Field Centers of Excellence Lead (CoE)

Guardian Life Insurance Company•Stamford, NY

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Guardian is seeking a motivated individual to join their team as a Field Centers of Excellence Lead. This role involves building and scaling a new Field-facing capability within Guardian’s Inclusion & Impact function to help Client Solutions & Wealth Management (CSWM) and the Field accelerate growth in diverse and evolving market segments. The position will design a hub-and-spoke Centers of Excellence model to equip advisors and firms with market intelligence, prospecting and outreach insights, practical tools, and compliant content for protection and wealth management conversations with priority client segments. Success requires strong partnership, influence without authority, and the ability to design systems that help others scale impact. This role will establish the charter, governance, operating rhythms, and partner ecosystem for the CoEs. The CoE model aims to reduce duplication, increase quality and consistency, strengthen measurement, and enable scalable execution. The leader will partner across various departments including CSWM, Principal Owner Development & Growth, Marketing, Communications, Product, Enterprise Thought Leadership, Legal/Compliance, and Corporate Impact to translate enterprise priorities and inclusion strategies into field-ready offerings relevant to advisor practice growth and client needs. This role reports to the Head of Inclusion & Impact.

Requirements

8+ years of experience in one or more of the following: go-to-market strategy, market segmentation, distribution enablement, practice management, product marketing, customer/market insights, or strategic program leadership.
Demonstrated experience building and scaling cross-functional programs or Centers of Excellence (or equivalent shared-services / enablement models) with clear governance and measurable outcomes.
Strong ability to translate complex enterprise priorities into practical offerings, tools, and content that drives adoption and behavior change.
Proven stakeholder management skills and ability to influence at senior levels across a matrixed organization without direct authority.
Analytical and strategic thinking skills, including the ability to synthesize qualitative and quantitative inputs into clear recommendations.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including executive-ready narrative, facilitation, and field-facing messaging.
Program and project management strength, including prioritization, operating cadence, and delivery discipline.
Comfort operating in ambiguity and building new capability from the ground up.
Proficiency with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams.
Must be legally authorized to work in the United States, without the need for employer sponsorship.

Nice To Haves

Insurance, wealth management, or adjacent regulated-industry experience strongly preferred.
Direct Field distribution experience and/or familiarity with an agency model is a plus, but not required.

Responsibilities

Design and launch Guardian’s Field Centers of Excellence (CoEs) approach, including a clear charter that defines what the CoEs own, influence, and explicitly does not own or do.
Establish governance, decision rights, and intake/prioritization processes to ensure CoE work aligns to CSWM priorities, Field needs, and risk/compliance requirements.
Build an operating model (hub-and-spoke) that scales scarce expertise, standardizes best practices, and enables consistent execution across Field channels and teams.
Understand CSWM’s priority diverse and emerging market segments and define repeatable segment frameworks for those segments (personas, needs, common concerns, value propositions, compliant messaging guardrails, and recommended engagement pathways).
Partner with Marketing, Communications, and Enterprise Thought Leadership to curate, adapt, and package content into Field-ready assets (playbooks, talk tracks, toolkits, event programming, and digital resource hubs).
Collaborate with PO Development & Growth and Field partners to integrate CoE offerings into advisor lifecycle moments (recruiting, onboarding, practice development, retention, and key convenings).
Translate field and market feedback into actionable insights for enterprise partners, helping inform product, experience, and distribution strategies.
Define success metrics and measurement approaches (adoption, satisfaction, content utilization, pipeline/activity indicators, and qualitative outcomes) and provide regular reporting and recommendations.
Build and manage a cross-functional network of subject matter experts and partners (internal and external) to extend capability and accelerate delivery.
Operate with strong judgment in a regulated environment, ensuring content/programs are defensible, inclusive, and aligned with Guardian brand and enterprise priorities.

Benefits

Support and flexibility to achieve professional and personal goals.
Skill-building opportunities.
Leadership development opportunities.
Philanthropic opportunities.
Opportunities to build communities.
Opportunities to grow your career.
Diverse colleagues with high ethical standards.
Contemporary, supportive, flexible, and inclusive benefits and resources.
Information about company benefits available at www.guardianlife.com/careers/corporate/benefits.
Benefits apply to full-time eligible employees.