Manager, Platform Engineering

hackajob is collaborating with Vanguard to connect them with exceptional professionals for this role.

Lead the day-to-day operations and growth of Vanguard's Supergraph platform team as we continue the maturation from a single subdivision platform to a fully enterprise-grade product serving all of IT. This is a hands-on leadership role that balances team development, client partnership, new development, platform reliability, and continuous improvement. You'll partner closely with the Senior Manager and the Senior Architect to shape roadmap decisions, prioritize cross-subdivision requests, and ensure the platform scales safely as adoption grows. You'll lead a team of developers and platform engineers who build, maintain, and harden services across a distributed GraphQL federation ecosystem with >3 Billion calls per month (and growing fast!).

What You'll Do

Lead and Grow the Team

• Manage direct reports and coordinate dotted-line loaned resources to deliver on platform commitments
• Develop the team's technical and collaborative capabilities through coaching, feedback, and intentional growth planning
• Establish individualized development plans for each direct report and hold them accountable for progressing through those plans while contributing at level-appropriate activities
• Foster psychological safety and a culture of continuous improvement where the team learns from production, adapts quickly, and shares expertise across the department & division
• Build team norms around resilience, accountability, and "you build it, you run it" ownership

Drive Platform Maturity

• Lead the evolution of the platform from single-subdivision usage to enterprise-scale product serving multiple business lines
• Establish and maintain regular contact with each IT subdivision to understand needs, communicate trade-offs, and align on priorities
• Balance incoming feature requests against platform reliability, resiliency, observability, and technical debt
• Lead complex, multi-team initiatives that require coordination across federated subgraph providers and platform consumers

Deliver Results Through Delegation

• Translate strategic goals into actionable team deliverables, delegating work effectively to leverage the team's strengths
• Lead team's work to successful completion, navigating ambiguity and shifting priorities with a Product Owner mindset
• Remove obstacles and build cross-functional relationships that unblock the team and keep commitments on track
• Ensure the team has end-to-end knowledge of the platform and can operate independently when needed

Partner on Strategy and Roadmap

• Collaborate with the Senior Manager and Senior Architect to shape quarterly roadmaps and long-term platform strategy
• Provide ground-truth feedback from team operations and client interactions to inform prioritization decisions
• Advocate for platform investments (observability, resiliency, automation) that enable sustainable growth
• Contribute to subdivision and divisional goal-setting with a clear understanding of how the platform enables business outcomes

Build Trust Across the Organization

• Establish credibility as a subject matter expert on the platform's capabilities, limitations, and roadmap
• Communicate risks, trade-offs, and timelines transparently to clients and stakeholders
• Foster collaboration across IT subdivisions, helping clients understand how to succeed within a federated architecture
• Model the interpersonal skills and inclusive mindset that make cross-functional work productive

Qualifications and Skills

• Minimum 8 years of relevant work experience in platform engineering or a related field.
• Bachelor’s degree (B.E./B.Tech) in Computer Science or IT, or Bachelor’s in Computer Applications (BCA), or Master’s in Computer Applications (MCA).
• Strong knowledge of platform architecture, infrastructure management, and software development.
• Expertise in developing, testing, debugging, and implementing scalable software platforms.
• Experience with technical documentation, database technologies, and software programming languages.
• Ability to lead technical teams, drive continuous improvement, and implement strategic platform initiatives.
• Strong problem-solving skills and experience working with cross-functional teams and stakeholders.

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.