Vice President - Enterprise Data Platform

About this role

About this role

As a Vice President in Enterprise Data Platform, you will be part of a team responsible for building and modernizing the core framework of BlackRock's next-generation enterprise data platform. This platform is designed to automate and standardize data acquisition, ingestion, transformation, orchestration, and distribution at enterprise scale.

This is a hands-on engineering role for a strong data engineer with solid software engineering fundamentals. The role sits at the intersection of data platform engineering and backend platform development. You will help evolve the platform from a framework-centered model toward a more modular, API-driven architecture in which core platform capabilities can be accessed and operated through reusable services.

A key focus of this role is designing and building internal platform services and APIs that expose core capabilities such as metadata, logging, orchestration, workflow generation, onboarding, and operational control. These services will support more flexible and standardized interaction patterns across the platform, including internal tools, automation, scripts, UIs, and AI-enabled workflows.

You will partner closely with engineering, product, and platform teams to deliver scalable, reliable, and maintainable solutions that advance the firm's enterprise data capabilities. This role is expected to lead the design of complex and sensitive components, contribute meaningfully to technical direction, and remain deeply hands-on in development. The ideal candidate brings strong experience in data engineering and workflow-driven systems, along with practical experience building backend services and APIs in modern cloud-native environments.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable platform services and APIs that power metadata, logging, orchestration, workflow generation, onboarding, and other core enterprise data platform capabilities.
• Help evolve the platform toward a more modular, service-oriented architecture by defining and implementing reusable backend components and well-structured service interfaces.
• Design, develop, and enhance core enterprise data platform components, including acquisition frameworks, workflow orchestration capabilities, and shared services used across data pipelines.
• Contribute across the full software development lifecycle, including requirements analysis, architecture and design, development, testing, deployment, and ongoing enhancement.
• Design and implement backend services using Python-based frameworks such as FastAPI or Flask, and build contract-first APIs using gRPC and Protocol Buffers as part of the platform's target direction.
• Partner with data engineers, platform engineers, product teams, and other stakeholders to translate business and operational requirements into robust platform solutions.
• Continuously improve performance, scalability, resilience, and observability across platform components and data workflows.
• Explore new tools and technologies that enhance platform capabilities, engineering efficiency, and developer experience.
• Help define engineering standards, API conventions, design patterns, and best practices that improve consistency and long-term maintainability.
• Provide technical leadership through design ownership, mentorship, code quality, and collaboration across teams, while remaining an individual contributor with no direct people-management responsibility.
• Contribute to the integration of AI-enabled capabilities and external AI services into platform workflows where they can improve automation, quality, or developer productivity.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field.

• 5+ years of experience in data engineering, data platform engineering, or closely related backend engineering roles.
• Strong hands-on programming experience in Python.
• Strong SQL skills and experience working with relational and analytical data platforms.
• Experience designing and developing backend services and APIs using REST-based frameworks such as FastAPI or Flask.
• Experience with gRPC and Protocol Buffers, or other contract-first API development patterns.
• Experience designing APIs that interact with orchestration systems, cloud storage, metadata services, or platform-control functions.
• Experience building scalable, maintainable solutions in cloud-native or distributed environments.
• Experience with Kubernetes and container-based deployment patterns.
• Experience with at least one major cloud platform; Azure experience is strongly preferred.
• Experience with real-time, event-driven, or message-based platforms and technologies such as Kafka or streaming ingestion patterns.
• Strong understanding of object-oriented design, software engineering best practices, and production-grade development practices.
• Experience improving performance, reliability, and maintainability of data pipelines or platform services.
• Ability to lead design for complex components while remaining deeply hands-on in implementation.
• Experience mentoring other engineers, guiding design decisions, and influencing technical direction across a broader platform.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively across engineering and non-engineering partners.
• Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced environment and drive work forward with a high degree of ownership.

Preferred Qualifications

• Proven experience designing and building ETL/ELT frameworks, reusable data platform components, or broader workflow-driven data systems.
• Experience with Apache Airflow or comparable workflow orchestration technologies.
• Experience with Snowflake and related capabilities such as Snowpipe, Snowpark, or modern cloud data warehouse features.
• Experience with dbt or similar transformation frameworks.
• Familiarity with authentication, authorization, and related API security concepts.
• Experience integrating AI/ML or LLM-based services into enterprise data platforms, developer workflows, or operational processes.
• Understanding of prompt engineering, model evaluation, or responsible AI practices.
• Exposure to Java or experience working in mixed Python/Java enterprise environments.

What success looks like

• You build and evolve platform services and APIs that make core enterprise data platform capabilities more accessible, modular, and reusable.
• You help move the platform from a framework-centered model toward a more service-oriented, API-driven architecture in a practical and maintainable way.
• You contribute strong technical judgment, high-quality code, and thoughtful design leadership across complex platform components.
• You improve developer experience and platform efficiency through better interfaces, reusable services, and sound engineering standards.
• You partner effectively across engineering, product, and platform teams to deliver scalable solutions that advance the firm's enterprise data capabilities.

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.