Director of Investment Operations, Personalized Indexing

The Vanguard Group•Malvern, PA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Director of Investment Operations leads the execution and ongoing evolution of the operations supporting the direct indexing platform, ensuring scalable, accurate, and tax-efficient execution of personalized separately managed accounts (SMAs). This role partners closely with portfolio management, technology, dev/engineering, client teams, and risk to deliver operational excellence across a highly customized, tax-managed investment offering. This role reports into the Head of Platform Operations. Direct indexing platforms require precision, data integrity, and tax-aware execution at scale, combining portfolio customization, tax-loss harvesting, and high-volume account management. This role joins at an important time as we continue to grow and invest in our operations, technology, and team. We’re looking for a leader who can set direction but also stay close to the work and drive execution. Experience leading operational change—especially in outsourced middle- and back-office environments—is important. This person should be able to take high-level priorities and turn them into practical, day-to-day actions across a growing and complex platform.

Requirements

10 + years in investment operations
Deep understanding of direct indexing, equity SMAs, and tax-managed investing, including direct experience with one or multiple middle and back-office outsourcing platforms used by SMA managers (i.e., Vestmark, Advent, BNY Archer, SEI)
Strong knowledge of trade lifecycle, portfolio accounting, and data management
Proven leadership experience managing high-performing operations teams
Strong partnership skills across front office, technology, and risk
Undergraduate degree

Nice To Haves

Experience leading operational change—especially in outsourced middle- and back-office environments

Responsibilities

Lead the day-to-day execution across investment operations lifecycle middle & back-office functions (account onboarding, portfolio implementation, reconciliation, reporting, contracting, billing, proxy voting, custody/3rd party management).
Maintain a scalable operating model supporting high-volume, highly customized SMA portfolios
Manage third-party portfolio accounting system.
Ensure operational processes support ongoing tax management (tax-loss harvesting, tax transitions, and capital gains management) and portfolio customization (ESG screens, restrictions, factor tilts, client-specific constraints)
Maintain close partnership with development/engineering teams to ensure seamless integration across portfolio management systems, trading platforms, and client reporting tools
Oversee data flows across benchmark, security master, client restrictions, and tax-lot systems
Lead and develop a team of ~10 crew members, with a focus on execution quality and continuous improvement
Establish clear performance expectations aligned to accuracy, timeliness, and client outcomes
Promote a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and operational excellence
Work with embedded 1st line risk partner to identify operational risks and implement effective controls to manage
Drive process standardization and automation to scale operations, streamline workflows, and improve efficiency
Support development of key performance metrics and operational reporting
Manage relationships with third-party vendors
Establish service-level agreements and monitor performance against operational KPIs
Resolve escalations and ensure continuity of service
Enable a seamless onboarding and servicing experience for SMA clients
Support high-touch client experience through accurate reporting and operational transparency
Partner with client teams to support complex portfolios (e.g., concentrated stock, transitions, tax-sensitive mandates)
Represent Operations as subject matter expert in a client facing capacity, including support for conversations with prospective clients, custodian, SMA sponsor platforms, and other 3rd party partners.