Senior Engineering Team Director - Aladdin Engineering ETF Systems Engineering

BlackRock•San Francisco, NY

5d•$215,000 - $275,000•Hybrid

About The Position

This role is for a Head of Engineering to lead the ETF Systems engineering organization, a globally distributed team of 50+ engineers. The position is accountable for the technical vision, delivery execution, operational excellence, talent strategy, and AI transformation of a platform supporting a fast-growing segment of the global asset management industry. The leader will partner with Product Management, iShares business leadership, and Aladdin platform teams to scale systems for new market expansion, new asset classes, and platform commercialization. The ideal candidate has deep technical expertise and strong organizational leadership, taking emotional ownership of outcomes, inspiring engineering excellence, and thriving in a fast-paced, high-accountability environment.

Requirements

15+ years of progressive software engineering experience, with 5+ years in senior leadership roles managing large, globally distributed engineering teams.
Deep expertise in building and operating high-availability, mission-critical financial systems at scale.
Strong technical foundation in Java, microservices architecture, cloud-native infrastructure (Azure/AWS), event-driven systems (Kafka), distributed databases, and modern CI/CD practices.
Demonstrated ability to drive organizational design, talent development, and engineering culture in a fast-paced, regulated environment.
Proven track record of delivering resiliency, operational excellence, and engineering efficiency at enterprise scale.
Strong communication and influencing skills with the ability to partner effectively at the executive level and across business and technology functions.
BS/MS in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.

Nice To Haves

Experience with ETF primary markets, capital markets technology, or investment management platforms.
Experience leading AI/GenAI adoption in engineering organizations — including tool evaluation, governance, and scaled implementation.
Familiarity with regulatory and compliance frameworks in financial services (e.g., SOX, SEC, FCA).
Experience with Aladdin or comparable enterprise investment management platforms.

Responsibilities

Define and drive the long-term technical vision for the ETF engineering platform, ensuring alignment with Aladdin-wide architecture standards and BlackRock’s technology strategy.
Own domain architecture decisions across ESP and adjacent systems, including microservices decomposition, event-driven architectures (Kafka), cloud-native infrastructure, and API design.
Lead the resiliency strategy for ETF critical workflows (Creation/Redemption), including high availability, isolation, and graceful degradation across application and platform layers.
Establish and enforce engineering standards for code quality, observability, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and release governance.
Define and execute the AI/GenAI adoption strategy for ETF Engineering, identifying high-value opportunities for AI-assisted development, intelligent automation, and AI-powered product features.
Drive adoption of AI engineering tools (e.g., code generation, automated testing, intelligent observability) to accelerate delivery velocity and engineering productivity.
Establish governance frameworks for responsible AI use, including model risk management, data governance, and compliance with BlackRock’s AI principles.
Partner with Aladdin AI/ML platform teams and vendor partners to evaluate, pilot, and scale AI capabilities across the ETF technology stack.
Oversee delivery across multiple product engineering teams operating in an Agile/SAFe framework.
Drive release governance and software change management processes in partnership with Product Management and business stakeholders.
Manage cross-team dependencies with Aladdin platform teams and external integrations (DTCC/Fund/SERV, custodians, liquidity providers).
Ensure all engineering practices and platform capabilities comply with global regulations, internal risk policies, and BlackRock’s technology risk framework.
Embed resilience, business continuity, and disaster recovery into system design, owning RCSA (Risk & Control Self-Assessment) obligations and audit readiness.
Partner with Risk, Compliance, Legal, and Cybersecurity teams to deliver “controls by design,” ensuring regulatory requirements are embedded in architecture.
Own production stability, support escalation, and incident management for ETF applications globally, driving continuous improvement in MTTR and operational efficiency.
Lead, develop, and inspire a globally distributed engineering organization across multiple time zones and cultures.
Own the engineering talent strategy: hiring, promotion calibration, organizational design, spans of control, and workforce planning.
Develop the next generation of engineering leaders at the VP and Director level, creating accountability, stretch opportunities, and clear career paths.
Champion a culture of engineering excellence, continuous learning, and innovation.
Foster an inclusive, equitable environment where diverse perspectives are actively sought, valued, and leveraged.
Model BlackRock’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Partner closely with Product Management to align engineering investment with business priorities and commercial strategy.
Collaborate with iShares business leadership, Capital Markets, Portfolio Management and Operations to deliver technology that supports BlackRock’s ETF growth agenda.
Represent ETF Engineering in Aladdin-wide forums, leadership reviews, and cross-product initiatives.