Mission:
The API Platform Team's mission is to make the API experience better for API creators and consumers to that they can achieve key business initiatives across the enterprise.

The CTO has created a resilient, reusable, and adaptable API platform of cloud-native solutions that are being leveraged by every business line to deliver value as quickly as possible. As a member of the API platform team you will work on creating best-in-class platforms that will make development at Vanguard easier while opening the door for new partnerships with businesses and communities outside of Vanguard.

What is in it for You?
You'll grow your technical skills and personal network incredibly quickly gaining deep understandings of API Platform technology, related stacks (from compute to routing to authentication & authorization), and nuances of each subdivision's architectural plans.

We have a phenomenal fun and innovative team culture. Yes, we solve difficult problems and have a great time doing it!

You'll get to work in a fast-paced environment rooted in Lean Agile delivery on things that matter and affect nearly all organizations across the enterprise. We promise; you'll never get bored and you'll always be working towards something important!

We take engagement, crew development, and work-life balance as seriously as our team OKRs, platform SLAs, and client commitments.

What we're looking for:

We're looking for either direct experience building p latforms for developers to deploy their APIs to (API gateways ) or experience writing APIs plus other skill sets that are API Platform adjacent (Oauth security, cloud engineering, API Portals, etc.)

• A Good Fit for Team Norms
  
  • A "if I don't know it, I know I can learn it" attitude.
  • Knowledge of agile development principles.
  • Excellent client communication skills.
  • Hands on experience being part of a "you build it, you run it" team.
  • Ability to mentor & coach engineers directly in best practices & professional development.

• Architectural Leadership
  
  • Experience coordinating desires of multiple product owners, decomposing concepts into business requirements, and mapping out designs for developers.
  • Ability to lead constructive conversations with other technical groups and achieve mutually-positive outcomes.
  • Ability to consult and advise business leaders on opportunities and risks related to API management strategy.
  • Ability to spearhead investigation of bugs, design patterns, enhancements, refactoring, impact analysis and assessment, be a calm voice in multi-functional MIM calls.

• Domain Knowledge (one or more of the following)
  
  • API
    
    • Experience developing in a major language (eg. Java, Typescript, Node, Python.).
    • Expert knowledge and application of Micro-service design principles and best practices: bounded contexts, resiliency, API spec driven design.
    • Expert knowledge of API Gateway patterns.
  • Security
    
    • A strong understanding of DevSecOps concepts.
    • Familiarity with Vanguard's OAuth mechanisms (CA Gateway, CredaaS).
  • Delivery & Infrastructure:
    
    • Deep technical understanding of AWS services, microservices, data, security, event-driven architecture.
    • Familiarity with with Vanguard's CI/CD pipelines especially deploying AWS services using the IaC pipeline.
  • • Extensive experience with contemporary patterns for operational telemetry.
    • An understanding of High Availability concepts (Multi Region / Out of Region strategy).
    • Understanding of Resiliency concepts.
    • Understanding of Multi Region / Out of Region strategy.

Duties & Responsibilities

1. Provides expert level IT technical lead services and direction for critical software, middleware, and/or hardware projects (e.g., applications, networks, communications, and client server technologies) on multiple platforms. Provides technical expertise in systems, technical infrastructure, tools, modeling, external interfaces, and other technical areas. Completes complex development, design, implementation, architecture design specification, and maintenance activities.

2. Ensures the viability of IT deliverables. Recommends development options, including design, build/buy, and vendor purchase. Approves the team's technical deliverables. Conducts testing, including functionality, technical limitations, and security.

3. Identifies potential solutions, including the cost/benefit of each option. Approves technical solutions proposed by team members. Elevates complex technical issues to IT experts, including architects and vendors. Resolves technical problems discovered by testers and internal clients. Responds to and resolves technical issues in a timely manner. Researches issues and performs root cause analysis.

4. Communicates with project manager on a frequent basis. Identifies tasks and issues that may have an impact on service levels or schedules. Provides realistic task and cost estimates. Screens resumes of team members, interviews, makes hiring and assignment recommendations, and writes reviews.

5. Maintains a current and working knowledge of IT development methodology, architecture design, and technical standards. Mentors IT staff and identifies training needs. As new standards are instituted, ensures their usage by team members. A Technical Lead II should be able to perform as a Developer III.

6. Communicates with other technical leads, IT groups, and clients so they understand the project's technical implications, dependencies, and potential conflicts. Evaluates the impacts of change requests on own/shared technologies and effectively persuades and influences others on ideas.

7. Reviews and approves documentation and diagrams created by IT team members (e.g., system specifications). Writes documentation, including technical standards and processes.

8. Identifies opportunities for continuous quality improvement of technical standards, methodologies, and technologies.

9. Participates in design, code, and test inspections throughout product life cycle to identify issues. Participates as a technical consultant at other project meetings. Presents technical status and issues at milestone reviews.

10. For teams without a BSA, performs this staff member's duties, including interviewing business liaisons to diagram process flows and to write functional requirements. In the absence of the project manager, performs this staff member's duties, including coordinating daily systems analysis and development activities.

11. Thoroughly understands and complies with IT policies and procedures, especially those for quality and productivity standards that enable the team to meet established client service levels. Thoroughly understands and complies with Information Security policies and procedures, and verifies deliverables meet Information Security requirements.

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

Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree in a related field or the equivalent combination of training and experience
• Eight years experience in technical specialty. For development technical leads, includes three years' developer experience
• Strong, demonstrated analysis and problem solving skills
• Broad knowledge of the financial services industry
• Expert knowledge of the following technical lead practices and concepts:

- Full product life cycle

- IT vendor product assessment

- Architecture design

- Wide range of technologies within technical specialty - from state of the art to legacy systems

- Performance and stress testing

- Security

- Quality assurance methodology and Inspections

- Technical standards and deliverables

- Migration and integration

- Estimating, including design, development/purchase, and installation

- For development only: Production acceptance (including elevations), data modeling, data sharing, reusable components, and related advanced development practices

• Expert knowledge of one or more IT platforms
• For development only: Expert knowledge of one or more development tools and programming languages
• Strong written and oral communication skills, preferred
• For development only: Expert knowledge of one or more testing tools, performance tools, and scripting languages, preferred

Special Factors:

Vanguard is not offering visa sponsorship for this position.

About Vanguard

We are Vanguard. Together, we're changing the way the world invests.

For us, investing doesn't just end in value. It starts with values. Because when you invest with courage, when you invest with clarity, and when you invest with care, you can get so much more in return. We invest with purpose - and that's how we've become a global market leader. Here, we grow by doing the right thing for the people we serve. And so can you.

We want to make success accessible to everyone. This is our opportunity. Let's make it count.

Inclusion Statement

Vanguard's continued commitment to diversity and inclusion is firmly rooted in our culture. Every decision we make to best serve our clients, crew (internally employees are referred to as crew), and communities is guided by one simple statement: "Do the right thing."

We believe that a critical aspect of doing the right thing requires building diverse, inclusive, and highly effective teams of individuals who are as unique as the clients they serve. We empower our crew to contribute their distinct strengths to achieving Vanguard's core purpose through our values.

When all crew members feel valued and included, our ability to collaborate and innovate is amplified, and we are united in delivering on Vanguard's core purpose.

Our core purpose: To take a stand for all investors, to treat them fairly, and to give them the best chance for investment success.

Future of Work

During the pandemic, we transitioned to a work from home model for the majority of our crew and we continue to interview, hire, and on-board future crew remotely.

As we have developed the path forward, we have taken a thoughtful approach that both maximizes the advantages of working remotely and the many benefits of coming together and collaborating in a shared workspace. We believe that in-person interactions among our crew are important for preserving our unique culture and advantageous for the personal development of our crew.

When our Crew return to the office, many will work in our hybrid model. A smaller proportion of our crew will operate in the Work from Home work model (for example, field sales crew); or in the Work from Office model (for example, portfolio managers).

The working model that your role falls into will be communicated to you in the interview process - please do ask if you are unsure. We encourage you to make the decision regarding your job interview and offer knowing which model your role will fall into. We will test and learn as our ways of working evolve and will continue to evaluate working models along the way.