Engineering Manager

About the role

The AWMT Advice Superfamily consists of Discretionary Advice Platform, Financial Planning Journeys, and Advice AI. When applying for this role, please indicate your first and second preferred areas of interest/alignment in the free form section.

Discretionary Advice Platform (DAP)

• Built systems behind financial advice at scale, serving millions of clients through modern distributed architectures.
• Owns the full stack (primarily Angular, TypeScript, and Node.js): micro-frontends, design system components, event-driven backends, API platforms, and data pipelines.
• Turns complex financial domain logic into composable, well-tested services across onboarding workflows, portfolio management, goal-based planning engines, money movement orchestration, and shared platform capabilities.
• Grounded in shared code ownership, high engineering standards (CI/CD discipline, observability-first design, automated quality gates), and continuous learning.
• Looking for engineering leaders who still light up during architecture debates, leave thoughtful PR feedback, and earn trust by being the person their team turns to when the problem is genuinely hard.
• Expected to operate hands-on: participating in architecture reviews, contributing to technical solutions, mentoring through pairing and code review, coaching a strong team that ships with rigor, and building systems that matter, while having fun doing it.

Financial Planning Journeys (FPJ)

• Full-stack product engineering team at Vanguard that builds the technology connecting hundreds of thousands of advised clients with the right financial professionals.
• Owns the Designated Point of Contact (DPOC) platform, a micro-frontend widget and backend service stack that delivers personalized advisor contact information across Vanguard's digital experiences.
• Tech stack includes Angular, Preact, Node.js, TypeScript, and Java, and multi-region AWS services (ECS, S3, CloudFront).
• Collaborative agile environment focused on reliability, observability, and clean architecture.
• Modernizing and expanding the platform to unify the contact experience across Vanguard's growing advice business.

Advice AI

• A newly formed group focused on disrupting Advice with AI.
• Operating as a startup keen on rapid prototyping and experimentation, learning as we build towards an “Advisor in your Pocket” North Star.
• Flagship capability, Client Assist, integrates conversational AI into Vanguard's Digital Advisor offer using LLM context engineering with Vanguard-specific knowledge plus AI-exposed APIs/tools (user data, advice calculations, and UI components) to power a trusted, client-ready experience.
• Engineering manager leads the team into the next frontier of how technology can power advice and coaches engineers on modern AI augmented development practices and emerging patterns.

Core Responsibilities

• Leads, coaches, and develops a team of engineers. Establishes clear performance expectations, provides ongoing feedback, and supports career growth.
• Owns responsibility for team outcomes, ensuring work is prioritized, risks are managed, and commitments are delivered in a timely and reliable manner.
• Applies a strong technical skillset to engage meaningfully with the team’s work. Guides solution design, supports engineering decision-making, reviews technical approaches, and provides practical coaching to engineers.
• Fosters a culture of learning, adaptability, and continuous improvement. Encourages experimentation, reflection, and the evolution of engineering and delivery practices.
• Supports healthy team dynamics and effective collaboration. Reinforces clear roles, working agreements, and sustainable team rhythms that enable consistent performance.
• Identifies and resolves impediments that affect delivery, quality, or team effectiveness. Escalates complex issues to IT experts as needed and simplifies constraints to maintain momentum.
• Promotes healthy team dynamics and effective collaboration. Reinforces clear roles, working agreements, and sustainable team rhythms that enable consistent performance.
• Partners closely with product leaders, technical leaders, and business stakeholders to clarify priorities, align expectations, and ensure delivered solutions meet evolving needs.
• Promotes high standards of engineering quality, including reliability, scalability, and performance. Reinforces sound development and testing practices.
• Participates in departmental planning, staffing discussions, and operational initiatives. Contributes to improving engineering practices and organizational effectiveness.
• Participates in special projects and performs other duties as assigned.

Qualifications and Skills

• Minimum 8 years of experience in IT project management, software development, or IT service delivery. Previous leadership experience required.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field. PMP, ITIL, or Agile certifications preferred.
• Strong expertise in IT project management, Agile methodologies, and SDLC best practices with experience in IT infrastructure, software development, and enterprise IT solutions.
• Must have skills: Node.js, TypeScript, ECS, Kubernetes, AI, Android, iOS development.
• Proficiency in risk management, budgeting, and IT governance. Understanding of cybersecurity frameworks and IT compliance standards.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills.

Special Factors

• Sponsorship: Vanguard is not offering visa sponsorship for this position.

About Vanguard

Vanguard is an equal opportunity employer. Vanguard is committed to providing all crew members a working environment that is free from discrimination, prejudice and bias. Through this Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Policy, Vanguard reaffirms its commitment to equal employment opportunity for all applicants and crew members without regard to race, color, national origin or ancestry, religion, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, marital status, veteran or military status. In addition, Vanguard prohibits discrimination based on genetic information, as well as any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law.

Empowered to learn, grow, and thrive

• Rajesh D.: Over the past 24 years, I’ve had the privilege of being part of Vanguard that is truly client-owned. What makes this place exceptional is its culture of niceness and collaboration. It’s more than just a job; it’s a place where you can grow, make meaningful contributions, and be part of a supportive, inclusive community. Every day, I am inspired by the dedication of my colleagues and the genuine care we have for our clients. Vanguard is where I and my work truly matters and where one can build a rewarding and fulfilling career.
• Akua A.: I discovered my niche in cybersecurity at Vanguard through a combination of IT roles and the Technology Leadership Program.