Investment Product Strategy Manager

Vanguard•Malvern, PA

About The Position

Personal Wealth Investment Product serves as the investment center of excellence for all Personal Wealth crew and clients. Aligned to Personal Wealth’s refreshed strategy, this organization plays a key role in powering clients’ unmatched long-term financial outcomes by ensuring that Personal Wealth delivers a disciplined product strategy, a rigorous investment methodology, and client-outcome-driven distribution. This role will focus on supporting the Investment Product Strategy function within the broader Investment Product organization, which aims to drive Personal Wealth’s investment product governance and develop a comprehensive Personal Wealth product strategy and implementation plan. This plan is inclusive of Vanguard’s investment products (e.g., money market funds, private investments, etc.), Personal Wealth investment products (e.g., Cash, Fully Paid Lending, 529s, etc.), and innovative new offers to bolster the retail direct investment product offering. Specifically, this role will serve as a liaison to Advice & Wealth Solutions, partnering on enhancements needed in the broker-dealer offering to support the evolution of the Advice & Wealth Solutions product portfolio.

Requirements

Eight years of related work experience, preferably in strategy or investment-related roles.
Undergraduate degree or an equivalent combination of training and experience.
Deep understanding of retail investment products and portfolio solutions, including mutual funds, ETFs, money market funds, cash and lending solutions, tax-advantaged vehicles (e.g., 529s), and emerging or innovative investment offerings.
Ability to evaluate products through the lens of client outcomes, risk, liquidity, and distribution fit.
Strong capability in supporting disciplined product strategy and governance, including familiarity with product lifecycle management, approval processes, and decision frameworks used in regulated asset management and broker-dealer environments.
Advanced analytical skills to assess market trends, client needs, and competitive positioning across asset management and wealth platforms.
Demonstrated ability to synthesize qualitative and quantitative insights into clear strategic perspectives and recommendations.
Working knowledge of broker-dealer and advised wealth platforms, including product constraints, regulatory considerations, and the intersection between investment products and advisory distribution models.
Ability to partner effectively with wealth teams to evolve product capabilities.
Strong collaboration, communication, and project management skills, with the ability to operate effectively across investment, legal, compliance, operations, and distribution partners.
Skilled at managing multiple workstreams, aligning stakeholders, and advancing initiatives in complex, matrixed organizations.

Nice To Haves

A graduate degree is preferred but not required.
CFA preferred but not required.

Responsibilities

Fosters healthy collaboration with Advice & Wealth Solutions on investment product strategy to surface critical considerations for the broker-dealer in support of potential new offers or enhancements.
Manages various projects related to investment product initiatives to strengthen the broker-dealer offering.
Conducts deep analysis of strategic, competitive, client, and market issues related to prioritized strategic projects.
Gathers qualitative and quantitative data from internal and external sources to make data-driven recommendations about new products or changes to existing products.
Develops and maintains project plans for strategy and implementation initiatives, including but not limited to establishing deadlines and milestones and ensuring timely completion of project deliverables.
Effectively manages stakeholder relationships throughout the course of each project.
Conducts product-based competitor research, analysis, and monitoring to better understand competitors’ product offerings and drive positioning of the broker-dealer product offering.
Develops and maintains broad and deep knowledge of the asset management industry, markets, products, and competitive dynamics. Leverages this knowledge to derive and communicate product-related insights in internal forums.
Provides thought leadership by identifying strategic topics and presenting compelling ideas for research evaluation.
Participates in special projects and performs other duties as assigned.