Head of UI Design, Engineering & Accessibility

Position Overview

Guardian is seeking a Head of UI Design, Engineering & Accessibility to lead the strategy, delivery, and governance of our enterprise design system and front‑end standards. This role owns UI as a platform capability—ensuring scalable, accessible, and high‑quality digital experiences across all web and mobile surfaces. You will lead multidisciplinary teams spanning UI design, UI engineering, and accessibility while partnering closely with Product, Engineering, and Mobile teams as Guardian evolves toward AI‑native digital experiences.

You Will (Key Responsibilities)

• Own and evolve Guardian’s enterprise design system as a platform product, including design tokens, component libraries, pattern standards, roadmaps, versioning, and adoption metrics.
• Lead and develop a high‑performing team of UI designers, UI engineers, and accessibility specialists, with clear operating distinctions between platform delivery and governance.
• Define and enforce enterprise UI engineering standards, including framework conventions, implementation quality, and performance benchmarks across all digital web experiences.
• Establish and govern accessibility standards across all digital surfaces, ensuring WCAG compliance through audits, release gates, and continuous improvement.
• Serve as the primary interface between the design system and product delivery teams, defining contribution models and governing adoption and usage.
• Partner with Mobile Engineering to ensure consistency across web and native platforms through shared token architectures and aligned interaction standards.
• Drive a UI Engineering Center of Excellence, uplifting capabilities across product engineering teams through standards, reviews, and embedded consultation.
• Recruit, develop, and retain pivotal talent across UI design, engineering, and accessibility, aligning staffing to critical enterprise needs.
• Define and track success metrics such as component adoption, system coverage, accessibility compliance, and team velocity, reporting these as enterprise capability indicators.
• Contribute to Guardian’s AI‑native digital experience strategy by shaping conversation design standards, agentic UI patterns, and multimodal accessibility approaches.

You Have (Key Qualifications)

• Extensive experience leading enterprise‑scale UI design systems and front‑end engineering platforms in complex organizations.
• Proven ability to lead multidisciplinary teams across design, engineering, and accessibility functions.
• Deep expertise in UI engineering standards, modern front‑end frameworks, and performance optimization.
• Strong command of digital accessibility standards, including WCAG compliance and governance models.
• Experience partnering with product, engineering, and mobile teams to drive adoption and consistency at scale.
• Demonstrated success building centers of excellence and influencing enterprise‑wide digital practices.
• Strategic mindset with the ability to define metrics, measure impact, and communicate outcomes to senior leadership.
• Passion for emerging digital experience models, including AI‑driven and conversational interfaces.

Location

• Hybrid – 3 days per week at a Guardian office in New York, NY, Holmdel, NJ, or Bethlehem, PA.

Salary Range:

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 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.

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