Delivery Practice Coach

Core Responsibilities

AI Enablement and AI-Assisted Engineering (approximately 50%)

Delivery Practice Coaches help teams meaningfully integrate AI into how they plan, build, test, document, and review software. They act as experienced AI practitioners themselves, using AI in real workflows to validate guidance and reduce uncertainty for teams.

• Coach product managers, technical leads, and engineering managers on practical, responsible AI usage across real engineering workflows.
• Use personal hands-on AI experience to validate recommendations and build credibility.
• Help teams redesign workflows to take advantage of AI while maintaining quality, security, and engineering standards.
• Translate emerging AI capabilities into clear team practices, guardrails, and learning paths.
• Address resistance, misuse concerns, and quality risks through coaching and enablement rather than mandates.
• Help teams and leaders think ahead about how AI is changing the software development lifecycle and what needs to evolve now.

Delivery Practices and Operational Discipline (approximately 25%)

Delivery Practice Coaches strengthen how teams deliver by improving execution, reliability, and discipline without adding unnecessary process.

• Diagnose delivery risks related to quality, reliability, dependencies, and operational health.
• Coach teams on modern delivery and engineering practices that improve outcomes.
• Help teams align delivery behaviors and metrics with product and organizational goals.
• Validate improvements using data, observation, and lightweight experimentation.
• Partner with engineering and product leaders to resolve recurring delivery challenges.

Flow Optimization and Throughput Improvement (approximately 25%)

Delivery Practice Coaches help teams improve speed and predictability by removing friction and constraints rather than increasing pressure.

• Identify bottlenecks, handoffs, and wait states that slow delivery.
• Use flow metrics and qualitative signals to guide improvement conversations.
• Design and test targeted, time-boxed experiments to improve throughput and stability to support our efforts at obtaining predictability.
• Help teams reduce work in progress and simplify workflows.
• Support leaders in deciding on tradeoffs around scope, sequencing, and capacity.

Scope and Influence

S3 Delivery Practice Coaches primarily operate at the product family level. They influence product managers, technical leads, and engineering managers through hands-on coaching, experimentation, and enablement. While they surface systemic insights and reusable patterns, they are not expected to lead large-scale organizational transformation programs. This role is expected to support a changing and quickly evolving workforce thus the role could take on special projects as assigned.

What Strong Performance Looks Like

• Teams adopt AI-assisted practices that materially improve delivery and quality.
• Delivery becomes more predictable, resilient, and disciplined without added bureaucracy.
• Teams are able to sustain improvements after direct coaching engagement decreases.
• Engineers and leaders trust the coach's guidance because it is grounded in real work.
• Practices, patterns, and lessons learned are shared and reused across teams.

Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree or equivalent combination of training and experience required. Computer Science or Engineering experience preferred. Graduate degree preferred.
• Minimum of five years related work experience. 8+ years of related work experience is preferred.
• Two years of leading large cross-functional teams on major organizational technology projects preferred. Financial Services and technical experience preferred.

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.