Technology Support Spring Insight Program 2023

Aladdin is relied upon by dozens of the world’s largest organizations to manage their business around the world, 24/7, and no one knows Aladdin like us. The Technology Support business consists of system administrators, software developers, incident managers and project managers focused on maintaining the stability and efficiency of the Aladdin platform for BlackRock and our clients. We are a fast-paced team operating in a multifaceted environment, and we’re constantly seeking new ways to improve our efficiencies, processes and automation.

Our business contains eight teams

Production Operations

Responsible for monitoring, supporting, and administering the interactive and batch systems which form the Aladdin platform. Production Operations act as the first responder for troubleshooting, problem resolution and critical issues. We also develop and support the tools used to manage and monitor the platform, along with third-party technologies such as Kafka, Zookeeper, Hadoop, Kubernetes and many more.

Database

Responsible for every aspect of database technology and strategy at BlackRock. This includes database platforms like SAP Sybase ASE/Replication Server/IQ, Microsoft SQL Server, Apache Cassandra/Solr, Oracle, PostgreSQL and Pivotal Greenplum and utilizes Cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure for IaaS and PaaS offerings like Snowflake Data Warehousing. We build automated solutions in Python, Golang and Perl. We also utilize Ansible to automate workflows and Grafana, Splunk to monitor and capture a variety of data points to facilitate decision making, trends and analysis.

Web Operations

Responsible for monitoring, supporting and engineering BlackRock’s web technology stack that services products like Aladdin and internet distributed products like Advisor Center and iShares.com. The team works with a breadth of technologies, including webservers, API gateways, Kubernetes, service mesh, caching & CDN technologies on Azure hosted cloud platforms. The team also develops their own automated solutions in Python & Java to achieve scale and operational efficiency to manage and operate the web technology stack and team processes.

Enterprise Engineering

Provides technology solutions for BlackRock's corporate systems and to external client operational teams. The team is responsible for developing, implementing, and supporting key Finance Operating systems globally. The remit extends to a wide variety of applications, with many different tech stacks across a wide range of in-house developed and externally hosted solutions.

Engineering Services

Works in partnership with our development and operations teams to continually improve Aladdin’s resiliency, scalability and performance. The team’s functions include software development, problem management, provision and implementation of in- house and third-party telemetry solutions, quality assurance, testing and developer experience, including the firm’s SDLC tooling.

Command Centre Control

Responsible for BlackRock’s Incident, Problem and Change Management processes. We bring the firm together to identify, communicate and resolve complex technology incidents for BlackRock and our external clients. We are passionate about improving the reliability, scalability and performance of Aladdin. Together, we help to deliver its evolution through our infrastructure and software release process. Our team also focuses on software development and automation projects, data analysis and disaster recovery testing.

Platform Client Engagement

Responsible for liaison between our Aladdin Business and the Aladdin Platform. We manage and provide support across some key client facing technical initiatives, such as new environment builds, client cloud migrations, disaster recovery planning, business development engagements, management of client technology requirements and projects, Level2 Aladdin Application Support and Client technical queries. This team provides a balanced view of Platform and Technology and their value to Aladdinbusiness.

Strategic Initiatives Office

Delivers and executes strategic outcomes for BlackRock and Aladdin within the Aladdin Product Group and beyond. As a team of internal consultants, transformation agents, problems solvers and oversight managers the objective is to help formulate, advance and accelerate the technology strategy and transformation agenda, engineer solutions and provide execution oversight for cross functional, high risk and high impact initiatives. Our project managers work on some of the most complex, critical projects at the firm.

Our team is known for

• Fixing Difficult Problems: The most critical software and hardware issues come through and stop with us. We’re always looking for new solutions and projects to improve the performance and recovery of Aladdin.
• Disaster Recovery: Hurricanes, snowstorms, hardware failure and software bugs all pose a real threat when there are trillions of dollars at stake.
• Teamwork: We work with all areas of the BlackRock business, from developers to relationship managers to ensure we continue to provide extraordinary service as we grow.
• More than just a team: It’s easy to picture us as a community rather than just a department. When we’re not solving some of the most complicated challenges in the FinTech sector, we’re coordinating Hackathons, Team Charity Days, Tech Meetups, running groups, table tennis, chess or video game tournaments and much, much more.

We partner with

• Internally: We work with Software Engineering, Aladdin Client Services, Relationship Management & Infrastructure Engineering.
• Externally: We engage with external users of the Aladdin platform.

What capabilities are we looking for? 

• Critical thinking
• Decision making
• Multitasking
• Problem solving
• Technical curiosity
• Distilling large amounts of data

Your learning & development will include

• Contributing to an exciting, collaborative environment with tremendous learning and growth potential
• Participating in assignments across various technology teams
• Learning our business and our technology stack
• Participating in hands-on technical and business work using sophisticated technologies