Software Engineer, AI Labs, Vice President

Locations: Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Apply Now

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

Senior Software Engineer – Machine Learning

AI Labs Overview:

Since our founding over 30 years ago, BlackRock has brought together great minds to drive innovation. From the beginning, we have been demonstrating technology for insight and efficiency to make our business better and to help clients realize the objectives they desire. At BlackRock, there is a rich problem space for data scientists and engineers across all areas of the business including investments, sales, marketing, operations, product, UX, etc. and the potential to have large scale impact. In 2018, BlackRock accelerated innovation and technology again with additional investment in artificial intelligence and data science and all the potential they represent.

AI Labs was formed to act as a central hub with a firm-wide remit to solve strategic business challenges for the firm by bringing to bear our expertise in data science, machine learning, generative AI, optimization, stochastic control and statistics. Our mission is to combine human and machine intelligence to revolutionize asset management. The team is led by Dr. Rachel Schutt.

Our solutions drive towards commercial impact in the form of alpha generation, operational efficiencies, and cost reduction. Building on the success of systematic investment teams with a history of demonstrating machine learning at BlackRock to create alpha, the goal is to apply these same techniques throughout the business.

The team has grown to 30+ data scientists and data engineers. Working collaboratively, the team is multi-disciplinary with the following skills and capabilities: machine learning, statistical modeling, signal detection, natural language processing, data visualization, network/graph modeling, ETL, data pipelines, data architecture, communication, product management and strategy. We work with data from a wide variety of sources including text, news feeds, financial reports, time series transactions, user behavior logs, and real-time data.

AI Labs has offices in New York, Palo Alto, Edinburgh, Atlanta and Seattle. The team has several Stanford professors as senior advisors with world-class expertise in machine learning, statistics, optimization and stochastic control. These advisors include AI Labs co-head Stephen Boyd (Samsung Professor of Engineering at Stanford), Emmanuel Candes, Trevor Hastie, and Mykel Kochenderfer who dedicate time in our Palo Alto office and provide advice and guidance for all members of the global team.

We are looking for candidates with unique backgrounds and diverse skill sets with fresh perspectives to accelerate and amplify our efforts to make an impact at BlackRock. AI Labs aims to bring best of class technologies, analytics, and insights to the entirety of the firm and to our clients.

Responsibilities

- Help lead architecture on a multi-discipline, multi-region team of data scientists, engineers, and investment professionals on a corporate-wide set of client, investor, and operational problems

- Build and maintain tools and services supporting the full model development lifecycle for statistical models, machine learning, optimization, and deep learning models (e.g., feature engineering, backtesting and simulation, validation, deployment)

- Maintain and monitor production models and experimentation

- Tune performance in both single-threaded and distributed environments

- Enforce high-quality patterns and practices for maintaining model pipelines

Requirements

- 7+ years in software engineering, with 3+ years in API-backed ML deployment

- Strong programming language skills in Python

- Significant experience with SQL (e.g., RDBMS, Spark, Presto, or BigQuery)

- Experience with machine learning, optimization, and data manipulation tools (e.g., scikit-learn, XGBoost, cvxpy, Pandas, Spark, or PyTorch)

- Experience with at least one low-level or scientific language (e.g., C, Rust, Go, Julia, or R)

- Experience with accelerated compute (GPU, TPU, Inferencia) for research and deployment

- Experience efficiently training and fine-tuning of deep learning models

- *Bonus* Deployment of enterprise quality model endpoints for high throughput and low latency

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.

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, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation and other protected characteristics at law.

Job Requisition #
R250713

Apply

Explore this location View Map

BlackRock Principles

We look to hire people that will embody our BlackRock Principles:

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.
We are One BlackRock.

We work collaboratively to create the best outcomes for our clients, our firm and the communities where we operate.
We are passionate about performance.

We are relentless in innovating and finding better ways to serve our clients and improve our firm.
We take emotional ownership.

We have a deep sense of responsibility to our clients and to each other.
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.

Engineer I (Analyst)
Engineer II/III (Associate)
Senior Engineer I/II (Vice President)
Lead Engineer
(Vice President)

Engineering Team Manager
(Vice President)
Principal/Sr. Principal
Engineer (Director)

Engineering Team Director/ Sr. Engineering Team Director
Managing Director

Managing Director
TECH
LEADERSHIP

ENTERPRISE
LEADERSHIP

Benefits

We care about your overall well-being and design our benefits package to support you in various aspects of your life.

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.
Pay for performance

Our pay-for-performance philosophy includes a base salary and a discretionary annual bonus.
Physical well-being

Our healthcare plans and resources help you focus on your physical health, so you and your family can feel your best.
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.
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.