Senior Solutions Architect

About the role

Vanguard’s Advice & Wealth Management organization delivers investor-centric advice and wealth management services across digital, hybrid, and advisor/relationship manager-led experiences. As a Senior Solutions Architect, you will shape and guide enterprise-scale solutions across the Advice & Wealth Management portfolio, ensuring alignment to business outcomes, architectural integrity, and long-term platform evolution.

Responsibilities

• Provide architectural leadership across large, cross-domain initiatives within and outside of Advice & Wealth Management
• Translate business goals into scalable, secure, and resilient solution architectures
• Ensure alignment to enterprise standards, reference architectures, and platform strategies
• Drive solutioning across key domains including: Advisor desktop and client experience platforms, brokerage and trading integrations, recordkeeping and account lifecycle management, back-office servicing, reconciliation, and operational workflows
• Provide both short-term and long-term architectural guidance to multiple delivery teams
• Ensure solutions balance client and crew experience, scalability, regulatory considerations, and cost
• Act as a trusted advisor to senior business and technology leaders
• Influence architectural direction without formal authority
• Facilitate alignment across complex stakeholder groups and competing priorities
• Communicate trade-offs clearly to enable informed decision-making
• Mentor engineers, solution consultants, and architects on solution design and best practices
• Contribute to architecture patterns, reusable designs, and governance processes
• Act as a thought leader driving innovation and continuous improvement

Requirements

• Significant experience (10+ years) in solution architecture, enterprise architecture, or complex system design
• Proven track record leading large-scale, cross-functional initiatives in enterprise environments
• Experience shaping architecture strategy and guiding delivery across multiple teams
• Strong knowledge of Advice, Wealth Management, or regulated financial services domains with depth in one or more of the following: Brokerage and trading systems, recordkeeping platforms (retirement, accounts, positions, transactions), custody and clearing integrations, back-office operations (reconciliation, servicing, compliance workflows)
• Deep understanding of modern architecture patterns (APIs, event-driven systems, cloud-native design, AI)
• Experience with integration across internal platforms and third-party/vendor ecosystems
• Strong data architecture awareness (data flows, governance, analytics enablement)
• Exceptional systems thinking and problem framing
• Ability to operate effectively in ambiguity and drive clarity
• Strong executive communication and influencing skills
• Ability to balance strategic vision with pragmatic delivery
• Experience with modern architecture patterns (APIs, event-driven systems, cloud platforms)
• Understanding of data, integration, and operational resiliency considerations in financial services ecosystems
• Ability to balance architectural rigor with delivery pragmatism
• Strategic, outcome-oriented, and intellectually curious mindset
• Comfortable challenging assumptions and driving better solutions
• Collaborative behavior with a strong ability to build alignment across teams
• Passionate about improving client and crew experiences, and operational efficiency at scale

Qualifications

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field
• CISSP certification preferred