Application Engineering Technical Lead - II

Vanguard; Charlotte (NC); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Vanguard is seeking a Senior Platform Engineer to own and evolve the security-scanning orchestration platform across applications, surface findings as control checks, and enforce security standards through GitHub's policy engine.

You will lead the design and development of cloud-native services on AWS (IAM, ECS, Lambda, Step Functions, RDS, S3, CloudFormation), build APIs and CI/CD capabilities, and mentor engineers while championing AI-assisted development and secure practices across the

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering or platform engineering experience.

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve the security-scanning platform and governance checks.
• Lead design, development, and deployment of cloud-native services on AWS.
• Develop APIs, event-driven integrations, and automation for scalable security testing.
• Maintain platform reliability with automation and observability as adoption grows.
• Mentor engineers and promote secure development practices across teams.
• Collaborate with DevSecOps and security leaders to align technical direction.

Skills

Software engineering leadership

Mentoring engineers

Observability & reliability

Cross-team collaboration

AI-assisted development awareness

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Graduate degree preferred

Tools

AWS

Java

Node.js

TypeScript

CI/CD

Job description

Key responsibilities

• Own and evolve the platform that orchestrates security scanning across applicable applications, surfaces findings as control checks, and enforces security standards through GitHub's policy engine.
• Lead the design, development, and implementation of cloud-native platform services on AWS, using services including IAM, ECS, Lambda, Step Functions, RDS, S3, and CloudFormation.
• Develop APIs, event-driven integrations, automation services, and CI/CD capabilities that make security testing reliable at scale and easy for developers to adopt.
• Maintain the reliability of the orchestration platform as adoption grows, using automation, observability, and self-service so support does not scale with usage.
• Partner with security and engineering teams to embed secure development practices into the development lifecycle across a growing set of scanning capabilities as the threat landscape evolves, including SAST, SCA, container, and API security testing.
• Provide technical leadership and mentoring to the team, promoting high-quality software engineering practices.
• "Champion thoughtful adoption of AI-assisted development across the team, coaching engineers on where it fits our products and delivery model and where it does not."
• Collaborate with stakeholders to define technical direction, manage risks, and ensure successful delivery of business-critical solutions.
• Partner with leaders across DevSecOps to stay aligned to senior leadership strategic initiatives, adjusting team priorities and deliverables as direction evolves.
• Drive continuous improvement in architecture, engineering standards, and operational excellence.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering, application development, or platform engineering experience, including at least three years of hands-on development.
• Undergraduate degree or equivalent combination of training and experience. Graduate degree preferred.
• Strong expertise with AWS cloud technologies and cloud-native architectures.
• Strong object-oriented programming fundamentals (Java) and the ability to work effectively in more than one language. Experience with Node.js and TypeScript is a plus, and is what we use today. Willingness to learn new technologies.
• Practical perspective on AI-assisted development, including where it adds value and where it does not. Prior experience applying AI to engineering or product work is a plus; a genuine interest in doing so is expected.
• Experience designing APIs, automation solutions, CI/CD pipelines, and distributed systems.
• Experience operating and supporting production platform services, including observability and reliability practices.
• Proven ability to lead technical initiatives, build trust and influence across organizational boundaries, and mentor engineers.

Preferred experience

• Platform engineering, DevOps, or CI/CD pipeline engineering, building services and pipelines that application and product teams across the organization depend on.
• Large-scale cloud migration or modernization work in an enterprise environment.
• Building automation solutions at enterprise scale, where adoption spans many teams.
• AWS certifications, such as Solutions Architect (Associate or Professional), DevOps Engineer Professional, or AI Practitioner.
• Understanding of application security, DevSecOps, or secure software development practices.

Special Factors

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.