Head of UI Engineering and Design Systems

Role Summary

The Head of UI Engineering and Design Systems will lead Guardian's UI Engineering team in building and scaling AI-driven user interface capabilities across our digital ecosystem.

Reporting into the Head of Enterprise Digital Technology, this leader owns the evolution of the Guardian Design System (GDS) and the engineering standards that make every digital experience consistent, accessible, and compliant. The role connects design systems, data, and AI-turning Guardian's digital experience vision into engineered reality through scalable, adaptive front-end systems.

You Will (Key Responsibilities):

Strategic Leadership

• Define and execute the roadmap for AI-enabled UI engineering, ensuring alignment with Guardian's digital, data, and AI strategy.

• Lead the evolution of the Guardian Design System (GDS) to support adaptive, personalized, and intelligent interfaces.

• Establish enterprise-wide engineering standards, metrics, and governance for GDS adoption, accessibility, and performance.

• Partner across product, data, and platform engineering to ensure seamless integration of AI capabilities within the front-end layer.

Innovation & Transformation

• Drive innovation at the intersection of AI, front-end engineering, and design systems.

• Embed Generative AI, Agentic AI, and contextual intelligence into the UI layer to enable adaptive, predictive, and human-centered experiences.

• Introduce AI-augmented engineering workflows-including design-to-code automation, intelligent testing, and generative component creation.

• Advance Guardian's front-end architecture for scalability, accessibility, and continuous delivery.

Team & Culture Building

• Lead and develop a team of UI engineers, cultivating a culture of technical excellence, curiosity, and innovation.

• Build up-skill and future-skill pathways to deepen AI fluency and design-system mastery within the team.

• Foster an inclusive, collaborative environment that values experimentation, quality, and learning.

• Recognize and develop engineering talent to strengthen Guardian's next-generation digital capabilities.

Enterprise Influence

• Serve as the enterprise steward for design-system engineering, ensuring cross-platform consistency, compliance, and brand integrity.

• Partner across architecture, data, AI, and digital product teams to align front-end strategy with Guardian's broader technology direction.

• Represent UI engineering in forums driving digital transformation, AI ethics, and front-end governance.

• Champion AI-driven experience engineering as a differentiator in Guardian's colleague and customer experiences.

You Have (Qualifications):

• 12 + years of front-end/UI engineering experience, including 5 + years leading enterprise-scale design-system teams.

• Proven success integrating AI or machine-learning capabilities into front-end or design-system development.

• Deep expertise in modern web frameworks (React, Angular, Vue), accessibility standards, and CI/CD pipelines.

• Demonstrated ability to lead, inspire, and influence across design, product, and engineering functions.

Location

• Three days a week at Guardian Location on New York, NY, or Holmdel, NJ.

Salary Range:

$148,940.00 - $244,685.00

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 applicant_accommodation@glic.com .

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

Every day, Guardian helps our 29 million customers realize their dreams through a range of insurance and financial products and services. Our Purpose, to inspire well-being, guides our dedication to the colleagues, consumers, and communities we serve. We know that people count, and we go above and beyond to prepare them for the life they want to live, focusing on their overall well-being - mind, body, and wallet. As one of the largest mutual insurance companies, we put our customers first. Behind every bright future is a GuardianTM. Learn more about Guardian at guardianlife.com .

Visa Sponsorship:

Guardian Life 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.