Direct Indexing Cloud Platform Infrastructure & Dev Ops Engineer

Vanguard; Oakland (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Vanguard is seeking an experienced Platform & Infrastructure, DevOps Engineer to design, build, secure, and operate a cloud-native infrastructure for the Vanguard Personalized Indexing (VPI) platform. You will partner with application, data, product, and architecture teams to enable reliable, scalable investment systems and enterprise integration.

The role blends hands-on execution with architectural leadership, offering opportunities to influence modernization roadmaps and drive standardization

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in infrastructure engineering, platform engineering, DevOps, cloud engineering, or related fields.
• Deep expertise with AWS cloud services and cloud-native architectures.
• Strong experience operating Kubernetes-based platforms in production environments.
• Expertise in Infrastructure-as-Code and automation frameworks.
• Experience designing secure, highly available distributed systems.
• Strong Linux, networking, and systems engineering background.
• Experience implementing CI/CD pipelines and modern DevOps practices.
• Experience supporting mission-critical production systems with high availability requirements.
• Strong understanding of information security, cloud security, and risk management principles.
• Proven ability to lead complex technical initiatives across multiple teams.
• Excellent troubleshooting, problem-solving, and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate cloud-native infrastructure supporting the VPI investment platform.
• Lead AWS platform architecture, modernization, and migration initiatives.
• Design scalable, highly available, and secure infrastructure patterns across environments.
• Manage Kubernetes and container platforms for distributed workloads.
• Drive infrastructure standardization, resiliency, disaster recovery, and capacity planning.
• Continuously improve platform observability, monitoring, logging, and operational readiness.
• Establish and evolve CI/CD pipelines and engineering automation practices.
• Drive Infrastructure-as-Code adoption using modern provisioning and config-management frameworks.
• Automate deployment, environment management, compliance validation, and operational processes.
• Improve engineering productivity through tooling and self-service capabilities.

Skills

AWS

Kubernetes

IaC

CI/CD

Linux

Networking

Security

Troubleshooting

Leadership

Communication

Tools

Terraform

Kubernetes (EKS)

Docker

GitHub Actions

Jenkins

Job description

Vanguard 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 portfolio construction, optimization, tax-loss harvesting, trading, and investment research workflows. VPI operates at the intersection of investment management, cloud-native engineering, and advanced analytics. We are modernizing our technology platform through a multi-year transformation that includes AWS migration, cloud-native architecture adoption, platform scalability improvements, enhanced resiliency, and expansion of our investment technology capabilities. We are seeking an experienced Platform & Infrastructure , Dev Ops Engineer to enable the engineering and operational foundations that power the VPI platform. This individual will be responsible for the delivery of cloud infrastructure, platform operations, DevOps, security engineering enablement, and enterprise integration capabilities while serving as a key technical lead across the team.

This role is responsible for designing, building, securing, and operating VPI's cloud platform and engineering infrastructure. The individual will partner closely with application, data, product, and architecture teams to enable highly reliable and scalable investment systems.

The ideal candidate brings deep expertise across AWS, platform engineering, infrastructure automation, Kubernetes, DevOps practices, security enablement, and enterprise systems integration. This role combines hands‑on technical execution with architectural leadership and operational ownership.

Core Responsibilities

Platform Engineering & Cloud Infrastructure

• Design, build, and operate cloud-native infrastructure supporting VPI's investment platform.
• Lead AWS platform architecture, modernization, and migration initiatives.
• Design scalable, highly available, and secure infrastructure patterns across development, test, and production environments.
• Manage Kubernetes and container platforms supporting distributed workloads.
• Drive infrastructure standardization, resiliency, disaster recovery, and capacity planning.
• Continuously improve platform observability, monitoring, logging, and operational readiness.

DevOps & Automation

• Establish and evolve CI/CD pipelines and engineering automation practices.
• Drive Infrastructure-as-Code adoption using modern provisioning and configuration-management frameworks.
• Automate deployment, environment management, compliance validation, and operational processes.
• Improve engineering productivity through tooling, platform services, and self‑service capabilities.
• Define and implement operational best practices for cloud-native application delivery.

Security Engineering & Architecture Enablement

• Partner with Enterprise Security and application teams to design secure platform architectures.
• Enable implementation of security controls, vulnerability remediation, identity management, encryption, network segmentation, and cloud governance frameworks.
• Support regulatory, audit, risk, and compliance initiatives.
• Drive proactive remediation of security findings and operational risks.
• Establish secure-by-default platform patterns and guardrails.

Enterprise & External System Integration

• Design and support integrations with Vanguard enterprise platforms and external vendors.
• Build secure and scalable connectivity patterns across cloud and on‑premises environments.
• Enable data exchange, APIs, messaging, file transfer, and service integrations.
• Partner with business and technology stakeholders to evaluate emerging technology solutions and integration opportunities.

Innovation, Architecture & Proof of Concepts

• Lead technical evaluations, proofs of concept, and pilot initiatives supporting strategic platform evolution.
• Assess new technologies, cloud services, engineering tools, and architecture patterns.
• Collaborate with product, research, and engineering teams to accelerate innovation.
• Influence long‑term platform architecture and modernization roadmaps.

Operational Excellence

• Serve as a senior escalation point for complex production issues and platform incidents.
• Lead root cause analysis, remediation planning, and reliability improvements.
• Establish service‑level objectives, operational metrics, and reliability standards.
• Reduce operational risk through automation, standardization, and improved engineering practices.
• Ensure platform services meet performance, availability, scalability, and recoverability objectives.

Technical Leadership

• Provide architecture guidance and technical leadership across infrastructure and platform domains.
• Mentor engineers and promote engineering excellence throughout the organization.
• Lead design reviews and infrastructure governance processes.
• Champion modern engineering practices and continuous improvement.

Qualifications

Required

• 10+ years of experience in infrastructure engineering, platform engineering, DevOps, cloud engineering, or related fields.
• Deep expertise with AWS cloud services and cloud‑native architectures.
• Strong experience operating Kubernetes‑based platforms in production environments.
• Expertise in Infrastructure-as-Code and automation frameworks.
• Experience designing secure, highly available distributed systems.
• Strong Linux, networking, and systems engineering background.
• Experience implementing CI/CD pipelines and modern DevOps practices.
• Experience supporting mission‑critical production systems with high availability requirements.
• Strong understanding of information security, cloud security, and risk management principles.
• Proven ability to lead complex technical initiatives across multiple teams.
• Excellent troubleshooting, problem‑solving, and communication skills.

Preferred

• Experience within asset management, wealth management, trading, or investment platforms.
• Experience with Terraform, Kubernetes (EKS), Docker, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or similar technologies.
• Experience supporting enterprise cloud migrations and large‑scale modernization programs.
• Experience with observability platforms, monitoring solutions, and SRE practices.
• Familiarity with financial services regulatory and compliance requirements.
• Experience integrating cloud platforms with enterprise systems and third‑party vendors.

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.