Principal Solution Architect, Data (Group Benefits)

guardianlife; Holmdel Township (NJ); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Guardian Life in New Jersey seeks a Principal Solution Architect, Data to define and scale enterprise data architecture across platforms, collaborating with business and technology stakeholders to build scalable, secure data solutions for underwriting, enrollment, billing, and claims.

You will establish architecture patterns, guardrails, and a data product operating model while partnering with Enterprise Architecture, Engineering, Product, Cybersecurity, and Platform teams to ensure solutions

Responsibilities

• Own and shape enterprise architecture strategy across platforms and domains.
• Define reference architectures and reusable design patterns for delivery.
• Establish architectural guardrails for scalable, secure, and consistent design.
• Own reusable solution patterns and cross-team design consistency.
• Collaborate with Solution Architects and Enterprise Architecture to align with standards.
• Lead architecture decisions for complex initiatives spanning multiple value streams.
• Provide oversight to ensure alignment with enterprise standards and long-term strategy.
• Drive early engagement to identify cross-platform dependencies and risks.
• Define build-vs-buy guidance and integration patterns with platform teams.
• Translate business strategy into actionable architecture directions and designs.
• Embed governance, security, and regulatory requirements into solution architecture.
• Promote best practices for resilience, performance, and maintainability.
• Mentor architects and engineers to raise architectural maturity.
• Represent architecture in enterprise forums and strategy discussions.

Job description

Position Overview: The Principal Solution Architect, Data is responsible for defining, scaling, and governing enterprise-wide or business solution architecture across platforms, domains, and delivery teams. This role shapes how technology solutions are designed, integrated, secured, and operated consistently across the organization. While architecture is foundational, the Principal Solution Architect, Data will be responsible for designing solutions in close collaboration with the business and technology stakeholders. Where applicable, the role will be accountable to build solutions that scale and align to business and technology requirements. Operating at an enterprise or portfolio level, the Principal Solution Architect, Data focuses less on individual solution delivery and more on establishing architecture patterns, standards, guardrails, and building solutions that enable teams to deliver high-quality, scalable, and secure solutions at speed. 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. This role partners closely with Enterprise Architecture, Engineering, Product, Cybersecurity, and Platform teams to ensure solutions align to business strategy, are resilient and compliant, and can scale across multiple use cases without becoming a bottleneck to delivery. This Principal Solution Architect, Data role will have a strong focus on data solution architecture, modern data platforms, data products, and AI-enabled capabilities across the Insurance business. The role bridges business, engineering, architecture, and data teams to rapidly design, build, and deploy scalable solutions that improve underwriting, enrollment, billing, claims, customer service, Producer, reporting, analytics, and digital experiences. The architect will champion a data product mindset, treating data as a strategic enterprise asset with clear ownership, quality standards, reusable capabilities, governance, and measurable customer value.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and shape enterprise or business solution architecture strategy, standards, and patterns across multiple platforms and domains.
• Define and maintain reference architectures and reusable design patterns ("golden paths") for solution delivery.
• Establish architectural guardrails that enable scalable, secure, and consistent solution design across teams.
• Own reusable solution patterns, reference architectures, golden paths, and cross-team design consistency.
• Work with Solution Architects to drive adoption; Head of Portfolio Architecture to tailor for BU context; Principal Enterprise Architect to align with enterprise standards.
• Lead enterprise-level or business-level design decisions for complex, high-impact initiatives that span multiple value streams or business units.
• Provide architectural oversight and guidance across portfolios, ensuring alignment to enterprise standards and long-term strategy.
• Drive early engagement on initiatives to identify cross-platform dependencies, systemic risks, and scalability constraints.
• Partner with Enterprise Architecture and platform teams to define build vs. buy guidance and integration patterns.
• Translate business and technology strategy into actionable architecture direction and solution designs.
• Partner with Security, Risk, and Compliance teams to embed governance, security, and regulatory requirements into solution architecture.
• Define and promote best practices for operational resilience, scalability, performance, and maintainability.
• Escalate enterprise exceptions, non-standard patterns, and enterprise-risk decisions.
• Influence and align stakeholders across engineering, product, and business leadership without direct authority.
• Mentor and coach architects and senior engineers to elevate architectural maturity across the organization.
• Represent solution architecture in enterprise forums, architecture review boards, and strategic technology discussions.
• Influence Value Stream leaders, Product Managers, Product Owners, and Tech Leads to align roadmaps, MVP scope, and technical trade-offs.
• Where applicable, the role will be accountable to build solutions that scale and algin to business and technology requirements.
• Be available for production incidents with major impact to business operations.
• Understand and participate across portfolio initiatives, connect dependencies and opportunities across programs to optimize solutions, increase reuse, and reduce data waste.
• Drive the adoption of a data product operating model across the organization.
• Champion data product thinking by promoting customer-centric design, product ownership, continuous impr