AI Engineering Lead

About Vanguard Founded in 1975, Vanguard is one of the world's leading investment management companies. The firm offers investments, advice, and retirement services to tens of millions of individual investors around the globe—directly, through workplace plans, and through financial intermediaries. Vanguard’s India Office Vanguard’s office in India is a significant milestone in our global expansion. We are committed to establishing an enduring technology center in Hyderabad, Telangana and are excited to be adding talent who will focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI), mobile, and cloud-based technologies that drive our business outcomes and deliver a world-class experience for our clients. Role Summary This role provides expert-level system analysis, design, development, and implementation of applications and databases, and directs business assessment and requirements analysis for hardware and operating systems, while architecting complex data integration and driving system performance and scalability improvements. Responsibilities 1. Provides expert level system analysis, design, development, and implementation of applications and databases. Integrates third party products. Ensures that expected application performance levels are achieved. 2. Ensures the viability of IT deliverables. Recommends development options, including design, build/buy, and vendor purchase. Conducts testing, including functionality, technical limitations, and security. 3. Elevates code into the development, test, and production environments on schedule. Provides follow up production support. Submits change control requests and documents. 4. Provides subject matter expertise in software development methodology and development architecture standards. Mentors and trains staff with less experience. Resolves elevated issues and recommends enterprise-wide improvements. 5. Participates in design, code, and test inspections throughout the life cycle to identify issues. Explains technical considerations at related meetings, including those with internal clients. Performs systems analysis activities. 6. Thoroughly understands client business functions and technology needs. Has a broad and deep understanding of Vanguard's technologies, tools, and applications, including those that interface with business area and systems. Is well versed on the latest technologies and tools supporting software development in the industry. 7. Interfaces with cross functional team members and communicates systems issues at the appropriate technical level for each audience. 8. Thoroughly understands and complies with Information Technology and Information Security policies and procedures and verifies that deliverables meet requirements. 9. Participates in special projects and performs other duties as assigned. 10. Architect and guide integration of complex data flows across distributed services, APIs, and platforms to enable reliable, secure, and seamless enterprise-level interoperability. 11. Drive performance and scalability enhancements by proactively analyzing system behavior, optimizing database architecture, and implementing high-efficiency design patterns. Qualifications and Skills Minimum 8 years of experience in application development, system architecture and database management. Bachelor’s degree (B.E./B.Tech) or master’s degree (M.E./MTech) in relevant fields such as Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field. Strong programming skills in Python (primary), with experience in Java / TypeScript a plus Solid understanding of data structures, algorithms, and software engineering fundamentals Experience building production-grade APIs and services (REST, async, scalable patterns) Familiarity with Git, CI/CD pipelines, and Agile delivery Machine Learning & GenAI, Hands-on experience with LLMs (e.g., prompt engineering, embeddings, summarization, Q&A) Experience with ML frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or equivalent Understanding of model evaluation, performance metrics, and error analysis Experience fine-tuning, orchestrating, or integrating foundation models (vendor or open source) Retrieval, Knowledge & Tooling RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) design and implementation Vector databases / search (e.g., embeddings, similarity search, metadata filtering) Knowledge ingestion pipelines (documents, structured + unstructured data) Tool/function calling and agent-style workflows Cloud & Platform Engineering Cloud-native development on AWS / Azure / GCP (Vanguard-aligned experience preferred) Containers and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes) Event-driven and distributed systems Observability: logging, metrics, tracing, model monitoring Responsible AI & Governance (Critical) Understanding of Responsible AI principles (privacy, bias, explainability, safety) Experience working with enterprise controls: security reviews, data protection, compliance Familiarity with model risk management, auditability, and guardrails Ability to operationalize AI safely in regulated environments Product & Execution Mindset Strong ability to translate ambiguous business problems into technical solutions Experience partnering with product, design, legal, and compliance stakeholders Bias toward shipping, learning, and iterating vs. pure experimentation Clear written and verbal communication, especially with senior stakeholders Location This role is based in Hyderabad, Telangana at Vanguard’s India office. Only qualified external applicants will be considered. Our mission Vanguard adheres to a simple purpose: To take a stand for all investors, to treat them fairly, and to give them the best chance for investment success. Our commitment to you Vanguard takes the same long-term view of your success—at work and in life—with Benefits and Rewards packages that reflect what you care about, throughout all the phases and stages of your life. Our Total Rewards programs provide you and your loved ones with wellness support for key areas in your life: Financial wellness We're committed to enabling your financial success and provide competitive offers and programs. Physical wellness We're committed to providing benefits that support your physical health and wellness. Personal wellness We're committed to providing resources that help support the full scope of your life. How we work Vanguard has implemented a hybrid working model for most of our employees (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.