Head of Institutional Annuities Product & Strategy

Guardian is seeking a senior Product Leader to define and scale our Institutional business as a key pillar of our retirement strategy.  This role is accountable for end-to-end product strategy, performance, and experience, translating enterprise priorities into a clear product roadmap and delivering results through a highly matrixed model. You will partner across Product, Distribution, Finance, Technology, and Risk to bring differentiated retirement income solutions to market and drive sustained growth.

Key Accountabilities

Own: Product Strategy & Performance

• Define and evolve the product vision and multi-year roadmap
• Own P&L, growth, and long-term value creation
• Drive adoption, profitability, and capital efficiency across the portfolio

Lead: Product Development & Lifecycle

• Lead end-to-end product development and management, from concept through launch and ongoing optimization
• Partner with actuarial, legal, and pricing teams to deliver market-ready, scalable solutions
• Continuously improve offerings to enhance customer value and competitiveness

Own: Participant & Client Experience

• Define the end-to-end experience across education, purchase, and in-force servicing
• Drive simplicity, transparency, and engagement to support broader adoption of in-plan guarantees

Lead: Distribution Enablement & Growth

• Enable expansion through platform placement and institutional partnerships
• Partner with Distribution on go-to-market strategy, RFP activity, and key relationships

Partner: Technology & Operations

• Set product requirements and priorities; partner to deliver modern, scalable capabilities
• Ensure execution against roadmap commitments and continuous improvement of the operating model

Own: Governance, Risk & Sustainability

• Ensure alignment with legal, regulatory, and risk requirements
• Balance innovation with disciplined oversight to support long-term product sustainability

Lead: Enterprise Alignment & Talent

• Align cross-functional stakeholders around a shared product strategy and priorities
• Build and lead a high-performing team, strengthening product and strategy capabilities

What You Bring

• Deep expertise in annuities and retirement solutions, particularly within defined contribution markets
• Proven experience owning product strategy, lifecycle, and financial performance
• Strong ability to lead through influence in a matrixed organization
• Strategic, execution-oriented leader who can simplify complexity and drive outcomes

Why This Role Matters

This role is central to advancing Guardian’s ambition to expand access to retirement income solutions within the workplace—shaping how products are designed, delivered, and adopted to improve long-term customer outcomes.

Salary Range:

$155,370.00 - $255,255.00

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 [email protected]. Please note: this resource is for accommodation requests only. For all other inquires related to your application and careers at Guardian, refer to the Guardian Careers site.

Visa Sponsorship

Guardian Life is not currently or in the foreseeable future sponsoring employment-based visas (e.g., such as an H-1B). In order to be a successful applicant, you must be legally authorized to work in the United States, without the need for employer sponsorship/support now or at any time in the future.

Notice Regarding Guardian’s Use of Artificial Intelligence in Recruitment

 

As part of Guardian’s job application process, Guardian may use artificial intelligence tools (“AI Tools") to automate the sorting and filtering of information provided by applicants as part of its preliminary screening. This preliminary screening may be used to help identify applicant materials and resumes relative to their indication that the applicant meets the requirements for the specific job for which they are applying, as specified in the listing posted on Guardian’s jobs website (Careers at Guardian at https://www.guardianlife.com/careers). At Guardian, we do not use AI Tools to substantially assist or replace human judgment or discretionary decision making in our hiring process. All hiring decisions will be made by Guardian colleagues.

 

Please be aware that if you apply for a specific position with Guardian, you will have the choice of opting out of Guardian’s use of AI Tools during the job application process. If you would like to request an alternative process that does not utilize AI Tools or would like to request a reasonable accommodation, within ten business days of your position application, you must email your request to [email protected], making sure to provide your name and job requisition identification number. Guardian will retain your applicant materials and resume and all information therefrom in accordance with Guardian’s document retention policy, a copy of which you may request via [email protected].

 

Additionally, at applicable times, Guardian will make public the most recent bias audit results for such AI tools, which may be found here. 

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