Head of Digital Workplace Collaboration Platforms, Engineering & Architecture

Head of Digital Workplace Collaboration Platforms, Engineering & Architecture

Locations: Bethlehem, PA | Holmdel, NJ | Hudson Yards, NY 


Department: Digital Workplace 


Reports To: Head of Digital Workplace

Position Summary

Guardian is seeking a highly experienced and hands on technology leader to lead our Collaboration Engineering & Architecture function within Digital Workplace.

This role is responsible for the strategy, architecture, engineering, governance, security, and operational excellence of Guardian's collaboration ecosystem, including Microsoft 365, Exchange Online, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, messaging services, collaboration integrations, conferencing technologies, and emerging workplace productivity capabilities.

The ideal candidate is not simply a people manager. We are looking for a proven leader who currently leads a similar collaboration engineering, messaging, workplace technology, or Microsoft 365 organization and remains deeply technical. This individual must be capable of engaging in executive strategy discussions one moment and technical architecture reviews, escalations, and design decisions the next.

This role will lead a team of collaboration engineers and architects while partnering closely with Cybersecurity, Infrastructure, Cloud Engineering, Enterprise Architecture, Application Development, Service Management, Identity & Access Management, and business stakeholders across the enterprise.

Key Responsibilities

Collaboration Platform Strategy & Architecture

• Develop the vision, strategy, architecture, and roadmap for enterprise collaboration technologies.
• Define long-term architecture for Microsoft 365 collaboration services.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and determine adoption strategies.
• Establish platform standards, design patterns, and governance models.
• Drive platform modernization initiatives and technical debt reduction.
• Develop business cases and investment recommendations for collaboration technologies.

Messaging & Collaboration Engineering

Provide leadership and technical oversight for:

• Exchange Online
• Enterprise Messaging Services
• Mail Flow Architecture
• SMTP Relay Services
• Email Security Integrations
• Microsoft Teams
• Teams Phone
• Teams Meetings
• Teams Governance
• SharePoint Online
• OneDrive for Business
• Microsoft 365 Groups
• Viva and Collaboration Extensions
• Collaboration-related AI and Productivity Services
• Proofpoint
• Zoom

Serve as senior technical escalation point for complex collaboration issues.

Microsoft 365 Platform Ownership

Lead engineering and operations for:

• Microsoft 365 tenant architecture
• Collaboration service lifecycle management
• Service health and reliability
• Tenant governance
• Platform configuration management
• Licensing strategy and optimization
• Adoption of new Microsoft capabilities

Partner with Microsoft and strategic vendors to influence roadmaps and resolve critical issues.

Security, Risk & Compliance

Partner with Cybersecurity and Risk teams to:

• Implement collaboration security controls
• Support data protection initiatives
• Drive compliance with regulatory requirements
• Implement retention, governance, and information protection controls
• Manage audit findings and remediation activities
• Improve security posture across collaboration platforms

Collaboration Integrations & Business Solutions

Lead engineering support for:

• Teams integrations
• SharePoint integrations
• OneDrive integrations
• Microsoft Graph solutions
• SaaS platform integrations
• Workflow and automation solutions

Provide architecture review and governance for collaboration-related projects across the enterprise.

Service Reliability & Operational Excellence

Accountable for:

• Platform availability
• Service resilience
• Disaster recovery readiness
• Business continuity planning
• Incident response
• Problem management
• Capacity planning
• Performance optimization

Establish operational metrics, service objectives, and engineering standards.

Leadership & Talent Development

• Lead and develop a high-performing engineering organization.
• Build strong technical leadership capabilities within the team.
• Drive accountability and execution.
• Mentor engineers and