Java Engineer, Vice President
Locations: Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Overview of Technology roles
At BlackRock, technology has always been at the core of what we do – and today, our technologists continue to shape the future of the industry with their innovative work. We are not only curious but also collaborative and eager to embrace experimentation as a means to solve complex challenges. Here you’ll find an environment that promotes working across teams, businesses, regions and specialties – and a firm committed to supporting your growth as a technologist through curated learning opportunities, tech-specific career paths, and access to experts and leaders around the world.
Job description
About this role
Our Engineering Services division is at the forefront building the foundation for Aladdin, an operating system for investment managers that integrates real-time management of information, people, and technology. Aladdin is used by numerous financial institutions both internally and externally, and Developer Platform makes our application development teams faster and more consistent by providing centralized libraries, build and attestation (compliance) systems.
We own the SDLC languages (Java, Python, .NET, Rust, and Golang) used by the firm’s developers, both for organically grown and inorganically acquired applications. We succeed by helping our customers succeed, so understanding their business and technical problems is key to accelerating their delivery and ensuring consistency for legally required areas like compliance.
You'll join a supportive team with a healthy mix of experience levels, working alongside Directors and a Technical Fellow who set a high bar for technical excellence. This is a team where you'll be mentored, challenged, and given real ownership from day one.
As a Java Developer, you will strengthen the firm’s Java language support and help develop the shared platform capabilities used by financial applications operating at significant scale. These capabilities include libraries, build systems, database failover libraries, and shared business libraries maintained in partnership with application teams.
Java is the firm’s most mature programming language, creating complex engineering challenges across performance, reliability, scale, and developer experience. You will help address these challenges while also contributing expert guidance to the wider programming-language community. Your work will support technology that helps investors pursue important financial goals, including saving for retirement, paying for education, purchasing a home, and improving their financial well-being.
Your responsibilities
In every role at BlackRock, you'll be expected to apply sound judgement and critical thinking to solve complex problems, adapt as the business evolves, and combine the curiosity to explore new approaches and technologies with the rigor to challenge the results. The scope of this role also includes the following
responsibilities:
- Deliver practical engineering solutions within a complex operating environment, navigating multiple stakeholders and competing priorities.
- Strengthen the Java SDLC by developing and maintaining shared libraries, build systems, database failover capabilities, and application-team-owned business libraries.
- Address demanding performance, resilience, scalability, and survivability requirements for applications operating at significant scale.
- Contribute to the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) development tooling and evaluate how emerging engineering practices can improve delivery.
- Provide expert guidance to the wider programming-language community and help improve the developer experience across the other languages supported by the team.
- Design, test, deploy, and support resilient systems while developing a strong understanding of how platform teams operate at scale.
- Collaborate with global engineering and application teams, share ideas, seek feedback, and contribute to a culture of continuous improvement.
Your experience
- Demonstrated software engineering experience and sound judgement gained through designing, delivering, and supporting production systems. Financial services experience is not required, and relevant practical experience is valued more than a specific degree.
- Strong Java programming experience and solid engineering fundamentals, including data structures, algorithms, version control, and writing clean, testable code.
- Demonstrated curiosity about how technologies work, with the motivation and adaptability to learn new programming languages, toolchains, and infrastructure.
- Interest in build systems, containers, and Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) practices, with a hands-on approach to learning by building and improving solutions. Previous experience in these areas is helpful but not essential.
- A collaborative, team-first approach, including following through on commitments, communicating openly, seeking feedback, and supporting colleagues.
- A proactive working style, with the ability to identify opportunities, raise issues early, and take ownership without waiting for detailed direction.
- Clear communication skills, with the ability to explain technical work and engineering decisions to technical and non-technical audiences and ask questions when requirements are unclear.
Our benefits
To help you stay energized, engaged and inspired, we offer a wide range of employee benefits including: retirement investment and tools designed to help you in building a sound financial future; access to education reimbursement; comprehensive resources to support your physical health and emotional well-being; family support programs; 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.
Guidance on AI use for candidates
At BlackRock, AI has long been part of how we work – enhancing decision-making, improving operations, and helping us deliver better outcomes for clients. We encourage candidates to use AI thoughtfully to learn, prepare, and work more effectively; but during our interview process, we want to focus on getting to know you through your own experiences, thinking, and judgment. To support you, we’ve provided guidance on when and how to use AI during our hiring process so you can approach each step with confidence and showcase your best self.
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.
To learn more about BlackRock, please visit Careers.BlackRock.com. We also encourage you to get to know us on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, X, and TikTok.
BlackRock is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to age, disability, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation and other protected characteristics at law.
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BlackRock Principles
We look to hire people that will embody our BlackRock Principles:
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We are a fiduciary to our clients.
This is the bedrock of our identity; it reflects our integrity and the unbiased advice we give our clients.
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We are One BlackRock.
We work collaboratively to create the best outcomes for our clients, our firm and the communities where we operate.
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We are passionate about performance.
We are relentless in innovating and finding better ways to serve our clients and improve our firm.
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We take emotional ownership.
We have a deep sense of responsibility to our clients and to each other.
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We are committed to a better future.
We are long-term thinkers, focused on helping people build a better tomorrow.
Career path
We recognize that our technologists benefit from a tailored approach to navigating and advancing their careers in the ways they envision. Our tech career paths are specifically built to support vertical and horizontal trajectories – including Enterprise Leadership (team manager) and Tech Leadership (individual contributor) ‘tracks’ as well as various other career moves.
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Engineer I (Analyst)
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Engineer II/III (Associate)
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Senior Engineer I/II (Vice President)
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Lead Engineer
(Vice President)Engineering Team Manager
(Vice President) -
Principal/Sr. Principal
Engineer (Director)Engineering Team Director/ Sr. Engineering Team Director -
Managing DirectorManaging Director
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TECH
LEADERSHIPENTERPRISE
LEADERSHIP
Benefits
We care about your overall well-being and design our benefits package to support you in various aspects of your life.
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Financial well-being
We offer resources designed to help you build a sound financial future for you and your family, like retirement savings plans and tuition reimbursement.
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Pay for performance
Our pay-for-performance philosophy includes a base salary and a discretionary annual bonus.
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Physical well-being
Our healthcare plans and resources help you focus on your physical health, so you and your family can feel your best.
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Emotional well-being
We support our people's mental health and emotional well-being by providing access to an Employee Assistance Program and a network of Mental Health Ambassadors.
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Life management
You'll be able to focus on moments that are important to you with benefits designed to support life in and outside of work with Flexible Time Off, parental leave and more.
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