Risk Director, Personal Wealth (Cash and Savings)

The Vanguard Group • Scottsdale, PA

7d • Hybrid

About The Position

Personal Wealth is transforming how investors access personalized financial advice. Vanguard's Personal Wealth division helps individuals and families achieve their financial goals through a broad spectrum of advice and wealth management solutions—ranging from digital advice and financial planning to comprehensive wealth, trust, and family office services. Serving investors across all stages of their financial journey, Personal Wealth combines Vanguard's client-first philosophy, low-cost investing expertise, and innovative technology to deliver advice at scale. The division operates across a complex landscape of advice, brokerage, cash management, wealth management, and technology-enabled services, creating unique opportunities to influence both business outcomes and client success. Cash & Savings is responsible for Vanguard's cash management ecosystem, helping clients save, spend, move, and access their money with confidence. The portfolio includes Vanguard Cash Deposit (VCD), Cash Plus, debit card capabilities, interest rate and tiering programs, money movement services, and the policies, operational processes, and governance frameworks that support them. These offerings sit at the intersection of investing, banking, payments, fraud prevention, and client experience, creating unique opportunities and risks as Vanguard expands its cash capabilities and evolves toward more bank-like client experiences. We are seeking a Risk Director to provide independent risk oversight, credible challenge, and strategic risk advisory support across this growing portfolio. As a trusted advisor to business leadership, the Risk Director will partner closely with product, operations, technology, legal, compliance, financial crimes, and third-party providers, including sponsor banks, payment processors, and network partners, to ensure new capabilities are designed, launched, and scaled in a risk-smart, compliant, and operationally resilient manner. The role provides operational risk expertise, guidance, oversight, and assurance services across cash products, payments, and money movement capabilities, while helping strengthen divisional risk frameworks to support effective risk identification, mitigation, governance, and decision-making.

Requirements

• Minimum of 10 years of progressive experience in wealth management and/or personal investment advisory services, with at least 8 years of risk management and payments risk experience
• Hands‑on involvement in debit card programs and/or transactional product launches
• Undergraduate degree required
• Hands‑on masterly of operational risk frameworks and control assurance (control design, testing, monitoring, reporting).
• Demonstrated people leadership capabilities, including building scalable teams, developing leaders, and driving a strong risk culture.
• Exceptional communicator and strategic thinker who shapes outcomes through strong judgement, clarity of message, and an ability to bring stakeholders along.
• Build buy‑in across senior leaders while navigating complexity with confidence.

Nice To Haves

• Graduate degree preferred (e.g., JD, MBA, MS in Risk/Finance).
• Relevant payments or risk certifications (e.g., NACHA) a plus.
• You know what “good” looks like – and how to build it.
• Cash management products
• Money movement operations
• ACH and wire processing
• Debit card programs
• Fraud prevention and transaction monitoring
• Regulation E
• NACHA Operating Rules
• AML/KYC
• PCI-DSS
• Sponsor bank and payment network oversight

Responsibilities

• Hire, evaluate, and supervise crew. Provides guidance, training, and coaching as necessary to develop crew.
• Set performance standards, review performance, and make informed compensation decisions in accordance with all applicable Human Resources policies and procedures.
• Partner with key stakeholders to establish and implement risk and control management standards within the division's processes, based on the divisional risk profile and enterprise and divisional policies and standards.
• Provide vision and leadership regarding existing and emerging risks, in alignment with strategic priorities.
• Provide independent oversight of Line 1 risk activities, with a primary responsibility to challenge completeness, consistency, quality, and judgment in how risks are identified, assessed, and managed.
• Ensure that the division has an appropriate level of review of key controls, and that key controls are designed in accordance with established standards.
• Partner in risk identification and challenges completeness and consistency of identified risks.
• Provides industry and enterprise-wide insights to inform the business on current and emerging risks.
• Performs independent risk assessments for selected high‑impact, critical, or thematic risks.
• Monitor and enable adherence to the enterprise risk governance policies, standards, and procedures.
• Develop, maintain, and evolve a comprehensive program for monitoring and challenging the risk and control effectiveness in the business.
• Produce independent risk reporting and enterprise‑wide insights for divisional leadership and governance forums to enable the business to make risk informed decisions.
• Lead and oversee a team of risk practitioners in analyzing risks, applying risk methodologies, and considering business context in advising the business on key risks.
• Accountable for the timely completion of risk projects and initiatives.
• Develop and maintain in-depth knowledge and awareness of industry, risk management practices, and regulatory and/or policy changes.
• Take an active role in industry forums and remains current on issues and regulatory events affecting the division, firm, and industry.
• Embed deep, division-specific acumen into risk management.
• Provide relevant, tailored guidance and advice to strengthen decision-making across the division’s complex business operations and strategic initiatives.
• Participate in special projects and performs other duties as assigned, partnering with enterprise risk, legal, compliance, audit, and internal and external stakeholders as appropriate.

Benefits

• Hybrid working model for the majority of our crew members, designed to capture the benefits of enhanced flexibility while enabling in-person learning, collaboration, and connection.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior