Lead Forward Deployed Engineer

Vanguard's Global Investment & Finance Systems (GIFS) Lead Forward Deployed Engineer is a senior individual contributor who embeds directly with portfolio managers, traders, analysts and finance partners in Vanguard's Investment Management Group to turn complex ideas into governed, production-quality solutions. The role aligns with Vanguard's international business and stays hands-on while setting technical direction and mentoring other engineers.

What you'll do

• Embed with researchers, portfolio managers and traders to understand workflows and prioritise high-value opportunities through a shared global backlog.
• Personally architect, build and validate AI-enabled applications, automations and redesigned workflows, from experimentation through MVP and limited production.
• Lead the replacement of high-risk Excel, Access, Tableau and other end-user tools with governed, supportable solutions.
• Establish scalable patterns for AI solutions: agent workflows, human-in-the-loop controls, reusable components and evaluation methods.
• Mentor engineers and turn successful engagements into reusable code, templates and guidance across regions.

What you bring

• 7+ years in software engineering, data engineering, data science or analytics engineering; deep Python and modern data tooling.
• Hands-on experience deploying AI and agentic solutions (prompt engineering, RAG, tool use, evaluation frameworks); 2+ years with GenAI/LLM solutions preferred.
• 5+ years with cloud-based AI and data platforms; financial services domain knowledge highly preferred.

Hybrid working model. Full details and application on Vanguard's official careers page.