About Vanguard
50 years ago, John C. Bogle had a vision to start an investment company that did things differently. A company with no external shareholders. Where all the profits were invested back into the business and used to lower costs. Evidently, it was as bold as it was brilliant. To this day, Vanguard Group still has no external shareholders. That means no share prices to protect, and no profits to generate for outside owners.
Today, Vanguard is one of the world’s largest investment management companies, serving more than 50 million investors worldwide. For more than 25 years Vanguard Australia has been supporting individual investors, financial advisers, and superannuation members to achieve their long-term financial goals.
Job Description Summary
Lead the Strategy and Portfolio team at the heart of the Personal Investor business, connecting strategy to execution and bringing clarity to complex decisions. This role translates growth ambition into actionable priorities, balances investment and delivery constraints, and empowers leaders to make confident trade-offs across business, technology, and data.
Core Responsibilities
Business strategy development: work with the organisation to develop top down-view of Business strategy in-line with growth and customer ambition that help guide strategic choices and investments helping articulate ‘where to play and how to win’ strategy that is understood and adopted by the Division
Strategic framing & choice discipline: translate strategy into a small number of time‑bound strategic bets; explicitly define “what we will not prioritise.”
Change portfolio ownership: own a single, coherent view of strategic change (ex‑BAU), including sizing, sequencing, and interdependencies.
Portfolio economics: assess ambition versus capital and capacity; surface opportunity cost; enable resizing, pause or stop decisions.
Decision enablement: frame trade‑offs for executives (A vs B, now vs later, depth vs breadth), escalate unresolved priorities, and force clarity on who decides.
People management and leadership – lead a small high performing team – enable growth and learning across the team. Champion a culture of collaboration, continuous improvement and influence with stakeholders to become a trusted partner across the organization.
Governance effectiveness: design and run portfolio forums that land decisions, not just alignment or updates.
Defines and enforces a common taxonomy of work packages (e.g. BAU vs change, strategic bets, initiatives, dependencies) so automated portfolio views are consistent, comparable, and decision‑ready across divisions.
Leverages tool‑enabled portfolio views to surface capacity constraints, cross‑domain dependencies, and scenario trade‑offs, reducing reliance on manual spreadsheets and bespoke reporting.
Experience & skills required
Proven experience in top-tier management consulting or enterprise strategy/portfolio roles within large, complex organisations, with strong exposure to financial services (banking, wealth or super)
Track record of translating strategy into execution—driving clear prioritisation, sequencing, and trade-offs in environments with competing growth and capacity constraints
Strong commercial and financial acumen, with the ability to optimise portfolio investment decisions and deliver sustainable, value-led outcomes
Advanced governance and planning capability, leveraging systems and tools to create transparency, alignment, and real-time portfolio visibility
Enterprise mindset with the ability to influence and challenge senior stakeholders, navigate ambiguity, and lead high-stakes decision-making with confidence
Inclusion Statement
Vanguard’s continued commitment to diversity and inclusion is firmly rooted in our culture. Every decision we make to best serve our clients, crew (internally employees are referred to as crew), and communities is guided by one simple statement: “Do the right thing.”
We believe that a critical aspect of doing the right thing requires building diverse, inclusive, and highly effective teams of individuals who are as unique as the clients they serve. We empower our crew to contribute their distinct strengths to achieving Vanguard’s core purpose through our values.
When all crew members feel valued and included, our ability to collaborate and innovate is amplified, and we are united in delivering on Vanguard’s core purpose.
Our core purpose: To take a stand for all investors, to treat them fairly, and to give them the best chance for investment success.
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.
