Corporate Vice President - Solution Architect & Distinguished Engineer

New York Life • New York, NY

3d • $185,000 - $264,500 • Hybrid

About The Position

Within the Tech, Data, AI, Ventures (TDAV) organization, our work is guided by a shared vision: deploying the power of technology, data, AI and ventures to accelerate sustainable competitive advantage for New York Life's businesses. We build solutions that power how we serve policy owners, agents, advisors and employees while delivering measurable business outcomes. Across technology, data, AI, cyber, product, digital experience, architecture and infrastructure, TDAV combines the scale and investment of an industry leader, access to leading-edge technologies and the opportunity to help shape how a world-class financial services company competes in the AI era - all backed by the stability and purpose of a mutual company built to last.

New York Life is seeking an accomplished Solution Architect & Distinguished Engineer to provide senior, hands-on technical leadership across Field Experience. You will shape the architecture of intelligent, connected, and composable experiences that help our field professionals serve clients, grow their practices, and operate effectively. This role combines modern application architecture, cloud, data, APIs, events, Generative AI, and agentic AI. You will set cross-domain technical direction, create reusable patterns and reference architectures, build prototypes and reference implementations, and solve complex challenges that span products, platforms, data domains, and engineering teams. A major area of impact will be helping New York Life reimagine Field experience, productivity and planning in the new world - moving beyond the digitization of today's processes to rethink how discovery, planning intelligence, recommendations, specialist expertise, advisor workflows, trusted data, NYL360, Generative AI, and governed agentic capabilities can work together. As a member of the Field Experience Forward Leading team, you will help shape the future of the organization by identifying emerging technologies, defining transformational architecture strategies, and turning innovative ideas into scalable solutions. You will operate at the intersection of business strategy, modern engineering, AI, and advisor experience to help New York Life lead in a rapidly evolving industry. This is a senior individual-contributor position. You will lead through technical authority, hands-on expertise, influence, innovation, and mentorship rather than direct people-management responsibility.

Requirements

• 15+ years of progressive experience in software engineering, enterprise architecture, AI/ML engineering, platform engineering, or related technical disciplines.
• Demonstrated success setting technical direction across complex enterprise environments involving multiple applications, platforms, data domains, and engineering teams.
• Deep expertise in modern application and distributed-system architecture, including cloud, APIs, services, events, integration, data, security, resilience, observability, and DevSecOps.
• Strong experience with Generative AI and agentic AI, including LLM-based systems, retrieval and grounding, context engineering, agent orchestration, tool integration, evaluation, guardrails, and observability.
• Proven ability to translate business strategy into target architectures, reusable patterns, prototypes, and practical implementation guidance.
• Strong hands-on technical credibility and the ability to engage deeply in architecture, design, experimentation, and complex engineering decisions.
• Exceptional systems thinking and the ability to solve ambiguous problems that cross organizational and technology boundaries.
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior business and technology leaders through clear communication, sound judgment, technical credibility, and pragmatic decision-making.
• A record of mentoring senior technical talent and elevating engineering practices without relying on direct reporting authority.
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in financial planning, insurance, wealth management, advisor technology, or another highly regulated environment.
• Experience modernizing complex enterprise ecosystems into composable, API- and event-enabled architectures.
• Experience designing AI-enabled experiences that combine enterprise data, workflow, decision support, and human judgment.
• Experience with responsible AI architectures where security, privacy, explainability, traceability, auditability, and human accountability are essential.
• Familiarity with advisor and client journeys, household data, planning and calculation engines, CRM, specialist-support workflows, or enterprise experience platforms.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve cross-domain architecture direction aligned with Field Experience priorities and enterprise technology standards.
• Create target-state architectures and modernization strategies spanning applications, cloud, data, integration, AI, and digital experiences.
• Identify opportunities to simplify fragmented experiences, reduce duplication, and establish reusable capabilities across business domains.
• Guide build, buy, reuse, integration, and modernization decisions through clear principles, evidence, and pragmatic trade-off analysis.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, Enterprise Architecture, Data & AI, Experience Design, Cybersecurity, Risk, and business stakeholders to translate strategy into scalable technical capabilities.
• Create reusable patterns for APIs, services, events, data products, composable user experiences, shared context, and embedded intelligence.
• Define how Field Experience capabilities integrate with NYL360 and other enterprise experiences while preserving clear ownership of domain logic, authoritative data, and outcomes.
• Promote architectures that allow capabilities to evolve independently while contributing to coherent advisor, field leader, and client journeys.
• Guide cloud modernization, interoperability, resilience, security, observability, and DevSecOps practices across strategic initiatives.
• Help teams modernize complex technology landscapes while preserving authoritative systems, calculations, controls, and specialist capabilities where appropriate.
• Provide deep architecture leadership for Planning Solutions and Protection-Powered Growth as an important area of impact within the broader Field Experience mandate. Help rethink the end-to-end planning environment across: Client and household discovery, data gathering, and trusted context. Planning assessments, analysis, stress testing, scenario modeling, and calculation engines. Solution design, recommendation support, storytelling, education, and client presentations. Advanced-market and specialist collaboration for more complex client needs. Advisor workflow, CRM, planning case management, meeting preparation, follow-through, and ongoing review. Integration of planning capabilities into NYL360 through governed data, APIs, events, domain experiences, and agentic skills. Generative AI and agentic experiences that synthesize information, guide workflows, and enable action while preserving advisor judgment, review, and accountability.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and convert promising capabilities into practical, scalable enterprise solutions.
• Develop reference architectures, prototypes, reference implementations, reusable frameworks, and working examples that accelerate engineering adoption.
• Engage directly in critical architecture and solution-design reviews; contribute to implementation detail or code when needed to validate feasibility or establish a pattern.
• Solve complex technical problems spanning applications, integration, data, cloud, security, platform engineering, and AI.
• Design secure approaches for connecting AI and agents to enterprise data, knowledge, APIs, workflows, and business capabilities.
• Embed responsible AI, privacy, traceability, auditability, quality, escalation, and human oversight into AI-enabled experiences.
• Identify architectural debt, duplication, platform fragmentation, and modernization opportunities, and help teams converge on practical target states.
• Mentor senior engineers and architects, strengthen technical communities, and raise engineering and architecture standards through influence and collaboration.

Benefits

• leave programs
• adoption assistance
• student loan repayment programs

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior