Hyderabad: US-based investment giant Vanguard plans to scale its Hyderabad global capability centre, called Vanguard India, to 1,000 employees by the end of 2026 and to 2,400 by 2029, as the US investment management firm deepens its technology and product capabilities in India.The company launched the India office in Nov 2025 and has already hired about 550 people in Hyderabad in the first five months in line with its internal plans, Nitin Tandon, managing director and chief information officer at Vanguard, said.Vanguard is currently operating from three temporary facilities before it moves into a larger permanent office in Hyderabad’s Image Towers in future. The company already had about 2,500 people in India through its sourcing partners before opening its own facility. The company, which had over $12.5 trillion in assets under management (AUM) as of Feb 28, 2026, has a total headcount of around 20,000 employees.Tandon said its India foray is not a cost-driven move but a talent-led strategy aimed at gaining direct access to specialised skills, with hiring focused heavily on engineers, particularly in areas such as artificial intelligence & machine learning, cloud computing, mobile engineering, data & analytics.Tandon said Vanguard is building full-stack product teams in Hyderabad rather than using India only for distributed delivery. Roles being hired include product owners, engineers, UX specialists, researchers, security engineers, architects, tech leads and heads of product. The centre is also building leadership and enablement functions.He said the Hyderabad centre will support Vanguard’s broader technology modernisation and digital product agenda, with work handled from the centre including engineering, product development, AI-led capabilities, cloud and cyber functions, and eventually end-to-end product ownership. Vanguard is also focusing on developing AI-powered tools for employees and clients.John Couture, managing director and chief human resources officer, Vanguard, said the company sees strong alignment between its long-term talent strategy and India’s market. He said the company is planning carefully for a second phase of growth while staying focused on executing the first phase by 2029.Globally, Vanguard has offices across multiple locations in the US as well as in London, Australia and India.Tandon said Hyderabad was chosen after an evaluation of more than 20 cities, with the final decision narrowing to Hyderabad and Bengaluru. Tandon said the city stood out for talent availability, quality of life, infrastructure, urban planning for growth and policy consistency across administrations.