Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning Engineer, Director

About this role At BlackRock, technology is fundamental to how we serve clients and operate at scale . Aladdin—our industry‑leading, end‑to‑end investment management platform—embodies this by combining deep financial expertise with advanced data and AI capabilities. We are seeking a Director of AI Platform / Engineering to provide technical and strategic leadership within the Aladdin AI Engineering organization . In this role, you will be responsible for shaping the direction of Aladdin’s AI platform, leading high‑impact engineering initiatives, and ensuring the delivery of scalable, reliable, and responsible AI solutions across investment, operations, and data science workflows. This role requires a blend of hands‑on technical depth , architectural leadership , and people and delivery leadership . You will work closely with senior engineering leaders, product managers, data scientists, and business stakeholders to translate AI strategy into production‑grade platforms and services. Key Responsibilities Technical & Architectural Leadership Set the t echnical vision and architecture for Aladdin’s AI platform, including LLM‑powered and agentic AI systems. Lead the design and evolution of scalable AI/ML platform services , APIs, and microservices that support Aladdin’s global user base. Drive architectural decisions across distributed systems, ensuring reliability, scalability, security, and operational excellence. Establish and enforce engineering standards, design patterns, and best practices across AI platform teams. Ensure AI solutions are built with strong considerations for governance, observability, resilience, and responsible AI . Delivery & Execution Own delivery outcomes for multiple concurrent initiatives, balancing near‑term execution with long‑term platform evolution. Partner with product management to define roadmaps, prioritize investments, and align execution with business outcomes. Oversee production readiness, including design reviews, risk assessments, release management, and operational support. Drive continuous improvement in engineering workflows, quality, and delivery predictability. People & Organizational Leadership Lead, mentor, and develop senior engineers, technical leads, and managers. Build a strong engineering culture centered on ownership, rigor, collaboration, and technical excellence. Support hiring, onboarding, performance management, and succession planning. Act as a senior technical voice across leadership forums and architectural reviews. Stakeholder & Cross‑Functional Collaboration Partner closely with platform, product, data science, and infrastructure leaders. Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to senior leadership and non‑technical stakeholders. Represent Aladdin AI Engineering in cross‑organizational initiatives and governance forums. Required Qualifications AI / ML‑Specific Qualifications Proven experience leading teams that build AI‑driven platforms and applications , including solutions leveraging large language models (LLMs) , AI Agents, agent tools and agent skills. Strong hands‑on familiarity with LLM frameworks such as LangChain , LlamaIndex , Semantic Kernel , or equivalent. Experience with Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) or comparable agent frameworks, including designing, orchestrating, and operating agent‑based systems in production. Deep understanding of agentic AI architectures , including multi‑agent coordination, tool invocation, and stateful reasoning workflows. Experience with prompt engineering and prompt tuning at scale, including performance, reliability, and safety optimization. Strong understanding of ML model evaluation , monitoring, and behavioral drift management in production systems. Experience integrating vector databases (e.g., Faiss , Chroma) into AI system architectures. Solid understanding of MLOps practices , including model lifecycle management, deployment pipelines, and observability. Experience leveraging AI native code editors and IDEs (e.g., Copilot enabled IDEs, agent assisted development environments, or similar AI augmented tooling) to improve developer productivity, code quality, and delivery velocity. Experience establishing best practices and guardrails for the responsible use of AI native development tools, including considerations for security, IP protection, compliance, and code quality. Ability to evaluate and guide adoption of emerging AI powered developer tools, balancing innovation with maintainability, governance, and platform standards. Strong awareness of responsible AI principles , governance, and risk management when deploying AI systems in regulated environments. Core Engineering & Leadership Qualifications B.S. or M.S. in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field. 10+ years of software engineering experience , including significant leadership of large‑scale, distributed systems. Proven track record of technical leadership , owning platform architecture and multi‑team delivery. Deep expertise in object‑oriented programming , particularly Java and Python . Strong experience designing and operating scalable APIs, microservices, and distributed systems in production. Extensive experience with cloud platforms (Azure preferred; AWS or GCP acceptable). Strong understanding of event‑driven architectures , messaging systems (e.g., Kafka), and asynchronous processing. Experience with containerization and orchestration technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes. Hands‑on experience with relational and NoSQL datastores , including Cassandra. Strong grasp of Agile delivery models , SDLC governance, and operational excellence. Demonstrated ability to influence across teams and senior leadership. Why BlackRock Joining BlackRock means becoming part of a firm that oversees more than $14 trillion in assets and operates at the intersection of finance and technology. As a Director in Aladdin AI Engineering, you will play a critical role in shaping the future of AI‑powered investment management at global scale. For New York, NY Only the salary range for this position is USD$240,000.00 - USD$300,000.00 . Additionally, employees are eligible for an annual discretionary bonus, and benefits including healthcare, leave benefits, and retirement benefits. BlackRock operates a pay-for-performance compensation philosophy and your total compensation may vary based on role, location, and firm, department and individual performance. Our benefits To help you stay energized, engaged and inspired, we offer a wide range of benefits including a strong retirement plan, tuition reimbursement, comprehensive healthcare, support for working parents and Flexible Time Off (FTO) so you can relax, recharge and be there for the people you care about. Our hybrid work model BlackRock’s hybrid work model is designed to enable a culture of collaboration and apprenticeship that enriches the experience of our employees, while supporting flexibility for all. Employees are currently required to work at least 4 days in the office per week, with the flexibility to work from home 1 day a week. Some business groups may require more time in the office due to their roles and responsibilities. We remain focused on increasing the impactful moments that arise when we work together in person – aligned with our commitment to performance and innovation. As a new joiner, you can count on this hybrid model to accelerate your learning and onboarding experience here at BlackRock. About BlackRock At BlackRock, we are all connected by one mission: to help more and more people experience financial well-being. Our clients, and the people they serve, are saving for retirement, paying for their children’s educations, buying homes and starting businesses. Their investments also help to strengthen the global economy: support businesses small and large; finance infrastructure projects that connect and power cities; and facilitate innovations that drive progress. This mission would not be possible without our smartest investment – the one we make in our employees. It’s why we’re dedicated to creating an environment where our colleagues feel welcomed, valued and supported with networks, benefits and development opportunities to help them thrive. For additional information on BlackRock, please visit @blackrock | Twitter: @blackrock | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/blackrock BlackRock is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity to all applicants and existing employees, and we evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, creed, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity/expression), sexual orientation, age, ancestry, physical or mental disability, marital status, political affiliation, religion, citizenship status, genetic information, veteran status, or any other basis protected under applicable federal, state, or local law. View the EEOC’s Know Your Rights poster and its supplement and the pay transparency statement . BlackRock is committed to full inclusion of all qualified individuals and to providing reasonable accommodations or job modifications for individuals with disabilities. If reasonable accommodation/adjustments are needed throughout the employment process, please email [email protected] . All requests are treated in line with our privacy policy . BlackRock will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records in a manner consistent with the requirements of the law, including any applicable fair chance law.