Investment Systems Application Engineer - IV,- Vanguard Personalized Indexing

Senior Backend EngineerVanguard Personalized Indexing (VPI) is a rapidly growing business within Financial Advisor Services. We enable financial advisors to deliver tax?efficient, customized direct indexing portfolios at scale. Our platform manages thousands of investor accounts and evaluates portfolios daily to support tax?loss harvesting, customization, and investment research workflows. VPI operates at the intersection of investment management, cloud?native platforms, and advanced analytics engineering. The technology we build directly supports investment research, portfolio construction, and data?driven decision?making that impacts client outcomes. We are seeking a senior?level backend engineer to lead the design, development, and scaling of core investment platform services.This role requires deep hands?on engineering capability combined with strong technical leadership across distributed systems, APIs, and data?intensive workflows. The ideal candidate brings extensive experience building investment or wealth management systems and demonstrates a strong understanding of investment workflows across portfolio construction, trading, and data processing.Core ResponsibilitiesDesign and build scalable backend services and APIs supporting portfolio construction, optimization, trading, and analytics workflowsDevelop high?performance, production?grade systems using Java and/or Python with strong focus on reliability and maintainabilityArchitect and implement microservices and event?driven systems to support high?volume, latency?sensitive workloadsEnsure application performance, scalability, resiliency, and cost efficiency across distributed systemsIntegrate internal and third?party systems, ensuring seamless interoperability and data consistencyTechnical Leadership & System DesignProvide senior?level system design, architecture guidance, and technical direction across backend and platform componentsLead design and code reviews, ensuring alignment with engineering standards and architectural principlesEvaluate and recommend technology solutions, design patterns, and implementation approachesAnticipate system and platform risks; proactively design solutions to prevent production issuesMentor engineers and elevate technical execution across the teamInvestment Systems & Domain AlignmentDevelop a deep understanding of investment management workflows, including portfolios, trading lifecycle, and data pipelinesDesign systems that support front, middle, and back office functions while maintaining strong controls and auditabilityTranslate business requirements into scalable technical solutions aligned with investment processesEnsure systems meet accuracy, consistency, and regulatory expectations for financial applicationsCloud & Engineering PracticesBuild and operate cloud?native services on AWS using containerized architectures and KubernetesDrive adoption of CI/CD, automated testing, and infrastructure?as?code practicesImprove observability, monitoring, and operational readiness across platform componentsContribute to architectural evolution toward scalable, cloud?native systemsSDLC & Operational ExcellenceEnsure the viability and quality of investment systems deliverables through rigorous testing and validationLead and participate in design, code, and test inspections across the SDLCSupport production systems, including incident response, root cause analysis, and remediationEnsure compliance with Information Technology and Information Security policiesPromote continuous improvement in engineering practices, standards, and system reliabilityAdditional ResponsibilitiesDevelop and maintain deep knowledge of Vanguard's platform ecosystem and integration pointsCollaborate with cross?functional teams and stakeholders to deliver high?impact capabilitiesParticipate in special initiatives supporting the growth and scalability of the VPI platformQualificationsMinimum of 8+ years of experience, including significant experience building investment, wealth management, or financial systemsStrong backend engineering expertise in Java and/or PythonDeep understanding of investment domain concepts including portfolios, trading workflows, market data, and investment analyticsProven experience designing and building scalable distributed systems and APIsExperience with microservices architectures, messaging systems, and asynchronous processing patternsStrong experience with cloud?native platforms, particularly AWSExperience with containerization and orchestration (Kubernetes preferred)Demonstrated ability to provide technical leadership and influence system design decisionsStrong problem?solving and production support experience in high?availability environmentsEducation Undergraduate degree or equivalent combination of training and experienceSpecial FactorsSponsorshipVanguard is offering visa sponsorship for this position.About VanguardAt 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.Future of WorkDuring 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.Salary Range:$100,000.00 - $180,000.00