Vice President, AI Platform Engineering

Job Description About This Role About the Role BlackRock is one of the world's leading providers of investment, advisory, and risk management solutions, powered by Aladdin, our integrated investment and risk management technology platform. Aladdin unifies data, analytics, and workflows across public and private markets, enabling scale, insights, and transformation for BlackRock and our clients. As part of Aladdin Engineering, you will join the AI Platform Engineering team, which is building the next-generation AI infrastructure and services that power Aladdin and other firm-wide applications. This team sits at the intersection of backend systems, AI engineering, AI infrastructure, and platform engineering, enabling advanced AI capabilities at scale. We are looking for a senior individual contributor who thrives on solving complex engineering challenges, shaping AI software strategy, and building robust, scalable platforms. You will work alongside some of the brightest minds in financial technology, influencing the AI ecosystem across the firm. What You'll Do - Architect and build scalable AI platform components that support model training, tuning, inference, and lifecycle management. - Design and implement cloud-native infrastructure abstractions across AWS, GCP, and Azure for AI workloads. - Develop and optimize Kubernetes-based orchestration for AI models, including GPU scheduling and resource management. - Build automated pipelines for continuous training, testing, and deployment of ML models with enterprise-grade security and compliance. - Collaborate cross-functional to translate business and functional requirements into resilient technical designs. - Ensure reliability and performance of distributed systems through proactive monitoring, troubleshooting, and optimization. - Stay ahead of trends in AI engineering, MLOps, and cloud-native technologies to drive innovation. What We're Looking For - Education: B.S./M.S. in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field. - Experience: 6+ years in software/platform engineering with a focus on distributed systems and cloud-native architectures. - Software Architecture & Design: - Proven ability to design scalable, fault-tolerant, and modular systems for high-performance AI and backend platforms. - Expertise in distributed systems architecture, including service decomposition, API design, and data flow optimization. - Strong understanding of design patterns, domain-driven design (DDD), and best practices for building extensible platforms. - Experience creating platform abstractions and reusable components for multi-tenant, cloud-native environments. - Cloud-Native Engineering: - Deep proficiency in Kubernetes (Helm, Kustomize, CRDs) and containerization (Docker, containerd). - Hands-on experience with AWS, GCP, Azure, and IaC tools (Terraform, CloudFormation). - Programming Expertise: - Production-grade coding in Rust, C++, etc. and scripting in Python for AI workflows. - Familiarity with ML frameworks (PyTorch, JAX, NumPy) and MLOps concepts. - Platform Reliability & Security: - Strong grasp of networking, security policies, and API gateways in distributed environments. - Experience with observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana) and performance tuning. - Mindset: Strong problem-solving skills, adaptability, and resilience in the face of technical challenges. Nice to Have - Architectural Extensions: Experience designing SDKs or client libraries that enable seamless API integration and developer adoption. - GPU-Oriented Engineering: Deep understanding of GPU orchestration, resource scheduling, and performance optimization in Kubernetes clusters. - AI Engineering Stack: Exposure to model inference optimization, distributed training strategies, parameter tuning, and integration of ML frameworks (PyTorch, JAX, TensorRT) into production-grade systems. - Advanced MLOps: Practical knowledge of end-to-end ML lifecycle management, including automated training, fine-tuning, and deployment pipelines for large models. - Event-Driven & Streaming Systems: Expertise in building real-time data pipelines using Kafka or similar messaging frameworks. - Performance Profiling & Optimization: Ability to diagnose and optimize system bottlenecks across compute, storage, and network layers. - Security & Compliance in AI Systems: Understanding of secure model deployment practices and compliance frameworks for regulated industries. Why Join Us You'll be part of a team that is defining the future of AI in financial technology. At BlackRock, we value diversity, curiosity, and technical excellence. This is an opportunity to grow as a technologist while working on systems that impact global markets. 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 Employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to age, disability, family status, gender identity, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation and other protected attributes at law.