Vice President, Market Data Services

At BlackRock, our smartest investment is you. We are a global investmentmanagerhelpingmore and morepeople experience financial well-being. BlackRock’s business is investing on behalf of our clients, from large institutions to parents, grandparents,doctorsand teachers who entrust their savings to us.  We are committed to our clients – period. Our promise is to offer them theclearest thinkingabout what to do with their money and the products and services they need to secure a better financial future.

That’swhy investors of all kinds have made us the world’s largest asset manager, entrusting us with trillions of dollars, andit’salso why companies, institutions and global governments come to usforhelpmeetingtheir biggest financial challenges.

About Index & Data Solutions (IDS)

Financial information is at the heart of what BlackRock does.The Index & Data Solutions team (IDS)is responsible forsourcing the index and market data thatsupportsthe firm’s investment and risk management products and services as well as managing the relevant commercial relationships, focusing on fostering &maintainingstrong partnerships with the largest and most strategic index and data providers.  To do this well, IDS(i)supportthe most strategic initiatives ofBlackRockas those initiatives relate tomarket data providers and (ii)works closely with key internal business stakeholders to ensure wemaintainstrong alignment on business strategy and partner effectively to resolve challenges. 

The Role

The team is looking for aVPto join the Relationship Management function who will(i)contribute meaningfully to managing relationships with our strategic data providers,with a focus on understanding the legal underpinnings ofdataLicensing and intellectual property (IP)(ii) keep up to date with industry initiatives that affect those relationships and keep the business informed of them, especially around the impact of AI on the usage rights BlackRock can make of 3rdparty content, without exposingBlackRock to riskand (iii) keep up to date with the fast changing regulatory landscape formarket dataandhow that impacts BlackRock and our clients, 

The best candidate for this role will understand the importance of our firm’s culture & principles in driving execution, and how to “connect the dots”withbusinesses & functions across the firm to achieve the best commercial outcomes with highproviderpartnership and accountability.Tobesuccessfulin this rolewill requirethe ability to identify and prioritize critical issues while demonstratingoutstanding communication and organizational skillsin progressing and resolving.

The successful candidatewillneed to be able to converse and influence C Suite executivesona wide range of issues relating to their subject matterexpertise.

Key Responsibilities:

• Be the lead in developing deep relationshipswith majorbusiness units within BlackRock, BlackRock Global Markets, BlackRock Tech & Ops,all on a globalbasis.This will entail:

• Developingrelationships with senior (COO) colleagues in those groups to make sure IDSmeetstheir needs.

• Working with IDS colleagues whoownrelationships with other business units (PMG,Aladdin, etc.) to make sure we have a consistent message to those businessunits,and we are sharing best practices on how IDS best serves those businesses.

• Working with those business units to developdata strategiesso they are best prepared tomeet their immediate andlong-termobjectives.

• Understanding the legal underpinnings of our relationships with strategic vendor partners andbeable to convey those to senior management.

• Working with other members of the IDS team toensureconsistency across IDS in implementing best practices and working withsenior membersof the IDS team to implement streamlined processes, especially as it involves the potential use of AIfrom vendors.Developingdeep,constructive relationships with our keymarket datapartnersby building mutually beneficial commercial engagements.You will beakey resource in managingthose relationships and willbe responsible forensuring they are mutually productive.

• Partnering closely with our Legal team and senior management toensure contractswith our market data providers include favorable terms at the lowest risk andoptimalcost.

• Holding market data providers accountable for service delivery according to agreed expectations.

• Negotiating and driving to conclusion the market data contract process withproviders ensuringrelevant business needs are covered and fees are clearly documented.

• Monitoring upcoming contract renewals and expirations

• Understanding thefast-changingregulatory landscape as it applies tomarketdata and be an active member of internal BlackRock committees that interpret how those regulations will affect BlackRock and our clients.

Required Education and Skills: 

• Bachelor's degreepreferablyin finance, business,economicsor relatedarea.

• Minimum of7years ofdataproviderrelationship management & contracting experience.

• Exposure topreviousstrategic market data providerlicensingissues would be an advantage.

Preferred Education and Skills: 

• Knowledge of the financial services industry.

• Experience in commercial negotiations, datalicensingand provider partnerships.

• Deep understanding of the market data/index and portfolio risk landscape and providers.

• Experience withindex,ratingsand other core dataproviders.

• Knowledge ofproviderrisk management frameworks,processesand tools.

• Willingness to learn and contributeisessential.