Head of Digital Assets, Personal Wealth

About the role

Lead Vanguard Personal Wealth's digital assets strategy, roadmap, and enterprise execution. Define how Vanguard will evaluate, prioritize, develop, and implement digital asset capabilities and operating models in a way that serves clients, advances Vanguard's mission, and strengthens our long-term competitive position. Serve as Vanguard's senior subject matter expert for digital assets across Personal Wealth, partnering across digital, technology, operations, client segments, risk, legal, and compliance to shape and deliver a scalable end-to-end strategy. Represent Vanguard externally with industry participants, regulators, and clients, and help influence thought leadership and market standards in the evolving digital asset ecosystem.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead Personal Wealth's digital assets vision and strategy. Establish Vanguard's point of view and strategic roadmap for digital assets across Personal Wealth, including where and how Vanguard should participate, what capabilities and infrastructure to build, partner for, or defer, and how to align innovation to Vanguard's mission and client-first principles.
• Develop the multi-year digital assets roadmap and drive execution. Translate strategy into a practical, sequenced roadmap with clear use cases, priorities, milestones, dependencies, and success measures. Lead cross-functional delivery from concept through implementation, ensuring proposals are commercially sound, operationally viable, and risk-ready.
• Lead evaluation and development of digital asset capabilities and offers. Partner with business leaders to assess digital asset opportunities. Ensure the client offer is clear, differentiated, and aligned to Vanguard's brand and standards.
• Shape the end-to-end operating model for digital assets. Partner across operations, technology, finance, and control groups to define the required operating model, infrastructure, controls, and governance needed to support capabilities at scale.
• Build durable risk, legal, compliance, and governance frameworks. Work in close partnership with Risk, Legal, Compliance, and other control functions to ensure Vanguard's approach reflects applicable regulatory requirements, risk appetite, investor protection principles, and sound governance. Embed control, auditability, and regulatory readiness into strategy and design from the outset.
• Serve as Vanguard's internal and external digital assets authority for Personal Wealth. Advise senior leaders on market developments, regulatory changes, competitor strategies and moves, infrastructure evolution, and implications for Vanguard. Represent Vanguard in industry forums, client meetings, working groups, regulatory discussions, and external thought leadership opportunities as appropriate.
• Influence enterprise alignment across Vanguard. Partner across Personal Wealth and the broader enterprise to ensure digital asset decisions are coordinated, scalable, and consistent where appropriate. Help connect strategy across brokerage, advice, cash, investment products, technology platforms, and enterprise governance forums.
• Build and lead a high-performing team and ecosystem. Attract, develop, and lead talent with expertise across digital assets, product, strategy, and operations. Build strong internal partnerships and manage key external relationships with infrastructure providers, custodians, technology partners, and other ecosystem participants as needed.
• Develop strategic recommendations and present to senior leadership. Prepare clear analysis, recommendations, and decision materials for senior executives and governance forums. Bring structured thinking, sound judgment, and strong executive presence to highly visible and often ambiguous issues.
• Monitor the external environment and shape Vanguard's response. Maintain strong awareness of digital asset market structure, tokenization trends, stablecoin developments, blockchain-enabled infrastructure, vendor capabilities, and emerging regulatory frameworks. Use those insights to inform Vanguard's priorities, posture, and timing.
• Participate in special projects and perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Ten years of related work experience preferred, with significant leadership experience in brokerage, financial services, fintech, market infrastructure, payments, custody, or digital assets; experience spanning both strategy and execution strongly preferred.
• Deep knowledge of digital assets and related infrastructure, including tokenization, stablecoins, wallets/custody models, settlement, blockchain-enabled operating models, and the broader digital asset ecosystem.
• Strong understanding of regulated operating environments and the ability to navigate legal, compliance, risk, audit, and control requirements while still advancing innovation.
• Proven ability to lead complex, cross-functional initiatives across product, technology, operations, and control functions, ideally in large matrixed organizations.
• Executive presence and exceptional communication skills, including the ability to translate technical and regulatory complexity into clear business decisions, client implications, and strategic recommendations.
• Demonstrated external credibility with clients, industry participants, regulators, or trade groups, with the ability to represent Vanguard thoughtfully and influence broader dialogue in the market.
• Strong people leadership skills, with experience building teams, developing talent, and creating effective governance and operating rhythms.
• Undergraduate degree or equivalent combination of training and experience required. Graduate degree preferred.
• Relevant licenses, registrations, or certifications may be preferred or required based on final role design and responsibilities (e.g., Series 7, 63, 24).

Special Factors

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.