Job Title: Principal Engineer / Architect - Fraud Prevention Technology
Location: Malvern, PA
VISA: EAD. EAD
Duration: Long term Contract
Exp: 12+ yrs.
Responsibilities:
Define the technical vision and multi-year roadmap for fraud prevention systems across new and existing product lines
Design and build real-time detection, decisioning, and response systems scaled to Vanguard''s transaction volumes
Drive adoption of AI/ML-driven development practices and embed intelligent automation into fraud operations and engineering workflows
Serve as the technical authority on fraud risk for new product launches (payments, debit, etc.)
Lead by example—write production code, conduct design reviews, and set engineering standards
Partner with product, risk, compliance, and data science teams to translate fraud strategy into executable architecture
Mentor engineers and elevate team capabilities without formal management authority
Qualifications:
12+ years in software engineering with 5+ years focused on fraud prevention, payments, or banking technology
Deep domain expertise in payment networks, transaction monitoring, authorization systems, or identity verification
Demonstrated experience architecting distributed, low-latency systems in a regulated financial environment
Strong fluency in applied AI/ML—model integration, LLM-augmented tooling, or intelligent automation in production
Track record of defining and executing technical strategy at staff/principal/architect level
Comfortable operating as a hands-on engineer while influencing at the senior management tier
Experience with industry standards and regulations (PCI-DSS, BSA/AML, Reg E, network rules)
Preferred:
Prior experience at a large asset manager, bank, or fintech scaling into new payment products
Familiarity with real-time streaming architectures (Kafka, Flink) and decisioning engines
Background in adversarial modeling or fraud ring detection
This is a senior-manager-equivalent individual contributor role. No direct reports.:
This is a newly created position within our strategy team. Over the past several years, we’ve built a robust foundation and reached a solid level of maturity with our fraud prevention program. However, we’re now entering a new phase where business demand is increasing significantly, and we’re expanding into new product offerings.
The most significant initiative is the introduction of a debit card product. While we are not becoming a bank, we will work with payment processors and other financial partners. This introduces new fraud typologies and risks that are largely unfamiliar today, making it a critical area of focus.
The primary objective of this role is to help define and execute the strategic roadmap for our future-state fraud prevention platform. This individual will play a key role in preparing our technology and processes to support the new debit card offering while also addressing the growing needs of our current fraud platform. They will collaborate closely with other fraud teams and business partners to develop and implement a long-term strategy that positions the organization for future growth.
Ideal Candidate Profile:
From an experience standpoint, our highest priority is someone with a Robust background in banking, payments, or a closely related financial services environment. While direct fraud prevention experience would certainly be valuable, it is not a strict requirement. More importantly, we’re looking for a highly experienced industry professional who can drive technology strategy and bring best practices to the organization.
Experience with machine learning and artificial intelligence is a significant plus, as both are becoming increasingly central to modern fraud prevention. Our technology environment is primarily AWS-based with JavaScript, but we’re less concerned with a specific programming language. We expect a candidate at this level to be comfortable working across mainstream technologies and focused more on architectural strategy than hands-on development.
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