Having not encountered VFD before, I did a bit of DuckDuckGoing [just not as catchy as "Googling"], and based on what I learned, you need a set of "High-Side" drivers. Such a thing can be achieved with two MOSFETs, -- or, even a P-channel MOSFET on the high side, and an NPN bipolar transistor [such as a 2N3904] on the low side [with accompanying resistors].
Here are some possibilities [that I'm sure my colleges will rip apart] ;):
The above is a basic, no frills High-Side driver. The part numbers are mere suggestions -- selected, partially, because of their readily available through-hole versions (and because I was too lazy to look for parts I've never used). This is NOT good for any kind of speed-- just occasional transitions -- which seems to be your case. IRFD9014 for Q2 may be a bit
overkill for this application, so maybe look for a P-Channel designed for lower current. And R1 can probably go higher. I set it for a current of around 5mA into the base of Q1, for, perhaps, a decent trade off between decent switching speed, and conservative current drive -- but it really comes down to how much current is needed, at the Q1 collector, to sufficiently drain off the Q2 gate charge. Also, R2 needs to be chosen to do a sufficient job of bleeding off gate charge for a decent Q2 turn-off.
For a bit more speed, there is the above. By biasing Q1 to the edge of saturation, there is less charging of capacitance, there, and thus, switching can happen faster, since little or no time is spend draining off charge.
Here's a version that is all MOSFET. Also, only good for occasional transitions. This is better than the bipolar version in the respect that the only current demanded from the Arduino output is that needed to charge/discharge the Q2 gate capacitance. And, since the gate capacitance is so low on the VN2222LL [only around 100pF, or so], really no need for a series current limit resistor on the gate.
And, with the above, you can get away with low frequency PWM. The 2N3906/2N3904 complementary pair, do a good job of managing all that capacitance on the Q2 gate -- which, really isn't that much, since this is a fairly low power MOSFET -- and even lower power MOSFETs [as mentioned before] could probably be used here [no details from the OP regarding drive requirements, here, so I can't say for sure], which would mean even lower gate capacitance, and a chance for even higher switching speeds for this circuit. There are better circuits, but that's beyond my skill level, so I'll leave that for someone else -- BUT, it appears, none of that is really needed, in this application.
BUT, for any kind of serious speed, and/or efficiency, and/or low parts count, and/or minimal real estate consumption, consider an actual High-Side driver IC -- someone else will need to help you with that.
AND, in case it wasn't obvious: no matter which of these circuits you choose [or even if you go with the High-Side driver chip, option], you will need one of these for each of those 17 display pins.
