Head of Portfolio Architecture, Enterprise Data

Company Overview: Every day, Guardian gives 27 million people the security they deserve through our insurance and wealth management products and services. Since our founding in 1860, our long-term view has helped our customers prepare for whatever life brings whether starting a family, planning for the future, or taking care of employees. Today we’re a Fortune 250 company and a leading provider of life, disability and other benefits for individuals, at the workplace and through government sponsored programs. Do you have the desire to be part of a collaborative & innovative technology group? Is a culture where “People Count” and “We do the Right Thing” and “We Hold Ourselves to Very High Standards” important to you? Digital & Technology at Guardian: Digital & Technology (D&T) drives Guardian’s innovation agenda and operational excellence. As a key enabler of Guardian’s Journey to ’30, D&T leverages technology, data, AI, and modern engineering practices to create exceptional customer experiences, support our partners, and empower our colleagues. Through a strong focus on customer-centricity, diversified solutions, expanded reach, and operational excellence, D&T is helping shape the future of how Guardian delivers value across the enterprise. Building the Future of Architecture at Guardian: We're building a high-impact architecture community that will help shape the future of technology at Guardian. Across business-aligned and enterprise architecture roles, our architects influence strategic technology decisions, drive modernization, and help connect business strategy to execution. We are hiring architects across a range of domains—including Group Benefits Technology, FPRS & CSWM Technology, Corporate Functions Technology, Cyber Security, Data, AI, API, Digital, and Enterprise Architecture—and are looking for leaders who can bring strong architectural thinking, technical depth, and the ability to influence across a complex enterprise. Beyond the opportunity to solve challenging business and technology problems, architects joining Guardian today will help define how architecture partners across the organization in the years ahead. You'll collaborate with leaders across engineering, platforms, security, data, AI, and the business to establish standards, guide strategic investments, and create solutions that enable Guardian's long-term success.[JS1] Position Overview: The Head of Portfolio Architecture, Data is a senior architecture leader responsible for shaping the end-to-end architecture and portfolio roadmap for the Enterprise Data, while influencing key investment decisions required to deliver it. This position works closely with the Head of the Digital & Data Business Unit Leader to define, align and drive the architecture needed for the BU. This role requires expertise in end-to-end architecture that includes business processes, data, integration, AI and digital experiences to deliver scalable, secure, and compliant solutions. The role will matrix into the Head of Enterprise Architecture and drive end-to-end architecture for the Business Unit portfolio, ensuring alignment with enterprise standards while actively influencing architecture direction and investment priorities with the Enterprise Architecture team. While accountable for Business Unit, this role operates with enterprise-level influence, shaping cross-business outcomes, informing enterprise standards, and advising executive leadership on technology strategy. 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. Key Responsibilities: Portfolio Architecture Leadership · Drive architecture across multiple value streams within the business unit, ensuring cohesive, end-to-end design across platforms, products, and capabilities. · Own BU target state, portfolio roadmap, BU architecture priorities, investment influence, and architect leadership within the BU · Shape and advance modern platform architecture, including cloud, data, and AI capabilities, to enable scalable, secure, and future-ready solutions. · Improve engineering productivity and delivery speed by defining architecture patterns, standards, and operating structures that enable teams to execute effectively at scale. · Define and own the BU target-state architecture and portfolio-level roadmap aligned to enterprise architecture standards and insurance business strategy. · Work with Solution Architects on scalable patterns for the BU; Principal Enterprise Architect on enterprise alignment and cross-BU tradeoffs · Serve as the primary architecture advisor to the BU Head of Digital & Technology, influencing technology strategy, investment decisions, and transformation priorities. · Ensure alignment of BU architecture, strategy and technology to Enterprise Architecture and strategy · Shapes enterprise architecture direction indirectly by contributing to standards, influencing investment decisions, and advocating for cross-business solutions through architecture governance and leadership forums. · Translate insurance business objectives into capability-driven architectures, including product, corporate systems, underwriting, policy, claims, billing, and customer engagement platforms. · Ensure architectural alignment across modernization initiatives, new product launches, regulatory programs, and operational efficiency efforts. · Manage a team of Solution Architects supporting the BU · Available for production incidents with major impact to business operations · Responsible for building solutions to support their team Investment & Roadmap Influence · Shape and influence strategic investments across: o Core insurance platforms (policy administration, claims, billing) o Data, analytics, and AI (pricing, underwriting, fraud detection, customer insights) o Digital and omni‑channel customer and distributor experiences o Integration, APIs, and ecosystem enablement (partners, reinsurers, vendors) o Corporate Systems (HR, Legal, Finance, Investments) · Balance near‑term delivery commitments with long‑term architectural sustainability. · Identify opportunities to reduce technical debt, improve platform reuse, and accelerate time‑to‑market for insurance products. · Identify opportunities that drive reuse, simplification, and consistency across business units, not just within the portfolio End‑to‑End Business Unit Insurance Architecture Ownership · Drive holistic architecture across: o Insurance business processes and value streams o Core and surrounding application ecosystems o Insurance data domains (policy, claims, customer, product, financial, actuarial) o Integration and event-driven architectures o AI/ML use cases for underwriting, claims automation, fraud, and personalization o Digital experiences for customers, agents, brokers, and internal users · Ensure all solutions meet regulatory, risk, security, privacy, and resiliency requirements (e.g., NAIC, SOX, SOC, data privacy). · Promote cloud‑native, API‑first, data‑centric, and AI‑enabled patterns where appropriate. Governance, Risk & Compliance · Enforce enterprise and insurance‑specific architecture standards, principles, and guardrails. · Lead or participate in architecture review and governance forums, ensuring alignment with regulatory and risk management expectations. · Collaborate with security, risk, compliance, and legal partners to ensure architecture supports auditability and operational resilience. Stakeholder & Leadership Engagement · Act as a strategic advisor to Business Unit and senior enterprise technology leadership, influencing decisions that extend beyond the Business Unit Ben

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