Engineering Manager, IT Delivery (Philadelphia, PA)

The Engineering Manager serves as the single, accountable leader of a Product Engineering Team, a small, cross-functional team responsible for designing, building, testing, and maintaining technology solutions that support client and business needs. This role combines people leadership, delivery accountability, and technical leadership.  

Engineering Managers work closely with engineers and partners to guide technical decisions, foster team effectiveness, and ensure the consistent delivery of high-quality outcomes. Engineering Managers operate close to the work, balancing strategic priorities with day-to-day execution while creating the conditions for teams to perform at their best.

These roles are within the Financial Planning & Journeys (FPJ product family. FPJ is an Advice and Wealth Management Technology product family responsible for delivering the end-to-end Personal Advisor Services (PAS) experience—from onboarding clients into advice through ongoing financial planning and digital servicing. Operating at the intersection of advice and digital experience, FPJ enables clients and advisors to plan, manage, and evolve financial strategies across every stage of a client’s life.

In FPJ, Engineering Managers lead teams that build and operate the platforms behind Vanguard’s advised financial planning experience. Teams design and run cloud-native, distributed systems that power onboarding, client profiles, personalization, and financial planning at scale, while also advancing Crew Assist—Vanguard’s GenAI program that embeds AI into advisor workflows to automate call summaries, surface relationship insights, and create meaningful capacity for crew. We have two openings within FPJ for our new Engineering Manager Roles in Philadelphia.

Advice Cream Sandwiches owns client-facing business-critical products within the PAS Experience: Goals, Performance, and On Demand Reports, and partners with other teams in the sub-family to support the PAS Dashboard / Landing Page. They are currently collaborating to advance the OneVanguard vision for Goals & Performance, as well as building new products in Advice Summary and the Financial Planning Hub. Advice Cream Sandwich is a front-end focused but full‑stack advanced engineering team, with a recently modernized tech-stack currently consisting primarily of Angular, NX, Module Federation, Stencil, TypeScript, Node.js, and Next.js, utilizing infrastructure based on ECS, CloudFront, S3, and Akamai.

Team Perseus owns Vanguard’s core PAS client enrollment platforms, supporting eligibility, e‑signature, and end‑to‑end enrollment workflows that sit directly on the advisor critical path. The team builds and operates cloud‑native, event‑driven services using a full‑stack mix of Node.js, Java, and Python, with AWS technologies including ECS, Lambda (FaaS), SNS, SQS, and Kafka. In addition to running mission‑critical enrollment systems, the team is taking ownership of a new GenAI application, ChangeLens, introducing AWS Bedrock and Arize to the stack. The Engineering Manager will lead delivery, people development, and operational excellence while guiding the team through continued modernization and responsible AI adoption.

What You'll Do 

• Leads, coaches, and develops a team of engineers. Establishes clear performance expectations, provides ongoing feedback, and supports career growth. Conducts performance reviews and makes compensation decisions in alignment with Human Resources policies. 

• Owns responsibility for team outcomes, ensuring work is prioritized, risks are managed, and commitments are delivered in a timely and reliable manner. 

• Applies a strong technical skillset to engage meaningfully with the team’s work. Guides solution design, supports engineering decision-making, reviews technical approaches, and provides practical coaching to engineers. 

• Fosters a culture of learning, adaptability, and continuous improvement. Encourages experimentation, reflection, and the evolution of engineering and delivery practices. 

• Supports healthy team dynamics and effective collaboration. Reinforces clear roles, working agreements, and sustainable team rhythms that enable consistent performance. 

• Identifies and resolves impediments that affect delivery, quality, or team effectiveness. Escalates complex issues to IT experts as needed and simplifies constraints to maintain momentum 

• Partners closely with product leaders, technical leaders, and business stakeholders to clarify priorities, align expectations, and ensure delivered solutions meet evolving needs. 

• Promotes high standards of engineering quality, including reliability, scalability, and performance. Reinforces sound development and testing practices. 

• Participates in departmental planning, staffing discussions, and operational initiatives. Contributes to improving engineering practices and organizational effectiveness. 

• Participates in special projects and performs other duties as assigned. 

Qualifications and Skills

• Minimum 8 years of experience in IT project management, software development, or IT service delivery. Previous leadership experience required.

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science, Information Technology, or related field. PMP, ITIL, or Agile certifications preferred.

• Strong expertise in IT project management, Agile methodologies, and SDLC best practices with experience in IT infrastructure, software development, and enterprise IT solutions.

• Must have engineering skills in line with the team’s technical stack

• Proficiency in risk management, budgeting, and IT governance. Understanding of cybersecurity frameworks and IT compliance standards.

• Excellent leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills.

Special Factors

Sponsorship

Vanguard is not 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.