Risk Director - Personal Wealth, Cash and Savings

Overview:
 

Personal Wealth is transforming how investors access personalized financial advice. Vanguard's Personal Wealth division helps individuals and families achieve their financial goals through a broad spectrum of advice and wealth management solutions—ranging from digital advice and financial planning to comprehensive wealth, trust, and family office services. Serving investors across all stages of their financial journey, Personal Wealth combines Vanguard's client-first philosophy, low-cost investing expertise, and innovative technology to deliver advice at scale. The division operates across a complex landscape of advice, brokerage, cash management, wealth management, and technology-enabled services, creating unique opportunities to influence both business outcomes and client success.
 

Cash & Savings is responsible for Vanguard's cash management ecosystem, helping clients save, spend, move, and access their money with confidence. The portfolio includes Vanguard Cash Deposit (VCD), Cash Plus, debit card capabilities, interest rate and tiering programs, money movement services, and the policies, operational processes, and governance frameworks that support them. These offerings sit at the intersection of investing, banking, payments, fraud prevention, and client experience, creating unique opportunities and risks as Vanguard expands its cash capabilities and evolves toward more bank-like client experiences.
 

We are seeking a Risk Director to provide independent risk oversight, credible challenge, and strategic risk advisory support across this growing portfolio. As a trusted advisor to business leadership, the Risk Director will partner closely with product, operations, technology, legal, compliance, financial crimes, and third-party providers, including sponsor banks, payment processors, and network partners, to ensure new capabilities are designed, launched, and scaled in a risk-smart, compliant, and operationally resilient manner. The role provides operational risk expertise, guidance, oversight, and assurance services across cash products, payments, and money movement capabilities, while helping strengthen divisional risk frameworks to support effective risk identification, mitigation, governance, and decision-making.

The impact you’ll make:
 

This role is particularly important as Vanguard continues to modernize money movement capabilities, expand Cash Plus, launch debit card capabilities, and enhance client access, speed, transparency, and flexibility. The Risk Director will oversee risks associated with cash products, deposits, interest rate and tiering programs, money movement policies and operations, payment capabilities, third-party banking relationships, fraud prevention, operational resiliency, and regulatory compliance. The successful candidate will understand and challenge complex risks associated with funds availability, transaction processing, fraud and scam mitigation, money movement infrastructure, and emerging payment capabilities while influencing executive decision-making through risk assessments, strategic advisory support, and effective challenge.

The ideal candidate excels at these top capabilities:

• Experience partnering with cross‑functional teams (product, technology, operations, legal, compliance) and third‑party vendors to support the design, launch, and ongoing oversight of payment products in complex, highly regulated environments.
• Demonstrated familiarity with payments ecosystems, including debit card programs, money movement, real‑time payments, and digital payment models, across issuer, processor, network, and/or sponsor bank environments.
• Demonstrated expertise in payment products, money movement operations, and associated regulatory and industry frameworks (e.g., Reg E, dispute handling, error resolution, fraud and scam management, NACHA Operating Rules, AML/KYC, PCI-DSS, consumer protection requirements, and third-party payment ecosystems).
• Partner with the business to mitigate risk and optimize process efficiency across debit card and digital payment operations. Apply deep industry and technical risk expertise to design effective controls spanning KYC, transaction monitoring, fraud and scam prevention, dispute processes, risk tolerances, and limits.
• Provide consultative support as new products, services, processes, and procedures are developed.
• Assess the design and effectiveness of existing controls supporting payment products and transaction flows, leveraging industry best practices to recommend enhancements as needed. Apply enterprise risk management concepts consistently when evaluating and communicating payment‑related risk exposures. 

Responsibilities:

• Hire, evaluate, and supervise crew. Provides guidance, training, and coaching as necessary to develop crew. Set performance standards, review performance, and make informed compensation decisions in accordance with all applicable Human Resources policies and procedures.
• Partner with key stakeholders to establish and implement risk and control management standards within the division's processes, based on the divisional risk profile and enterprise and divisional policies and standards. Provide vision and leadership regarding existing and emerging risks, in alignment with strategic priorities.
• Provide independent oversight of Line 1 risk activities, with a primary responsibility to challenge completeness, consistency, quality, and judgment in how risks are identified, assessed, and managed. Ensure that the division has an appropriate level of review of key controls, and that key controls are designed in accordance with established standards.
• Partner in risk identification and challenges completeness and consistency of identified risks. Provides industry and enterprise-wide insights to inform the business on current and emerging risks. Performs independent risk assessments for selected high‑impact, critical, or thematic risks.
• Monitor and enable adherence to the enterprise risk governance policies, standards, and procedures. Develop, maintain, and evolve a comprehensive program for monitoring and challenging the risk and control effectiveness in the business.
• Produce independent risk reporting and enterprise‑wide insights for divisional leadership and governance forums to enable the business to make risk informed decisions.
• Lead and oversee a team of risk practitioners in analyzing risks, applying risk methodologies, and considering business context in advising the business on key risks. Accountable for the timely completion of risk projects and initiatives.
• Develop and maintain in-depth knowledge and awareness of industry, risk management practices, and regulatory and/or policy changes. Take an active role in industry forums and remains current on issues and regulatory events affecting the division, firm, and industry.
• Embed deep, division-specific acumen into risk management. Provide relevant, tailored guidance and advice to strengthen decision-making across the division’s complex business operations and strategic initiatives.
• Participate in special projects and performs other duties as assigned, partnering with enterprise risk, legal, compliance, audit, and internal and external stakeholders as appropriate.

Qualifications: What you’ll bring:

• Minimum of 10 years of progressive experience in wealth management and/or personal investment advisory services, with at least 8 years of risk management and payments risk experience, with hands‑on involvement in debit card programs and/or transactional product launches
• Undergraduate degree required; graduate degree preferred (e.g., JD, MBA, MS in Risk/Finance).
• Relevant payments or risk certifications (e.g., NACHA) a plus.
• Hands‑on masterly of operational risk frameworks and control assurance (control design, testing, monitoring, reporting). You know what “good” looks like – and how to build it.
• Demonstrated people leadership capabilities, including building scalable teams, developing leaders, and driving a strong risk culture.
• Exceptional communicator and strategic thinker who shapes outcomes through strong judgement, clarity of message, and an ability to bring stakeholders along. You build buy‑in across senior leaders while navigating complexity with confidence.
  
   

Preferred Subject Matter Expertise:

• Cash management products
• Money movement operations
• ACH and wire processing
• Debit card programs
• Fraud prevention and transaction monitoring
• Regulation E
• NACHA Operating Rules
• AML/KYC
• PCI-DSS
• Sponsor bank and payment network oversight

Special Factors

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.