Platform Architect, Personalized Indexing Technology in Oakland

Job DescriptionVanguard Personalized Indexing (VPI) is a rapidly growing business within Financial Advisor Services. We empower advisors to deliver tax-efficient, customized direct indexing portfolios at scale and on demand. Our cutting-edge platform manages thousands of investor accounts and evaluates portfolios daily to identify tax-loss harvesting and customization opportunities.\n\nVPI operates at the intersection of investment management, scalable cloud platforms, and advanced engineering, supporting mission-critical workloads that directly impact client outcomes.\n\nWe are seeking a hands-on Investment Platform Architect with strong cloud engineering skills to help evolve and scale the VPI platform on AWS. This role is designed for a self-starter and deep individual contributor who enjoys working close to the code while also influencing architectural direction.\nThe ideal candidate brings investment platform experience, strong software engineering fundamentals, and the ability to design and build cloud-, scalable solutions. This is not a purely advisory or oversight role-coding and direct contribution are expected.\n\nYou will work across infrastructure modernization, cloud- application development, and architectural evolution, with flexibility to contribute wherever the business needs the most impact.Key ResponsibilitiesArchitecture & Technical Leadership

• Lead the definition and evolution of application and platform architecture aligned with VPI business strategy, product roadmaps, and Vanguard technology standards.
• Drive key architectural decisions for cloud- systems, balancing scalability, resiliency, security, and cost.
• Develop and review architecture and design documentation for new capabilities and platform enhancements.
• Partner closely with product owners, engineering teams, and business stakeholders to ensure solutions meet functional and non-functional requirements.

Hands-On Engineering & Delivery

• Act as a hands-on individual contributor, designing and building solutions across the VPI platform.
• Develop cloud- services on AWS, including microservices, APIs, and supporting infrastructure.
• Write production-quality code primarily in Java and Python, with a strong focus on maintainability and performance.
• Contribute to data engineering and platform integration efforts supporting investment workflows, analytics, and operational processes.
• Help modernize and evolve existing systems while maintaining stability of critical production workloads.

Cloud & Platform Engineering

• Design and implement scalable infrastructure using AWS, including containerized workloads and Kubernetes.
• Build and operate microservices architectures leveraging messaging, caching, and asynchronous processing patterns.
• Partner with teams on infrastructure automation, CI/CD pipelines, observability, and operational excellence.
• Identify and resolve moderately complex production and platform issues, assessing risks and driving pragmatic solutions.

Collaboration & Vendor Evaluation

• Consult with other technology and product teams across Vanguard to ensure alignment and reuse where appropriate.
• Lead and participate in build vs. buy evaluations, including assessment of vendors, tools, and platforms.
• Provide technical guidance during vendor onboarding, integrations, and proof-of-concept efforts.

Additional Responsibilities

• Participate in special initiatives supporting the growth and scalability of the VPI business.
• Contribute to continuous improvement of engineering practices, standards, and platform reliability.

• Strong engineering background with experience building investment platforms, financial systems, or large-scale distributed systems. 8 years experience with Computer science or related degree.
• Demonstrated experience as a hands-on architect or senior engineer delivering production systems.
• Proficiency in Java and Python.
• Experience designing and building cloud- architectures on AWS.
• Solid understanding of microservices architectures, including messaging, caching, and asynchronous processing.
• Experience with Kubernetes and container-based platforms.
• Working knowledge of data engineering concepts and data-intensive systems.
• Ability to operate effectively as an independent contributor while collaborating across teams., * Experience with direct indexing, portfolio management, tax-loss harvesting, or investment operations platforms.
• Familiarity with high-volume, high-availability financial systems.
• Experience modernizing legacy platforms into cloud- architectures.
• Strong understanding of operational concerns such as resiliency, monitoring, security, and cost optimization.

• You are deeply engaged in building and evolving the VPI platform, not just advising.
• You help shape architectural direction while still contributing code.
• You move fluidly between infrastructure, application development, and business-driven priorities.
• You enable VPI to scale safely and efficiently as the business continues to grow.

Special Factors

Sponsorship

Vanguard is offering visa sponsorship for this position.

About Vanguard

At Vanguard, we don't just have a mission-we're on a mission.

To work for the long-term financial wellbeing of our clients. To lead through product and services that transform our clients' lives. To learn and develop our skills as individuals and as a team. From Malvern to Melbourne, our mission drives us forward and inspires us to be our best.

How We Work

Vanguard has implemented a 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. We believe our mission-driven and highly collaborative culture is a critical enabler to support long-term client outcomes and enrich the employee experience.