Investment Systems Application Engineer - IV,- Vanguard Personalized Indexing

Vanguard•Charlotte, NC

2d•$100,000 - $180,000•Hybrid

About The Position

This role is expected to operate at a senior engineer level with hands on coding, influencing architecture, mentoring junior engineers, and driving system reliability for mission‑critical investment platforms.

Requirements

Minimum of 8+ years of experience, including significant experience building investment, wealth management, or financial systems
Strong backend engineering expertise in Java and/or Python
Deep understanding of investment domain concepts including portfolios, trading workflows, market data, and investment analytics
Proven experience designing and building scalable distributed systems and APIs
Experience with microservices architectures, messaging systems, and asynchronous processing patterns
Strong experience with cloud‑native platforms, particularly AWS
Experience with containerization and orchestration (Kubernetes preferred)
Demonstrated ability to provide technical leadership and influence system design decisions
Strong problem‑solving and production support experience in high‑availability environments
Undergraduate degree or equivalent combination of training and experience

Responsibilities

Design and build scalable backend services and APIs supporting portfolio construction, optimization, trading, and analytics workflows
Develop high‑performance, production‑grade systems using Java and/or Python with strong focus on reliability and maintainability
Architect and implement microservices and event‑driven systems to support high‑volume, latency‑sensitive workloads
Ensure application performance, scalability, resiliency, and cost efficiency across distributed systems
Integrate internal and third‑party systems, ensuring seamless interoperability and data consistency
Provide senior‑level system design, architecture guidance, and technical direction across backend and platform components
Lead design and code reviews, ensuring alignment with engineering standards and architectural principles
Evaluate and recommend technology solutions, design patterns, and implementation approaches
Anticipate system and platform risks; proactively design solutions to prevent production issues
Mentor engineers and elevate technical execution across the team
Develop a deep understanding of investment management workflows, including portfolios, trading lifecycle, and data pipelines
Design systems that support front, middle, and back office functions while maintaining strong controls and auditability
Translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions aligned with investment processes
Ensure systems meet accuracy, consistency, and regulatory expectations for financial applications
Build and operate cloud‑native services on AWS using containerized architectures and Kubernetes
Drive adoption of CI/CD, automated testing, and infrastructure‑as‑code practices
Improve observability, monitoring, and operational readiness across platform components
Contribute to architectural evolution toward scalable, cloud‑native systems
Ensure the viability and quality of investment systems deliverables through rigorous testing and validation
Lead and participate in design, code, and test inspections across the SDLC
Support production systems, including incident response, root cause analysis, and remediation
Ensure compliance with Information Technology and Information Security policies
Promote continuous improvement in engineering practices, standards, and system reliability
Develop and maintain deep knowledge of Vanguard’s platform ecosystem and integration points
Collaborate with cross‑functional teams and stakeholders to deliver high‑impact capabilities
Participate in special initiatives supporting the growth and scalability of the VPI platform