Head of Digital Assets, Personal Wealth

Head of Digital Assets, Personal Wealth

The Head of Digital Assets will lead Vanguard Personal Wealth’s digital assets strategy, roadmap, and enterprise execution. Defines how Vanguard will evaluate, prioritize, develop, and implement digital asset capabilities, products, and operating models in a way that advances Vanguard’s mission, serves clients, and strengthens our long-term competitive position. Serves as Vanguard’s senior subject matter expert for digital assets across Personal Wealth, partnering across product, technology, operations, client segments, risk, legal, and compliance to shape and deliver a scalable end-to-end strategy. Represents Vanguard externally with industry participants, regulators, and clients, and helps influence thought leadership and market standards in the evolving digital asset ecosystem.

Responsibilities:

• Defines and leads Personal Wealth’s digital assets vision and strategy. Establishes Vanguard’s point of view and strategic roadmap for digital assets across Personal Wealth, including where and how Vanguard should participate, what capabilities to build, partner for, or defer, and how to align innovation to Vanguard’s mission and client-first principles.
• Develops the multi-year digital assets roadmap and drives execution. Translates strategy into a practical, sequenced roadmap with clear use cases, priorities, milestones, dependencies, and success measures. Leads cross-functional delivery from concept through implementation, ensuring proposals are commercially sound, operationally viable, and risk-ready.
• Leads evaluation and development of client-facing digital asset capabilities and offers. Partners with business and product leaders to assess digital asset opportunities relevant to self-directed, advice, and wealth clients, including access models, experience design, servicing implications, education, pricing, and value proposition. Ensures the client offer is clear, differentiated, and aligned to Vanguard’s brand and standards.
• Shapes the end-to-end operating model for digital assets. Partners across operations, technology, finance, and control groups to define the required operating model, infrastructure, controls, and governance needed to support digital asset capabilities at scale. This includes front-to-back design considerations such as onboarding, servicing, custody models, settlement, reconciliations, reporting, exception management, resiliency, and third-party integration.
• Builds durable risk, legal, compliance, and governance frameworks. Works in close partnership with Risk, Legal, Compliance, and other control functions to ensure Vanguard’s approach reflects applicable regulatory requirements, risk appetite, investor protection principles, and sound governance. Embeds control, auditability, and regulatory readiness into strategy and design from the outset.
• Serves as Vanguard’s internal and external digital assets authority for Personal Wealth. Advises senior leaders on market developments, regulatory changes, competitor strategies and moves, infrastructure evolution, and implications for Vanguard. Represents Vanguard in industry forums, client meetings, working groups, regulatory discussions, and external thought leadership opportunities as appropriate.
• Influences enterprise alignment across Vanguard. Partners across Personal Wealth and the broader enterprise to ensure digital asset decisions are coordinated, scalable, and consistent where appropriate. Helps connect strategy across brokerage, advice, cash, investment products, technology platforms, and enterprise governance forums.
• Builds and leads a high-performing team and ecosystem. Attracts, develops, and leads talent with expertise across digital assets, product, strategy, and operations. Builds strong internal partnerships and manages key external relationships with infrastructure providers, custodians, technology partners, and other ecosystem participants as needed.
• Develops strategic recommendations and presents to senior leadership. Prepares clear analysis, recommendations, and decision materials for senior executives and governance forums. Brings structured thinking, sound judgment, and strong executive presence to highly visible and often ambiguous issues.
• Monitors the external environment and shapes Vanguard’s response. Maintains strong awareness of digital asset market structure, tokenization trends, stablecoin developments, blockchain-enabled infrastructure, vendor capabilities, and emerging regulatory frameworks. Uses those insights to inform Vanguard’s priorities, posture, and timing.
• Participates in special projects and performs other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

• Ten years of related work experience preferred, with significant leadership experience in brokerage, financial services, fintech, market infrastructure, payments, custody, or digital assets; experience spanning both strategy and execution strongly preferred.
• Deep knowledge of digital assets and related infrastructure, including tokenization, stablecoins, wallets/custody models, settlement, blockchain-enabled operating models, and the broader digital asset ecosystem.
• Strong understanding of regulated operating environments and the ability to navigate legal, compliance, risk, audit, and control requirements while still advancing innovation.
• Proven ability to lead complex, cross-functional initiatives across product, technology, operations, and control functions, ideally in large matrixed organizations.
• Executive presence and exceptional communication skills, including the ability to translate technical and regulatory complexity into clear business decisions, client implications, and strategic recommendations.
• Demonstrated external credibility with clients, industry participants, regulators, or trade groups, with the ability to represent Vanguard thoughtfully and influence broader dialogue in the market.
• Strong people leadership skills, with experience building teams, developing talent, and creating effective governance and operating rhythms.
• Undergraduate degree or equivalent combination of training and experience required. Graduate degree preferred.
• Relevant licenses, registrations, or certifications may be preferred or required based on final role design and responsibilities (e.g., Series 7, 63, 24).

Special Factors

Sponsorship

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.