BlackRock Investment Institute, AI Solutions, Research Associate

BlackRock•New York, NY

10d•$145,000 - $162,000•Hybrid

About The Position

BlackRock Investment Institute (BII) leverages BlackRock's expertise and produces proprietary research to provide insights on the global economy, markets, geopolitics, and long-term asset allocation - all to help clients and portfolio managers navigate financial markets. We systematically leverage BlackRock’s expertise in markets, asset classes, and client segments to help our portfolio managers deliver positive investment results for clients. Our focus is to keep our investment professionals connected, informed, and on the cutting edge of investment thinking. As BII transforms toward an AI-first operating model, we are building the next generation of research, investment, and content-production workflows. This role will sit at the center of that transformation, helping design and implement the agentic systems, workflow automation, and AI infrastructure that will underpin the future of BII. Reporting to BII’s AI leadership team, this individual will help execute BII’s AI strategy and serve as a bridge between investment professionals, domain experts, and technology partners. The role will focus on designing and deploying AI-powered workflows, building agentic systems for key BII functions, and helping establish the operating architecture that enables BII to evolve toward more automated, continuous, and scalable research processes. This individual will work closely with BlackRock’s investment platform, technology partners, and teams across BII to identify high-value use cases, build AI-enabled solutions, and drive adoption across the organization.

Requirements

Strong understanding of modern AI systems, including large language models, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), agentic workflows, multi-agent systems, and workflow orchestration.
Hands-on experience building AI applications, agents, automation solutions, or decision-support tools using commercial and/or open-source AI technologies.
Experience with Python and modern AI development ecosystems, including APIs, prompt engineering, evaluation frameworks, vector databases, and agent frameworks.
Familiarity with software architecture concepts, product development lifecycles, and enterprise deployment considerations.
Ability to rapidly prototype solutions while maintaining a pragmatic focus on scalability, governance, and business value.
Strong understanding of AI risks and controls, including model quality, hallucination risk, evaluation, explainability, security, and responsible AI.
Interest in financial markets, macroeconomics, asset allocation, and investment research.
Ability to understand complex investment workflows and identify opportunities to improve them through technology and automation.
2–5 years of relevant experience in AI, technology, product management, analytics, consulting, or related fields.
Strong problem-solving skills and demonstrated ability to independently drive complex initiatives from concept through execution.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical audiences.
Proven ability to collaborate across multidisciplinary teams and influence stakeholders without direct authority.
Entrepreneurial mindset with a bias toward experimentation, learning, and continuous improvement.
Deep knowledge of Microsoft Office suite (PowerPoint, Excel, Word) and deep experience with Python and AI development tools required.

Nice To Haves

Experience working with research, analytics, investment, strategy, consulting, or product teams is highly desirable.
Ability to synthesize technical and business considerations into actionable recommendations for senior stakeholders.

Responsibilities

Partnering with BII leadership to execute the Institute’s AI strategy and roadmap.
Designing, prototyping, and deploying AI-powered workflows, copilots, and agentic systems that improve research, content creation, forecasting, and investment processes.
Working alongside PMG and technology teams to help define and implement BII’s AI architecture, governance frameworks, and operating model.
Building workflow-specific AI solutions for major BII processes, including capital market assumptions (CMAs), tactical asset allocation (TAA), macro research, content production, and client-facing insights.
Identifying opportunities to automate repetitive or low-value tasks and redesign workflows around AI-native processes.
Translating business requirements into technical specifications and coordinating implementation with engineering and platform teams.
Evaluating emerging AI technologies, models, frameworks, and vendors to determine applicability to BII use cases.
Productionizing prototypes and proof-of-concepts built by team members using modern AI tooling, including large language models, agentic coding frameworks, retrieval systems, and workflow orchestration platforms.
Driving adoption of AI tools through training, change management, stakeholder engagement, and continuous feedback loops.
Measuring impact through productivity, quality, and scalability metrics and continuously improving deployed solutions.
Contributing to the development of BII’s long-term vision for an agentic and continuously operating research organization.