
Principal Solution Architect, Enterprise API Platform
The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America1 month ago
Base Salary
$152k - $250k/yr
Responsibilities
- Own enterprise and business solution architecture strategy, standards, reusable patterns, reference architectures, and architectural guardrails.
- Lead complex, high-impact architecture decisions spanning multiple value streams, platforms, domains, and business units.
- Drive API modernization, API rationalization, reuse, lifecycle management, gateway and integration patterns, and domain-aligned API design.
- Shape API, MCP gateway, context-layer, observability, discoverability, governance, and AI-enablement strategies.
- Guide build-versus-buy decisions, API reimplementation priorities, scalability and resilience improvements, and modernization sequencing.
- Partner with Enterprise Architecture, Engineering, Product, Platform, Security, Risk, Compliance, and business stakeholders.
- Influence roadmaps, MVP scope, technical trade-offs, and enterprise exceptions without direct reporting authority.
- Mentor and coach architects and senior engineers and represent solution architecture in review boards and enterprise forums.
- Provide architecture input for major production incidents and translate technical decisions into business outcomes.
Requirements
- Deep experience designing and governing enterprise-scale solution architectures across multiple teams and domains.
- Experience modernizing API ecosystems, including API management and lifecycle platforms, gateway patterns, integration patterns, performance, scalability, and domain-aligned API design.
- Proven ability to define and drive adoption of architecture standards, frameworks, reusable patterns, and governance.
- Strong understanding of application architectures, APIs, integration patterns, AI, cloud platforms, and data flows.
- Experience balancing business priorities, technical trade-offs, risk, governance, and compliance at enterprise scale.
- Ability to operate at both strategic and hands-on levels and influence distributed teams without direct authority.
- Strong communication skills with technical and non-technical audiences and the ability to translate strategy into architectural direction.
- Experience in regulated or risk-sensitive environments and a track record of mentoring architects and engineers.
- Experience with Agile or product-based delivery models and producing product-level and team-level technical design documentation.
- Strong engineering background and ability to partner credibly with engineering leaders on enterprise API architecture.
- Understanding of MCP, agentic AI enablement, context-layer architecture, API observability, discoverability, governance, security, and AI-native enterprise capabilities.
Benefits
- Full-time eligible employees receive contemporary, supportive, flexible, and inclusive benefits and resources.
- Professional skill-building, leadership development, and philanthropic opportunities are available.
- Hybrid work arrangement requiring three days per week at the Guardian office in Holmdel, New Jersey.