Applied AI Engineer, Associate

About this role

When BlackRock was started, its founders envisioned a company that combined the best of financial services with cutting edge technology. They imagined a business that would provide financial services to clients as well as technology services to other financial firms. The result of their vision is Aladdin, our industry leading, end-to-end investment management platform. Our technology empowers millions of investors to save for retirement, pay for college, buy a home and improve their financial wellbeing.

Data & AI

Data is at the heart of Aladdin. We have been employing AI methods for 10+ years and started our AI Lab in 2018. We have specialist leaders in fields including optimization, data science, machine learning and natural language processing. The ability to consume, store, analyze and gain insight from data has become a key component of our competitive advantage. The Aladdin AI team is responsible for the AI ecosystem within BlackRock. Our goal is to build and maintain a leading-edge AI platform for all users of the platform, notably investors, operations teams and data scientists. We focus on evolving our platform to deliver exponential scale to the firm, powering the future growth of Aladdin.

We are looking for highly motivated and determined engineers to join our AI Platform team. You will be working at one of the most recognized financial companies in the world while being part of an AI software development team responsible for transforming research into next generation applications and solutions.

Responsibilities:

• Design and build the next generation of the world's best investment management technology platform, focusing on managing various investment lifecycle processes and investment research.
• Design and deploy advanced machine learning models.
• Leverage and build AI/ML infrastructure to develop new platform services.
• Integrate new AI services across the platform and Aladdin application ecosystem.
• Refine business and functional requirements and translate them into scalable technical designs.
• Collaborate with product engineering teams to implement comprehensive AI/ML-based solutions from start to finish.
• Apply quality software engineering practices throughout the software development lifecycle.
• Optimize the software delivery and workflow of the team.
• Work with team members in a multi-office, multi-country environment.

Requirements:

• B.S./M.S. degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related subject area with 2-4 years of proven experience, or equivalent experience.
• Strong proficiency and hands-on experience in object-oriented programming with Java and Python.
• Proficiency in designing and building scalable APIs and Microservices.
• Familiarity with event-driven architecture and messaging frameworks like Kafka.
• Experience with cloud platforms such as Azure (Preferred), AWS, or GCP.
• Experience with NoSQL datastores like Cassandra
• Knowledge of containerization and orchestration technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes.
• Ability to reverse engineering existing applications.
• Grit in the face of technical obstacles
• Experience working in Agile development teams with excellent collaboration skills.

Nice to have:

• Understanding of prompt engineering and prompt tuning.
• Experience building applications using LLM frameworks such as LangChain, Llama Index, and Semantic Kernel.
• Experience with vector databases like Faiss or Chroma
• Knowledge of ML model evaluation to ensure consistent performance with changing data.
• Familiarity with MLOps and ML model lifecycle pipelines.
• Experience with ML model training and fine-tuning.

For New York City and California only the salary range for this position is $132,500 - $157,500. Additionally, employees are eligible for an annual discretionary bonus, and benefits including heath care, 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 and Affirmative Action Employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, protected veteran status, and other statuses protected by law.

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.