Technical Project Manager, Senior Specialist

Vanguard•Malvern, PA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

At Vanguard, the Technical Project Manager, Senior Specialist manages technology-related programs or major technical workstreams, ensuring alignment with business priorities and measuring business value. This role involves developing and maintaining knowledge of the Financial Services industry, monitoring regulatory environments, and communicating effectively with stakeholders. The individual will build relationships, drive key decisions, mitigate risks, and ensure compliance. A key focus is leading and executing the Zero Trust Program, which includes Identity & Privileged Access, PKI modernization, PQC readiness, and Zero Trust assessments. The role involves translating strategy into execution plans, defining and tracking OKRs/KPIs, producing executive reports, and coordinating across various internal teams and external vendors. It also includes oversight of PKI, Certificates & PQC Readiness, managing Zero Trust assessments, financial and investment governance, and ensuring alignment with risk, audit, and compliance requirements. Vanguard is one of the world's leading investment management companies, serving individual investors, institutions, employer-sponsored retirement plans, and financial professionals. The company has a diverse and talented crew with a culture that promotes teamwork and client focus. Vanguard operates a hybrid working model.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in program or portfolio management within cybersecurity, IAM, or enterprise technology.
Demonstrated experience running large, cross‑functional security programs with multiple technical workstreams.
Strong understanding of Zero Trust principles.
Proven ability to communicate complex initiatives in clear, executive‑level language.
Experience working with external vendors and consulting partners.
Undergraduate degree in related field (Computer Science, Engineering) required.

Nice To Haves

Graduate degree preferred.

Responsibilities

Manage technology-related programs or major technical workstream of a broader program.
Ensures that the scope of the projects within the broader transformation or program align with business priorities and that business value is properly measured for prioritization.
Develops and maintains broad knowledge and awareness of Financial Services industry forces, competition, and trends to assess viability of approaches and strategies to technology-related programs.
Monitors financial, legal, and other regulatory environments to ensure strategies are aligned with the overall company strategy and market conditions.
Communicates with stakeholders, leaders, team members, management, and department partners to ensure that requirements and priorities are understood.
Monitors project progress and results and submits regular status reports to management and internal and external stakeholders.
Ensures the development and execution of change management and communication plans.
Builds and maintains relationships across program stakeholders and proactively fosters effective communication between internal and external parties.
Drives key decisions to ensure alignment with overarching goals across stakeholders.
Ensure all steps are taken to mitigate risk and maintains control, compliance, audit, and legal requirements on technology projects.
Maintains an appropriate level of technical and business knowledge to support program implementation.
Participates in special projects and performs other duties as assigned.
Own the overall Zero Trust program plan, roadmap, and delivery cadence across all workstreams: Identity & Privileged Access (JIT / Standing Access Reduction), PKI modernization & certificate lifecycle automation, PQC readiness and cryptographic agility, Zero Trust assessments, maturity modeling, and future‑state design.
Translate strategy into clear execution plans, milestones, and measurable outcomes aligned to enterprise OKRs.
Define, track, and report workstream‑level OKRs and KPIs in partnership with engineering and architecture leads (e.g., % privileged access delivered via JIT, certificate automation coverage, PQC readiness milestones).
Produce monthly, quarterly, and ad‑hoc executive updates for senior leadership (CISO, SLT, GR&S), emphasizing: Risk reduction, Business enablement, Delivery confidence, Emerging dependencies or decisions required.
Serve as the single coordination point across IAM Engineering, PKI, Cloud Security, Architecture, GRC, and Audit teams.
Manage delivery alignment with strategic partners and vendors supporting the Zero Trust program (e.g., assessment partners, PKI/PQC vendors, JIT platforms).
Ensure clear ownership models, RACI clarity, and handoffs between investment work and BAU operations.
Execution oversight of PKI modernization initiatives.
Track and drive PQC readiness activities, including cryptographic inventory, roadmap execution, and alignment with regulatory and industry guidance.
Manage Zero Trust readiness assessments and maturity modeling activities.
Coordinate definition of target‑state personas, use cases, and policy‑as‑code approaches in collaboration with architecture and engineering teams.
Ensure assessment outcomes translate into prioritized execution plans, not shelfware.
Partner with finance and PMO teams to: Track Zero Trust investment spend, Support annual and multi‑year funding requests, Align hiring plans (e.g., ZT Program Manager role, supporting engineers) with approved budgets.
Identify risks related to hiring delays, vendor dependencies, or funding constraints and proactively surface options.
Ensure Zero Trust initiatives are audit‑aware and defensible, particularly in areas such as: Privileged access controls (JIT), Certificate governance, Cloud access consistency across platforms.
Act as a liaison between delivery teams and GRC when Zero Trust topics are reviewed.