Direct Sales, Senior Specialist

The Vanguard Group•Roanoke, PA

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Workplace Sales Professional generates new business and expands Vanguard’s presence across the workplace retirement market. As a senior representative of the organization, this person builds trusted relationships with plan sponsors, consultants, advisors, and other influential stakeholders, positioning Vanguard’s capabilities against clients’ retirement-plan needs. The role combines strategic relationship management, retirement-industry expertise, executive presence, and sales effectiveness. It involves understanding institutional buying processes, navigating complex stakeholder environments, developing opportunities, and bringing Vanguard’s capabilities to market. The position develops and executes sales strategies, manages opportunities through the institutional sales cycle, leads consultative client engagements, and builds relationships with senior decision-makers and intermediaries. It requires deep knowledge of workplace retirement, including defined contribution plans, recordkeeping, industry trends, competitive dynamics, plan sponsor priorities, participant needs, regulatory developments, and investment solutions. The role also coordinates cross-functional partners to develop and deliver client solutions and shares market intelligence to inform Vanguard’s broader commercial strategy. The role requires at least five years of financial-services sales experience focused on institutional channels, strong knowledge of the recordkeeping retirement landscape, and a demonstrated ability to develop strategic account plans and deliver results. Travel of 50% is required. FINRA Series 6 or 7 and 63 licenses are required, or the ability to obtain them. Vanguard is not offering visa sponsorship for this position. Vanguard’s hybrid working model applies to the majority of its crew members and is designed to support flexibility alongside in-person learning, collaboration, and connection.

Requirements

At least five years of experience in financial-services sales, focused on institutional channels.
Significant experience in retirement, institutional financial services, investment management, or a related business-to-business financial-services environment.
Demonstrated success developing relationships and winning complex, consultative sales opportunities.
Strong knowledge of the workplace retirement marketplace, particularly defined contribution plans and institutional decision-making.
Experience engaging sophisticated plan sponsors, consultants, advisors, and executive-level decision-makers.
Strong business judgment and ability to connect client needs with commercial opportunities.
Executive-level communication, presentation, negotiation, and relationship-management skills.
Ability to navigate a matrixed organization and mobilize cross-functional resources around high-value opportunities.
Collaborative, client-focused approach and accountability for sales outcomes.
Strong knowledge of the recordkeeping retirement landscape.
Proven ability to develop and execute strategic account plans and deliver results.
Investment acumen.
Ability and willingness to travel 50%.
FINRA Series 6 or 7 and 63 licenses, or ability to obtain them.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute sales strategies to generate new workplace retirement business and advance growth priorities.
Build and manage a quality sales pipeline from opportunity identification and discovery through RFPs, finalist presentations, negotiations, and implementation.
Identify client needs and develop differentiated solutions that position Vanguard competitively.
Manage pipeline development, opportunity prioritization, forecasting, and follow-through.
Establish and deepen relationships with senior plan sponsor decision-makers and organizations that influence retirement-plan selection.
Build partnerships with retirement consultants, advisors, and other intermediaries.
Understand relationship priorities, decision-making dynamics, business needs, and partnership opportunities.
Represent Vanguard with C-suite executives, retirement committees, consultants, procurement teams, and other stakeholders.
Diagnose client needs and connect them to relevant retirement solutions and capabilities.
Lead discovery conversations, presentations, finalist meetings, and other stages of institutional sales engagements.
Develop tailored value propositions and communicate Vanguard’s capabilities, investment philosophy, client value, and workplace-retirement approach.
Maintain knowledge of the workplace retirement market, including defined contribution plans, trends, competition, plan sponsor priorities, participant needs, regulations, investment solutions, and recordkeeping.
Understand how consultants and advisors influence plan sponsors and institutional buying decisions.
Provide market intelligence to inform product, service, distribution, client, and commercial strategies.
Identify emerging market opportunities and turn them into actionable sales strategies.
Collaborate with Workplace Solutions, investments, product, client service, marketing, legal, operations, and other internal partners to develop and deliver client solutions.
Coordinate complex opportunities by clarifying roles and aligning internal partners around the strategy for winning.
Involve appropriate subject-matter experts in client and consultant engagements while retaining ownership of the relationship and sales strategy.
Provide market and client insights to strengthen Vanguard’s commercial strategy and competitive positioning.
Travel 50% of the time.