Head of Experience Design

• Role Summary

• The Head of Experience Design will operationalize experience best practices at scale to deliver measurable business outcomes supporting Guardian’s strategy.
• Reporting into senior leadership, this role leads the User Experience (UX) team, the Customer Experience (CX) Programs team, and Senior Experience Consultants, and plays a critical role in enabling and supporting Guardian’s Business Technology Operating Model (BTOM). The leader ensures that consumer experience best practices are current, actionable, operationalized, and consistently applied to drive measurable business outcomes and progress toward goals.
• This role acts as both a strategic advisor and enterprise influencer, partnering across business, technology, and functional leaders to embed consumer-first thinking into strategy, planning, and execution.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and lead the enterprise vision for Consumer Experience & Advocacy as a Center of Excellence, ensuring alignment with Guardian’s strategy and priorities.
• Serve as a senior thought leader and advisor on consumer experience, influencing executive decision-making and strategic initiatives.
• Champion a proactive, consultative model that powers strategic enablement and influence.
• Maintain and evolve enterprise-wide CX standards, frameworks, tools, and best practices, ensuring they are practical, scalable, and embedded into ways of working.
• Govern experience-related work to ensure consistency, quality, and adherence to CX principles across products, platforms, and journeys.
• Ensure CX best practices are operationalized, measurable, and continuously improved based on outcomes and insights.
• Partner closely with Business and Technology leaders to embed consumer experience disciplines into the Business Technology Operating Model.
• Ensure CXA teams are integrated into BTOM processes, supporting strategy, portfolio planning, product development, and delivery.
• Enable teams to operate as trusted advisors within BTOM, shaping work upstream and influencing decisions earlier in the lifecycle.
• Lead and develop a high-performing organization including:
• User Experience (UX)
• CX Programs
• Senior Experience Consultants
• Build strong leadership capability, clear role accountability, and career pathways across the CXA organization.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, continuous learning, innovation, and consumer advocacy.
• Strengthen relationships with enterprise stakeholders to build trust, credibility, and demand for CXA expertise.
• Leverage insights from Voice of Customer, Research, Intelligence and journeys to inform strategy and prioritize improvement opportunities.
• Continuously assess and evolve CX capabilities based on performance, feedback, and emerging best practices.

Required Qualifications & Experience

• Proven experience leading enterprise-scale Customer Experience or Design organizations.
• Demonstrated success operating at a senior leadership level, influencing across business, technology, and functional teams.
• Deep understanding of CX and business and technology operating models, design thinking, journey management, and human-centered design.
• Strong experience building and scaling Centers of Excellence, including standards, governance, and enablement models.
• Ability to translate strategy into executable frameworks and measurable outcomes.
• Exceptional leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills.

Leadership Attributes

• Enterprise mindset with the ability to see the big picture and drive long-term transformation.
• Confident influencer who can challenge thinking, shape decisions, and build alignment.
• Collaborative leader who empowers teams while holding a high bar for excellence and impact.
• Passionate advocate for consumers and for embedding consumer-centricity into everyday work.

Salary Range: $162,440.00 - $266,870.00

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, 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 MyHR@glic.com. 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 is not currently or in the foreseeable future sponsoring employment visas. In order to be a successful applicant. you must be legally authorized to work in the United States, without the need for employer sponsorship.

Current Guardian Colleagues: Please apply through the internal Jobs Hub in Workday.