Head of Experience Design

Guardian Life Insurance • New York, NY

7d

About The Position

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.

Requirements

• 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.
• 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.

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.

Benefits

• 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.
• 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.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive
• Education Level: No Education Listed