Solution Architect , Group Benefits Technology

The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America; New York (NY); On-site; USD 119,000 - 195,000; Full time

Job summary

Guardian Life Insurance Company of America is seeking a Solution Architect to own and shape enterprise-scale technology solutions. You will collaborate with Tech Leads, Product Owners and delivery teams to translate business needs into secure, scalable design aligned with Guardian standards.

Location includes New York, Holmdel, Bethlehem, or Stamford with a strong emphasis on product-level architecture, pattern governance, and hands-on delivery.

Qualifications

• 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.
• Proven track record architecting solutions for large-scale, mission-critical insurance systems.
• Knowledge of GenAI frameworks, tools, and best practices.
• Ability to balance speed, quality, risk, and 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.

Responsibilities

• Owns product/team-level solution design and delivery architecture.
• Design and document solution architectures including application, data, and infrastructure components.
• Partner with Product Owners and Tech Leads to align roadmaps, MVP scope, and trade-offs.
• Ensure solutions follow Guardian architecture standards, security requirements, and design patterns.
• Collaborate with Enterprise Architecture and platform teams to reuse enterprise capabilities.
• Lead proof-of-concepts for new business capabilities.
• Mentor engineers on architecture principles, design decisions, and problem-solving techniques.
• Identify, manage, and help resolve technical dependencies and impediments impacting delivery.
• Provide hands-on guidance on design quality, code structure, and technical approaches.
• Be available for production incidents with major impact to business operations.

Skills

Enterprise-scale design

Cloud/APIs integration

Agile delivery

Hybrid architectures

GenAI knowledge

Tech communication

Design documentation

Job description

Position Overview

The Solution Architect is responsible forowning and shaping technical solutions at the value-stream and product level, ensuring architectural alignment, scalability, and adherence to Guardian standards. This role ishands-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 onsolution 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 Ownproduct- and team-level technical architecture decisions within a value stream. Design and document solution architectures, includingapplication, integration, data, and infrastructure components. Partner with Product Owners and Tech Leads to alignroadroadmaps, MVP scope, and technical trade-offs. Ensure solutions followGuardian architecture standards, security requirements, and design patterns. Collaborate with Enterprise Architecture and platform teams toreuse enterprise capabilities where appropriate. Identify, manage, and help resolvetechnical dependencies and impediments impacting delivery. Provide hands- on guidance to teams ondesign 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 tosimplify 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 deliveringenterprise-scale technology solutions. Working knowledge ofcloud platforms, APIs, data integration, and modern application architectures. Experience collaborating withinAgile / 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 balancespeed, quality, risk, and long-term sustainability in technical decisions. Strong communication skills to translatetechnical concepts for business and delivery stakeholders. Experience producingproduct-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 - $195,465.00 The 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

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 [e-mail].

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 [e-mail], 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 [e-mail]. 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

Every day, Guardian helps our 29 million customers realize their dreams through a range of insurance and financial products and services. Our Purpose, to inspire well-being, guides our dedication to the colleagues, consumers, and communities we serve. We know that people count, and we go above and beyond to prepare them for the life they want to live, focusing on their overall well-being - mind, body, and wallet. As one of the largest mutual insurance companies, we put our customers first. Behind every bright future is a GuardianTM.

Learn more about Guardian at guardianlife.com.