Technical Project Manager, Senior Specialist

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.

About the role

The Senior Zero Trust Program Manager is responsible for end-to-end execution of Vanguard’s Zero Trust program, spanning Privileged Access, PKI & Certificate Modernization, Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) readiness, and Zero Trust Assessments & policy-as-code enablement. This role acts as the central orchestrator across security engineering teams, architecture, risk/audit partners, and external vendors—ensuring outcomes are delivered against approved OKRs, investment commitments, and regulatory expectations, while providing clear, executive-ready visibility into progress, risks, and decisions.

Responsibilities

• Manage technology-related programs or major technical workstreams of a broader program. Ensure project scope aligns with business priorities and business value is properly measured for prioritization.
• Develop and maintain broad knowledge of Financial Services industry forces, competition, and trends to assess viability of approaches and strategies.
• Monitor financial, legal, and regulatory environments to ensure strategies align with overall company strategy and market conditions.
• Communicate with stakeholders, leaders, team members, management, and department partners to ensure requirements and priorities are understood.
• Monitor project progress and results, submitting regular status reports to management and internal/external stakeholders.
• Ensure development and execution of change management and communication plans.
• Build and maintain relationships across program stakeholders and foster effective communication between internal and external parties.
• Drive key decisions to ensure alignment with overarching goals across stakeholders.
• Mitigate risk and maintain control, compliance, audit, and legal requirements on technology projects.
• Maintain technical and business knowledge to support program implementation.

Zero Trust Program Leadership & Execution

• Own the overall Zero Trust program plan, roadmap, and delivery cadence across all workstreams:
  • Identity & Privileged Access (JIT / Standing Access Reduction)
  • PKI modernization & certificate lifecycle automation
  • PQC readiness and cryptographic agility
  • Zero Trust assessments, maturity modeling, and future-state design
• Translate strategy into clear execution plans, milestones, and measurable outcomes aligned to enterprise OKRs.

OKRs, Metrics & Executive Reporting

• Define, track, and report workstream-level OKRs and KPIs in partnership with engineering and architecture leads (e.g., % privileged access delivered via JIT, certificate automation coverage, PQC readiness milestones).
• Produce monthly, quarterly, and ad-hoc executive updates for senior leadership (CISO, SLT, GR&S), emphasizing:
  • Risk reduction
  • Business enablement
  • Delivery confidence
  • Emerging dependencies or decisions required

Cross-Functional & Vendor Coordination

• Serve as the single coordination point across IAM Engineering, PKI, Cloud Security, Architecture, GRC, and Audit teams.
• Manage delivery alignment with strategic partners and vendors supporting the Zero Trust program (e.g., assessment partners, PKI/PQC vendors, JIT platforms).
• Ensure clear ownership models, RACI clarity, and handoffs between investment work and BAU operations.

PKI, Certificates & PQC Readiness Oversight

• Provide execution oversight of PKI modernization initiatives.
• Track and drive PQC readiness activities, including cryptographic inventory, roadmap execution, and alignment with regulatory and industry guidance.

Zero Trust Assessment & Policy Enablement

• Manage Zero Trust readiness assessments and maturity modeling activities.
• Coordinate definition of target-state personas, use cases, and policy-as-code approaches in collaboration with architecture and engineering teams.
• Ensure assessment outcomes translate into prioritized execution plans, not shelfware.

Financial & Investment Governance

• Partner with finance and PMO teams to:
  • Track Zero Trust investment spend
  • Support annual and multi-year funding requests
  • Align hiring plans (e.g., ZT Program Manager role, supporting engineers) with approved budgets
• Identify risks related to hiring delays, vendor dependencies, or funding constraints and proactively surface options.

Risk, Audit & Compliance Alignment

• Ensure Zero Trust initiatives are audit-aware and defensible, particularly in areas such as:
  • Privileged access controls (JIT)
  • Certificate governance
  • Cloud access consistency across platforms
• Act as a liaison between delivery teams and GRC when Zero Trust topics are reviewed.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in program or portfolio management within cybersecurity, IAM, or enterprise technology.
• Demonstrated experience running large, cross-functional security programs with multiple technical workstreams.
• Strong understanding of Zero Trust principles.
• Proven ability to communicate complex initiatives in clear, executive-level language.
• Experience working with external vendors and consulting partners.
• Undergraduate degree in related field (Computer Science, Engineering) required. Graduate degree preferred.

Special Factors

Vanguard is offering visa sponsorship for this position.

Schedule

Vanguard has implemented a hybrid working model for the majority of crew members, designed to capture the benefits of enhanced flexibility while enabling in-person learning, collaboration, and connection.