Mobile Digital Payments Architect

The Vanguard Group•Malvern, PA

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

Vanguard is seeking a Mobile Digital Payments Architect to define and drive the architecture strategy and product roadmap for digital payments products and platforms. This role ensures alignment with business objectives, enterprise architecture standards, and technology roadmaps. The architect will design scalable, secure, and resilient solutions for mobile payment capabilities, including digital wallets, debit card experiences, account funding, card controls, tokenization, and push provisioning. This position involves close collaboration with various teams, including Product Management, Engineering, UX, Security, Risk, Compliance, Operations, and business stakeholders, to translate requirements into architecture designs and delivery plans. The architect will also work with enterprise architects, product teams, technology experts, and vendors to ensure solutions adhere to enterprise standards and long-term strategies. A key aspect of this role is leading integration architecture across various payment ecosystem partners. The architect will serve as the senior technical authority, assessing risks, resolving technical challenges, and guiding implementation decisions. Responsibilities include leading architecture reviews, proof-of-concept initiatives, and technology evaluations. Establishing and promoting mobile architecture standards, design patterns, API strategies, and best practices is crucial. The role requires staying abreast of emerging technologies and payment innovations to identify opportunities for modernization. The architect will prepare and present architecture recommendations, roadmaps, and business cases to stakeholders and executive leadership, while also providing technical leadership and mentoring to delivery teams. Hands-on contributions through design reviews and prototype development are also expected.

Requirements

Minimum of eight years related work experience, with at least three years of technology architect experience.
Undergraduate degree or equivalent combination of training and experience.
Graduate degree preferred.

Nice To Haves

Strong experience designing and delivering mobile applications for iOS and Android platforms.
Deep understanding of digital payments architecture, payment processing, and money movement systems.
Experience with mobile application frameworks such as React Native, Swift, Kotlin, Flutter, or equivalent technologies.
Strong understanding of authentication, authorization, encryption, tokenization, and fraud prevention concepts.
Experience leading architecture governance, solution reviews, and cross-functional technical initiatives.
Hands-on experience with digital wallet integrations, including Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Experience with payment processors, core banking platforms, sponsor bank integrations, or card processing ecosystems such as Marqeta, Fiserv, Visa DPS, or similar platforms.
Experience with AWS cloud services and cloud-native architecture patterns.
Experience developing architecture roadmaps and presenting technology strategies to senior leadership.

Responsibilities

Define and drive the architecture strategy and product roadmap for digital payments products and platforms, ensuring alignment with business objectives, enterprise architecture standards, and technology roadmaps.
Design scalable, secure, and resilient solutions supporting mobile payment capabilities, including digital wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay), debit card payment experiences, account funding and transfers, card controls, tokenization services, and push provisioning capabilities.
Partner with Product Managers, Engineering Leads, UX teams, Security, Risk, Compliance, Operations, and business stakeholders to translate requirements into architecture designs, technical roadmaps, and delivery plans.
Collaborate with enterprise architects, product teams, technology experts, and vendors to ensure solutions align with enterprise standards, target architectures, and long-term technology strategies.
Lead integration architecture across payment processors, sponsor banks, card networks, digital wallet providers, and other third-party financial technology partners.
Serve as the senior technical authority for assigned products and platforms, assessing risks, resolving complex technical challenges, and guiding teams through architecture and implementation decisions.
Lead architecture reviews, proof-of-concept initiatives, feasibility studies, and technology evaluations to validate solutions, reduce implementation risk, and inform build-versus-buy decisions.
Establish and promote mobile architecture standards, design patterns, API strategies, engineering best practices, and governance processes to ensure quality, security, and consistency across teams.
Track emerging technologies, payment innovations, and industry trends to identify opportunities for modernization, innovation, and competitive advantage.
Prepare and present architecture recommendations, product documentation, technology roadmaps, and business cases to technical stakeholders and executive leadership.
Provide technical leadership, mentoring, and architectural guidance across multiple delivery teams, fostering engineering excellence and organizational growth.
Contribute hands-on when needed through design reviews, prototype development, reference implementations, special projects, and other duties as assigned.