IT Technical Lead, Equity Investment Management Systems
The Equity Investment Management Systems (EIMS) organization is seeking an experienced IT Technical Lead to provide technical leadership for platforms that support Vanguard's Equity Investment Group (EIG). This role sits at the intersection of investment management and technology, delivering capabilities that power portfolio management, trading, investment research, analytics, risk management, and operational workflows across Vanguard's global equity business.
As a Technical Lead, you will partner closely with investment professionals, product managers, architects, and engineering teams to design, build, and evolve mission-critical investment systems. You will lead complex technical initiatives, mentor engineers, influence architecture decisions, and drive engineering excellence across a portfolio of strategic platforms.
This role supports Vanguard's custom, AWS-based portfolio management ecosystem used by equity investment teams and trading desks across Pennsylvania, Arizona, London, and Melbourne. These platforms enable the management of trillions of dollars in equity assets and support the execution of approximately $800 billion in equity trading volume annually, making them essential to daily portfolio construction, investment decision-making, and trade execution processes.
Responsibilities:
Provides expert level system analysis, design, development, and implementation of applications and databases. Integrates third party products. Ensures that expected application performance levels are achieved.
Ensures the viability of IT deliverables. Recommends development options, including design, build/buy, and vendor purchase. Conducts testing, including functionality, technical limitations, and security.
Lead the design, delivery, and modernization of EIG's portfolio management, trading, and investment platforms, ensuring scalable, resilient, and secure solutions that support global equity investment teams managing trillions of dollars in assets and approximately $800 billion in annual trading volume.
Provide technical and team leadership for engineers and technical professionals, establishing engineering standards, mentoring talent, driving technical excellence, fostering a culture of accountability and continuous improvement, and supporting the growth of high-performing teams.
Partner with portfolio managers, traders, research analysts, product managers, and architects to translate investment business needs into technology solutions, shape product roadmaps, and deliver capabilities that enhance investment decision-making and trading outcomes.
Drive engineering and operational excellence through modern software development practices, cloud-native architecture, CI/CD automation, observability, incident reduction, and proactive risk management to ensure platform reliability and performance.
Lead cross-functional execution and strategic planning, managing technical dependencies, influencing architecture and investment technology strategy, and coordinating delivery across EIMS, Enterprise Data, and enterprise technology teams to achieve business objectives.
Elevates code into the development, test, and production environments on schedule. Provides follow-up production support. Submits change control requests and documents.
Provides subject matter expertise in software development methodology and development architecture standards. Mentors and trains staff with less experience. Resolves elevated issues and recommends enterprise-wide improvements.
Participates in design, code, and test inspections throughout the life cycle to identify issues. Explain technical considerations at related meetings, including those with internal clients. Performs systems analysis activities.
Thoroughly understands client business functions and technology needs. Has a broad and deep understanding of Vanguard's technologies, tools, and applications, including those that interface with business area and systems. Is well versed on the latest technologies and tools supporting software development in the industry.
Interfaces with cross functional team members and communicates systems issues at the appropriate technical level for each audience.
Thoroughly understands and complies with Information Technology and Information Security policies and procedures and verifies that deliverables meet requirements.
Qualifications:
Minimum of 10 years related work experience, with at least three years of development experience and previous leadership experience
Undergraduate degree or equivalent combination of training and experience. Graduate degree preferred
Strong experience in software architecture, system design and technical leadership for enterprise applications
Proven ability to lead Agile teams, mentor Engineers, manage technical delivery and collaborate with Product, UX and business stakeholders
Hands-on experience with Java, Spring Boot, Node.js, TypeScript, Angular/React, AG Grid and NX and designing scalable APIs and distributed systems
Proficiency in AWS cloud technologies Experience and modern application architectures
Nice to Have:
Investment Management domain knowledge
Experience supporting investment management, asset management, capital markets, or trading platforms
Understanding of portfolio management, order generation, equity trading, and investment analytics workflows
Experience with event-driven architectures, APIs, microservices, and cloud-native platforms
Knowledge of investment data, market data, and risk management systems
Experience leading platform modernization and large-scale technology transformation initiatives
Production Support to critical application
Special Factors
Sponsorship
Vanguard is not offering visa sponsorship for this position.About Vanguard
At Vanguard, we don't just have a mission-we're on a mission.
To work for the long-term financial wellbeing of our clients. To lead through product and services that transform our clients' lives. To learn and develop our skills as individuals and as a team. From Malvern to Melbourne, our mission drives us forward and inspires us to be our best.
How We Work
Vanguard has implemented a hybrid working model for the majority of our crew members, designed to capture the benefits of enhanced flexibility while enabling in-person learning, collaboration, and connection. We believe our mission-driven and highly collaborative culture is a critical enabler to support long-term client outcomes and enrich the employee experience.