Senior Engineering Manager

Vanguard•Fort Worth, TX

6d•Hybrid

About The Position

This role is for a Senior Engineering Manager at Vanguard, focusing on leading high-performing engineering teams within the Wealth Management domain. The position involves providing strategic technology leadership, architectural guidance, and ensuring the successful delivery and operational excellence of technology solutions. The manager will partner closely with Product, Architecture, Data, and Technology leaders to shape roadmaps and drive business value. A key aspect of the role is fostering a client-first mindset and driving the adoption of modern software engineering practices, including cloud-native architectures, DevSecOps, and AI-enabled development. The role also requires strong technical oversight, risk management, and leadership in technology modernization initiatives. Building strong relationships with stakeholders and fostering a culture of innovation and accountability are crucial. A broad understanding of wealth management processes is necessary to ensure technology solutions enhance client, advisor, and crew experiences while maintaining appropriate controls and governance.

Requirements

Minimum 10 years of relevant work experience, with at least 5 years in a managerial role with a strong focus on application engineering.
Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field.
Proven experience leading Engineering Managers, technical leaders and high-performing software engineering teams, with a demonstrated ability to build inclusive, engaged and high-performing engineering organizations.
Experience leading leaders and managing multiple engineering teams responsible for the delivery and operation of business-critical applications, platforms and services.
Demonstrated success delivering cloud-native solutions and modern platforms within AWS or comparable cloud environments, including experience driving adoption of scalable, resilient and secure engineering practices.
Strong experience shaping technology strategy and influencing architecture, platform and engineering decisions across multiple teams, products or domains.
Experience leading teams responsible for customer-facing digital experiences, enterprise platforms, data-driven applications and complex system integrations.
Proven ability to partner effectively with Product, Architecture, Data and business leaders to align technology investments with client needs, business priorities and strategic outcomes.
Demonstrated experience driving technology modernization, engineering transformation and continuous improvement initiatives, including adoption of modern engineering practices, automation and AI-enabled development capabilities.
Deep understanding of software architecture, distributed systems, systems design, application security, software delivery lifecycle management and engineering best practices.
Strong communication, stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear business outcomes for executive and non-technical audiences.
Passion for developing engineering talent through coaching, mentoring, succession planning and leadership development.

Nice To Haves

Experience within wealth management, financial services, fintech or other highly regulated industries.
Experience delivering technology solutions that support advice, wealth management, investment management or client service capabilities.
Experience leading geographically distributed and globally aligned engineering teams across multiple locations and time zones.
Experience delivering and operating customer-facing digital platforms, advisor experiences and enterprise technology products at scale.
Experience with event-driven architectures, enterprise integrations, APIs, distributed systems and modern data platforms.
Familiarity with modern technology stacks and engineering frameworks, including Java, Spring Boot, Angular, React, cloud-native technologies and platform engineering practices.
Experience leveraging automation, artificial intelligence, machine learning, analytics and emerging technologies to improve engineering productivity, operational efficiency and client outcomes.
Professional certifications in cloud technologies, architecture, agile delivery or technology leadership are advantageous.

Responsibilities

Lead, coach and develop high-performing engineering teams.
Establish clear performance expectations, foster an inclusive and collaborative culture, and drive talent development, succession planning and organizational effectiveness.
Provide strategic technology leadership, engineering direction and architectural guidance across a portfolio of Wealth Management products, platforms and services.
Ensure alignment with business priorities, client outcomes and long-term technology strategy.
Own the successful delivery, operational excellence, security, resilience and scalability of technology solutions.
Ensure teams deliver high-quality software and platforms that meet client, regulatory and business requirements.
Partner closely with Product, Architecture, Data and Technology leaders to shape product roadmaps, define technology investment priorities and accelerate the delivery of business value.
Foster a strong client-first mindset across engineering teams, ensuring technology decisions are grounded in client needs, advisor experiences and measurable business outcomes.
Maintain a deep understanding of client, advisor and crew needs, encouraging teams to stay connected to the experiences of those they serve and translating insights into technology solutions that improve advice and wealth management outcomes.
Drive the adoption of modern software engineering practices, including cloud-native architectures, platform engineering, DevSecOps, AI-enabled development, automation, observability and continuous delivery.
Provide technical oversight and governance for solution design, architecture, integration patterns, engineering standards and production readiness, ensuring consistency, maintainability and long-term sustainability.
Guide teams through complex technology decisions, risk management and problem resolution.
Anticipate challenges, perform root cause analysis and implement solutions that improve system reliability, performance and operational effectiveness.
Lead technology modernization initiatives and continuous improvement efforts across engineering practices, frameworks, tools and delivery processes to improve quality, speed, security and efficiency.
Establish and uphold engineering standards, technical controls and documentation practices while ensuring compliance with Information Technology, Information Security, regulatory and risk management requirements.
Build strong relationships with business stakeholders and external partners, effectively communicating technology strategy, delivery progress, risks and opportunities while influencing decisions across the organization.
Foster a culture of innovation, accountability and technical excellence by mentoring future technology leaders and enabling teams to continuously learn, experiment and improve.
Maintain a broad understanding of wealth management, advice, investment and operational processes to ensure technology solutions create exceptional client, advisor and crew experiences while supporting appropriate controls, governance and risk management practices.
Participate in strategic initiatives and other leadership responsibilities as required.