technology solutions.
Working knowledge of cloud platforms, APIs, data integration, and modern application architectures.
Experience collaborating within Agile / product-based delivery models.
Experience in designing hybrid architectures where applications reside both on-premise and public cloud including understanding of cloud provider services.
Proven track record of architecting solutions that demand operating large scale business critical systems in Insurance domain.
Good understanding of GenAI frameworks, tools and best practices
Ability to balance speed, quality, risk, and long-term sustainability in technical decisions.
Strong communication skills to translate technical concepts for business and delivery stakeholders.
Experience producing product-level and team-level technical design documentation.
Location: 3 days per week in New York NY, Holmdel NJ, Bethlehem PA, or Stamford CT
Salary Range:
$118,980.00 - $195,465.00The salary range reflected above is a good faith estimate of base pay for the primary location of the position. The salary for this position ultimately will be determined based on the education, experience, knowledge, and abilities of the successful candidate. In addition to salary, this role may also be eligible for annual, sales, or other incentive compensation.
Our Promise
At Guardian, you’ll have the support and flexibility to achieve your professional and personal goals. Through skill-building, leadership development and philanthropic opportunities, we provide opportunities to build communities and grow your career, surrounded by diverse colleagues with high ethical standards.
Inspire Well-Being
As part of Guardian’s Purpose – to inspire well-being – we are committed to offering contemporary, supportive, flexible, and inclusive benefits and resources to our colleagues. Explore our company benefits at www.guardianlife.com/careers/corporate/benefits. Benefits apply to full-time eligible employees. Interns are not eligible for most Company benefits.
Equal Employment Opportunity
Guardian is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to age, race, color, creed, religion, sex, affectional or sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, marital status, disability, military or veteran status, or any other classification protected by applicable law.
Accommodations
Guardian is committed to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, its services, programs, and activities. Guardian also provides reasonable accommodations to qualified job applicants (and employees) to accommodate the individual's known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, unless doing so would create an undue hardship. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact [email protected]. Please note: this resource is for accommodation requests only. For all other inquires related to your application and careers at Guardian, refer to the Guardian Careers site.
Visa Sponsorship
Guardian Life is not currently or in the foreseeable future sponsoring employment-based visas (e.g., such as an H-1B). In order to be a successful applicant, you must be legally authorized to work in the United States, without the need for employer sponsorship/support now or at any time in the future.
Notice Regarding Guardian’s Use of Artificial Intelligence in Recruitment
As part of Guardian’s job application process, Guardian may use artificial intelligence tools (“AI Tools") to automate the sorting and filtering of information provided by applicants as part of its preliminary screening. This preliminary screening may be used to help identify applicant materials and resumes relative to their indication that the applicant meets the requirements for the specific job for which they are applying, as specified in the listing posted on Guardian’s jobs website (Careers at Guardian at https://www.guardianlife.com/careers). At Guardian, we do not use AI Tools to substantially assist or replace human judgment or discretionary decision making in our hiring process. All hiring decisions will be made by Guardian colleagues.
Please be aware that if you apply for a specific position with Guardian, you will have the choice of opting out of Guardian’s use of AI Tools during the job application process. If you would like to request an alternative process that does not utilize AI Tools or would like to request a reasonable accommodation, within ten business days of your position application, you must email your request to [email protected], making sure to provide your name and job requisition identification number. Guardian will retain your applicant materials and resume and all information therefrom in accordance with Guardian’s document retention policy, a copy of which you may request via [email protected].
Additionally, at applicable times, Guardian will make public the most recent bias audit results for such AI tools, which may be found here.
Current Guardian Colleagues: Please apply through the internal Jobs Hub in Workday.
Skills Required
- Experience designing and delivering enterprise-scale technology solutions
- Working knowledge of cloud platforms and public cloud services
- Experience with APIs and data integration
- Experience with modern application architectures and hybrid on-premise/public cloud designs
- Proven track record operating large scale business-critical systems in the Insurance domain
- Good understanding of GenAI frameworks, tools, and best practices
- Experience collaborating within Agile / product-based delivery models
- Ability to produce product-level and team-level technical design documentation
- Strong communication skills to translate technical concepts for business stakeholders
- Availability for production incidents with major business impact (on-call availability)
Guardian Life Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Guardian Life and has not been reviewed or approved by Guardian Life.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Leave appears unusually expansive, including unlimited paid time off for most roles plus additional time for volunteering, bereavement, jury duty, and personal holidays. Paid parental leave is repeatedly positioned as a standout element of the overall package.
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage is described as broad, spanning medical, dental, vision, telemedicine, second opinions, and multiple supplemental insurance options. Mental-health support is also emphasized through dedicated services and platforms.
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Wellbeing & Lifestyle Benefits — Lifestyle-oriented benefits extend beyond core insurance, including fitness membership and equipment reimbursement and access to caregiving support resources. These offerings reinforce a whole-person approach that can increase perceived total rewards value.
Guardian Life Insights
What We Do
Who we are Guardian makes a difference in the lives of people when they need us most. With over 160 years of stability and fiscal integrity, we are a trusted resource to generations of families and business owners, inspiring well-being and helping build financial confidence. Today, we stand behind 29 million consumers, helping them prepare and plan for a bright future for themselves and their families. We help business owners care for their employees. And we help people recover and thrive in times of unexpected loss. As a modern mutual insurance company, we believe in driving value beyond dividends. We invest in our colleagues and are building a progressive, innovative and inclusive culture. We uplift individuals and communities through thoughtful social and environmental programs. What we stand for In 1860, a community of immigrants joined together to insure and protect their businesses and families. They were guided by powerful ideals that we’ve continued to stand behind and evolved throughout the years: we do the right thing, we believe people count, we courageously shape the future together, and we go above and beyond for the people we serve. Guardian employees embrace and live by these values every day. They remind us to put people at the heart of all we do so that we can help protect what matters most to you. Want to help bring these values to life? Join us for a rewarding career and the opportunity to shape the future. Disclosures: Financial information concerning Guardian as of December 31, 2022, on a statutory basis: Admitted assets = $76.0 billion; liabilities = $67.2 billion (including $55.0 billion of reserves); and surplus = $8.8 billion. Dividends are not guaranteed. They are declared annually by Guardian’s Board of Directors. Guardian® is a registered trademark of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America. © Copyright 2023 The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America 2023-156184 Exp. 5/25
