Senior Data Security Architect, Technology Architecture

Overview

Guardian is seeking a strategic and collaborative Senior Data Security Architect to lead the secure design, protection, and governance of enterprise data assets. This role requires deep expertise in data security technologies, regulatory compliance, and hands-on experience developing scalable data protection architectures. The successful candidate will work closely with data architects, data engineers, and data science teams to embed security and privacy into the entire data lifecycle

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You Will:

• Lead the definition and implementation of enterprise-wide data protection strategies, policies, and frameworks.
• Partner with data architecture, engineering, and science teams to embed security into data platforms, pipelines, and ML workflows.
• Oversee the adoption and enforcement of data retention and destruction policies in line with business and regulatory requirements.
• Oversee secure implementation of encryption (in transit, at rest, and in use), tokenization, masking, and anonymization in collaboration with Cryptography and engineering teams
• Provide architectural oversight for AI agents, LLM pipelines, and ensure adoption of Agentic security principles.
• Support governance and compliance efforts (CCPA, HIPAA) through effective controls and audit readiness.
• Collaborate with privacy, legal, and compliance teams to assess data risks across jurisdictions.
• Provide architectural guidance for secure data lakes, AI/ML datasets, and entire data landscape.
• Guide secure design for AI and GenAI systems—including secure model development, data protection, model governance, adversarial testing, and emerging risks (e.g., prompt injection, data leakage, data poisoning).
• Evaluate and pilot emerging tools and technologies aligned with the organization's cybersecurity strategy—particularly in the Data technologies and AI security domains.
• Maintain strong relationships with internal collaborators and external vendors to influence technology roadmaps and drive secure outcomes.
• Develop and maintain prescriptive blueprints and reference architectures in collaboration with business and solution architects.
• Deliver executive-level reporting on data security risks, strategy, and program effectiveness.

You Have:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Cybersecurity, Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field.
• 10+ years of experience in information security, with 5+ years in data security and privacy.
• Proven experience with data protection technologies: encryption, tokenization, masking, DLP, data classification.
• Strong experience securing data in cloud-based analytics environments, especially Databricks, Snowflake, or equivalent.
• Understanding of MLOps pipelines and security controls across model training, validation, deployment, and drift monitoring.
• Familiarity with AI/ML security principles including model inversion attacks, data poisoning, and inference risks.
• Awareness of Agentic security considerations for autonomous agents, including alignment, containment, and safe delegation.
• Strong knowledge of data protection frameworks and secure data lifecycle management.
• Familiarity with data governance platforms (e.g., Collibra, Informatica, Microsoft Purview).
• Proficient with cloud data services (AWS) and their native security features
• Strong understanding of data privacy laws (HIPAA, CCPA).
• Good interpersonal and communication skills with experience influencing multi-functional teams.

Preferred Certifications

• CISSP, CISM, or CCSP
• CIPP/US (Certified Information Privacy Professional)
• GIAC Data Protection (GDAT), AWS Security Specialty, or equivalent

Why Join Guardian

At Guardian, you will shape the foundation of secure, trusted, and compliant data environments that power the future of our business. Be part of a purposeful team that values innovation, collaboration, and proactive risk management in the age of data and AI.

Location

• Three days a week at a Guardian location in New York, NY, Bethlehem PA and Holmdel, NJ

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 applicant_accommodation@glic.com.

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