Engineering Manager, Fraud Prevention

The Vanguard Group; Malvern (Chester County); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

The Vanguard Group in Malvern, PA is seeking an Engineering Manager for Fraud Prevention who will lead 3-6 engineers building the real-time fraud decisioning layer in the debit authorization path. You will own the integration with the debit processor and write code alongside your team.

You will translate architectural direction into executable sprints, designs, and working software while spending a substantial portion of time coding and mentoring.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in software engineering with 2+ years in a tech lead or engineering management role.
• Strong proficiency in Node.js; working familiarity with Java.
• Experience building low-latency, high-availability services—ideally in payments, banking, or financial services context.
• Demonstrated ability to balance technical leadership with people management.
• Experience integrating with third-party processors or financial service providers (REST/gRPC APIs, webhook-driven auth flows).
• Familiarity with ETL pipelines and feature engineering workflows for ML/analytics.
• Comfort with AI-assisted development practices and tooling.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of 3-6 engineers building real-time fraud decisioning services in the debit path.
• Own the integration layer between Vanguard's fraud platform and the debit processor (webhook handling, auth-time enrichment, response orchestration).
• Translate architectural direction into executable sprints, technical designs, and working software.
• Write production code—spend 40-60% of time hands-on in the codebase.
• Drive engineering quality: code reviews, testing strategy, incident response, and on-call practices.
• Manage team health: hiring, career development, 1:1s, performance management.
• Partner with the processor's technical team on API contracts, certification, and production readiness.
• Ensure the team meets latency, reliability, and compliance requirements inherent to payment authorization.

Skills

People management

Team leadership

Payments domain knowledge

Low-latency systems thinking

AI-assisted development practices

Tools

Node.js

Java

REST APIs

gRPC

Kafka

Kinesis

Redshift

Athena

Marqeta

Galileo

TSYS

Fiserv

Job description

ENGINEERING MANAGER FRAUD PREVENTION | DEBIT FRAUD INTEGRATION

Hands-on technical leader responsible for the engineering team that builds and operates Vanguard's fraud decisioning integration with our debit card processor. You will lead 3-6 engineers, own the technical delivery roadmap for the processor integration layer, and write code alongside your team. This role reports into the Fraud Prevention Technology program and partners closely with the Principal Engineer / Architect on technical direction.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead a team of 3-6 engineers building real-time fraud decisioning services that sit in the debit authorization path
• Own the integration layer between Vanguard's fraud platform and the debit processor (webhook handling, auth-time enrichment, response orchestration)
• Translate architectural direction into executable sprints, technical designs, and working software
• Write production code—expect to spend 40-60% of your time hands-on in the codebase
• Drive engineering quality: code reviews, testing strategy, incident response, and on-call practices
• Manage team health: hiring, career development, 1:1s, performance management
• Partner with the processor's technical team on API contracts, certification, and production readiness
• Ensure the team meets the latency, reliability, and compliance requirements inherent to payment authorization

QUALIFICATIONS

• 8+ years in software engineering with 2+ years in a tech lead or engineering management role
• Strong proficiency in Node.js; working familiarity with Java
• Experience building low-latency, high-availability services—ideally in a payments, banking, or financial services context
• Demonstrated ability to balance technical leadership with people management
• Experience integrating with third-party processors or financial service providers (REST/gRPC APIs, webhook-driven auth flows)
• Familiarity with ETL pipelines and feature engineering workflows for ML/analytics
• Comfort with AI-assisted development practices and tooling

PREFERRED

• Direct experience with debit/credit card processor integrations (Marqeta, Galileo, TSYS, Fiserv, or similar)
• Familiarity with payment processing concepts (ISO 8583, authorization flows, network settlement)
• Background in fraud prevention or risk systems
• Experience operating services under strict SLA requirements (sub-100ms p99 latency, 99.99% uptime)
• Familiarity with streaming platforms (Kafka, Kinesis) and feature stores
• Experience with analytics infrastructure (Redshift, Athena, or similar columnar/query engines)

Special Factors Sponsorship

Vanguard is not offering visa sponsorship for this position. This is a manager-level role with direct reports.

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. Vanguard, one of the world's leading investment management companies, serves individual investors, institutions, employer-sponsored retirement plans, and financial professionals. We have a diverse and talented crew with a culture that promotes teamwork, along with an unwavering focus on serving our clients' best interests.