Head of Purchase and Underwriting Transformation

Guardian Life Insurance•Boston, MA

17h•$155,370 - $255,255

About The Position

We are seeking a strategic, ambitious, and entrepreneurial leader to serve as Head of Purchase & Underwriting Transformation, a highly visible leadership role responsible for shaping and delivering the future of Guardian’s purchase experience and underwriting capabilities across Life, Disability, and Annuity products. This program plays a foundational role in Guardian Financial Protection and Retirement Solutions’ (FPRS) Journey-to-30 strategy. Our objective is clear—make purchasing protection and retirement solutions frictionless by minimizing evidence requirements using third party data and develop machine learning models to make pricing more dynamic and granular. Offer turnaround times should take minutes rather than weeks or months with little to no effort required by an applicant and no rework when applying for multiple coverages. In this role, you will lead the strategic modernization of the purchase and underwriting ecosystem, helping define the long‑range vision for how customers, advisors, and colleagues experience the application, risk management, and policy activation journeys. You will partner with senior leaders to translate this bold vision into a multiyear roadmap with prioritized work efforts aligned with measurable outcomes, powered by modern platforms, advanced data, automation, and AI‑enabled decisioning. In addition to managing a team of transformation consultants, product managers, and product owners aligned to the various systems, you will work across business units and corporate functions to deliver material improvements in advisor productivity, prospect conversion, operational efficiency, and risk outcomes. This will include collaborating with colleagues across Product, Pricing, and Underwriting, Distribution, Data & Technology, and Data Science, amongst other important functional stakeholders. A successful candidate will set bold strategic direction, delivering a clear and compelling business case, and aligning investments and resources. You and your team must ensure initiatives are delivered efficiently and effectively, while also managing a comprehensive go-to-market plan that drives in market adoption of new capabilities.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in life insurance or financial services, including leadership roles within underwriting, manufacturing, operations, or transformation.
Proven success leading large‑scale transformation initiatives with measurable business outcomes.
Demonstrated experience implementing AI‑enabled, data‑driven, and automated underwriting or insurance solutions.
Deep understanding of life insurance underwriting, distribution models, competitive dynamics, and regulatory requirements.
Strong financial, portfolio, and business judgment.
Experience working effectively in highly matrixed, enterprise environments.
Bachelor’s degree required.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree preferred.

Responsibilities

Define and execute a multi‑year transformation vision, strategy, and roadmap for Purchase and Underwriting, aligned to enterprise priorities, manufacturing objectives, and growth goals.
Identify, evaluate, and prioritize high‑impact initiatives that improve customer and advisor experience, underwriting effectiveness, and operational scalability.
Establish and monitor clear success measures, KPIs, and financial outcomes to ensure transparency and accountability for value realization.
Lead modernization of the end‑to‑end purchase experience, including eApp, eMed, eDelivery, orchestration, and omni‑channel journeys.
Drive digitization and automation to reduce customer and advisor effort, increase transparency, and accelerate placement and cycle times.
Partner with Distribution, Marketing, Operations, and Technology to ensure purchase capabilities are seamlessly executed and broadly adopted.
Own Guardian’s Underwriting Transformation and Innovation agenda, including automation, data‑driven underwriting, and AI‑enabled decisioning.
Champion the adoption of advanced technologies such as GenAI, predictive analytics, triage models, and auto‑assessment tools across underwriting workflows.
Improve underwriting productivity, flow case handling, placement rates, scalability, and risk outcomes while maintaining strong governance and regulatory compliance.
Guide the integration of new data sources, decision engines, and modern architectures into core underwriting processes.
Provide clear leadership across cross‑functional teams delivering purchase and underwriting initiatives, reinforcing disciplined execution and outcome‑based delivery.
Partner closely with Technology, Data, and Platform leaders to manage dependencies, sequencing, and delivery at enterprise scale.
Apply BTOM principles and ways of working pragmatically to drive clarity, accountability, and sustained performance.
Own investment strategy and funding trade‑offs across Purchase and Underwriting Transformation, ensuring spend is tied to measurable outcomes.
Lead and participate in governance forums, including underwriting and purchase transformation steer‑cos and cross‑functional workstreams.
Serve as an executive sponsor for change management, communications, and adoption across impacted teams.
Act as a primary liaison with key internal stakeholders, vendors, and external partners as needed.
Build, lead, and develop high‑performing, multidisciplinary teams spanning underwriting, analytics, technology, and subject‑matter expertise.
Foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, continuous learning, and knowledge sharing.
Partner with HR and enterprise centers of excellence to strengthen leadership capability and succession.