US Head of Equity Services

The Vanguard Group•Malvern, PA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Lead a globally critical function at the heart of equity investment operations, where you’ll drive strategy, execution, and governance across portfolio data, trading support, and liquidity services. In this role, you’ll partner with senior investment leaders and global peers to oversee complex, high‑impact activity—balancing real‑time execution, operational risk, and the evolution of a modern, scalable operating model across regions and platforms. This is a unique opportunity for a proven leader with deep investment and operational expertise to influence how equity services are delivered globally, while elevating a high-performing team and navigating complex, interconnected market and portfolio dynamics.

Requirements

Minimum of eight years’ experience in the Financial Services industry or related experience preferred.
Supervisory experience required.
Undergraduate degree or equivalent combination of training and experience.
Deep investment acumen (strong understanding of equity markets and portfolio management).
Operational leadership across global equity service operations.
Market knowledge and awareness to support portfolio execution and trading decisions.
Data & technology fluency (comfort navigating evolving tech platforms and data environments).
Global leadership mindset (ability to operate across regions and partner with EMEA/APAC peers).
Experience leading global, scaled operations with cross-regional accountability.
Strong background in equity operations and portfolio servicing.
Ability to manage complex operating models and global handoffs (“pass the book”).
Proven ability to partner across investment, technology, and operations teams.

Nice To Haves

Graduate degree preferred.

Responsibilities

Hires, evaluates, and supervises crew. Provides guidance and training as necessary to develop crew. Sets performance standards, reviews performance, and makes informed compensation decisions in accordance with all applicable Human Resources policies and procedures.
Sets direction for portfolio administration, investment operations, data management, and trade readiness services supporting complex portfolios, products, and market activity globally.
Translates strategic priorities into scalable operating plans that drive service quality, efficiency, resiliency, and risk mitigation across the region.
Serves as a senior operational advisor to investment leaders, portfolio managers, traders, and business leaders on operational readiness, execution risk, and large‑scale portfolio, market, or platform initiatives.
Builds and sustains executive‑level partnerships with investment leadership, technology, risk, and external service providers.
Owns enterprise‑level escalation and resolution frameworks for material operational risks, establishing decision protocols that align with governance, regulatory, and risk management expectations and ensure consistent application of root‑cause analysis and sustainable remediation.
Leads and oversees the strategic operating model evolution, including global standardization, automation, outsourcing strategy, and adoption of advanced data and analytics capabilities.
Establishes and governs global operating standards, data controls, and service delivery models to ensure consistency, resiliency, and risk alignment across regions.
Leverages deep investment knowledge to oversee end‑to‑end trade lifecycle processes, evaluate material operational risks, and shape risk‑aware execution and control outcomes across portfolios and strategies.
Represents the function in audit, risk, vendor, and governance forums, and drives remediation and control enhancements to protect operational integrity and enterprise risk posture.
Maintains and expands investment knowledge of financial markets, investment products, regulatory developments, and investment management functional areas.
Ensure team readiness to anticipate impacts to evolving business needs and external market conditions.
Oversee adherence to operating procedures, documentation standards, and continuous improvement initiatives to enhance efficiency, scalability, and control.
Sponsors enterprise and divisional initiatives that shape the future investment operating model and strengthen positioning across the platform.
Oversee process improvement initiatives to ensure efficiency and risk management.
Leads operational strategy for new portfolios, products, or market-driven initiatives, overseeing requirements definition, data validation, testing, and implementation across teams.
Monitors market, index, regulatory, and business developments; assesses downstream operational impacts and directs required data, process, and control changes.
Participates in special projects and performs other duties as assigned.