At Vanguard, we are reimagining how we engage with financial advisors and the home office, custodians and platforms that serve them. As the Senior Manager, Head of Operation Client Relationships for our Financial Advisor Services (FAS) business, you will lead the development of a best-in-class operational client experience strategy, curated to drive product distribution success for our advisor-facing teams. To execute this strategy, you will lead a large team of Relationship Managers aligned to our most strategically important clients.

This role reports to the Head of Strategic Client Operations and partners closely with sales leadership, enablement, investment, technology, and legal experts to expand operational client relationships across the industry.

What it Takes

• Crew Leadership and Engagement: Leads team of relationship managers who serve Vanguard’s largest, most complex distribution partners. Hires, develops, coaches, and evaluates crew to reach their potential. Creates a high performing culture based on a foundation of psychological safety and relentless focus on Vanguard’s mission.
• Client Strategy: Work side by side with sales leader peers to understand critical distribution objectives. Define the relationship needs and operational infrastructure required to enable those objectives, and champion and actively implement these needs with direct reports, with clients and internal partners.
• Client Relationship Management: Works alongside direct reports and sales peers to build strong relationships with client leadership teams. Serve as the face of Vanguard to executive teams at client firms. Build trust and rapport with leaders across multiple business lines in order to deeply understand their priorities. Engage more broadly externally through industry conferences, forums, and working groups.
• Internal Ecosystem: Lead a team of peers, and their broader organizations, to deeply understand the client experience strategy and priorities for improvement. Collaborate with peers to prioritize resources to deliver process, technology, policy and service improvements for clients.
• Incident Resolution: Manage periodic, urgent client requests, and client contingency issues that span from sales, trading, operations and technology needs. Maintain composure to effectively lead internal and external partners through issues to resolution.

Summary

We’re seeking a strategic and experienced leader who can balance leading a large team, engaging with clients, and strategic execution. You’ve led client-facing, operational and/or sales enablement teams in asset management, wealth, or financial advisor services environments and know how to translate strategy into action.

You bring a deep understanding of relationship dynamics, people leadership, and collaboration best practices—and you know how to influence across a matrixed organization to drive alignment and impact.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of leadership experience in financial services client facing roles, relationship management and operations.
• Proven success in developing and motivating crew to serve clients with excellence.
• Executive presence and influence skills both with clients and internal leadership teams.
• Ability to translate distribution goals into actionable client engagement and infrastructure strategies that may span across multiple business lines and clients.
• Strong understanding of operational nuances across transfer agencies, ETF brokerage and alternative investment platforms.
• Ability to address ambiguous problems, with a track record of partnering across product, investment, legal, technology, and distribution teams to deliver solutions.
• This job requires regulatory licenses and registrations as determined by Vanguard’s compliance team.
• FINRA 7, 63 and 24 required.

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.