Application Engineer, Aladdin Product Engineering, Vice President

About this role At BlackRock, technology is the foundation of our business. As a VP, Application Engineer, you’ll lead by example — architecting, coding, and mentoring teams to build resilient systems that power our global Aladdin Accounting Retail fund operations. You’ll design and deliver enterprise-scale software with a focus on reliability, performance, and clean engineering practices. This role is ideal for a technical leader who enjoys staying close to the code, guiding design decisions, and solving complex data challenges — all while fostering a culture of excellence and continuous improvement. You’ll also help the team explore and adopt emerging technologies, including AI-assisted engineering and Generative AI, where they can meaningfully improve engineering productivity, operational workflows, or user experience. About Aladdin Accounting - Aladdin Accounting is one of the fastest-growing commercial product businesses within Aladdin.  - A major strategic area within Aladdin and one of BlackRock’s largest engineering investments. - Responsible for the systems that ensure accurate, scalable, and efficient accounting across global operations. - Expanding into data analytics and pipeline initiatives using Snowflake, Redis, and Kafka to manage high-volume, real-time data. - Collaborates closely with Product, Operations, and other Engineering teams to deliver business-critical capabilities. - Agile and collaborative environment that values technical depth, quality, and innovation. Key Responsibilities - Design and develop robust, high-performance back-end systems using Java 21+ and the Spring Boot ecosystem. - Lead design discussions, code reviews, and architecture sessions with a hands-on approach. - Build and maintain microservices and event-driven systems to process and distribute large-scale financial data with API-first approach. - Develop data integration and pipeline components that connect systems across Snowflake, SQL Server, and real-time streaming platforms. - Implement and optimize Redis-based caching and data stores for low-latency access patterns. - Champion best practices for code quality, testing, automation, and performance tuning. - Mentor engineers to elevate technical craftsmanship, problem-solving, and design thinking. - Evaluate and apply emerging AI and GenAI capabilities where appropriate to improve software development, operational efficiency, and user experiences, while maintaining strong standards around security, validation, and maintainability. - Collaborate cross-functionally to ensure technical solutions align with product goals and business outcomes. Qualifications / Competencies - B.S./M.S. in Computer Science, Engineering, or related discipline. - 8+ years of professional experience in Java and object-oriented design. - Strong knowledge of Spring Boot, REST APIs, and enterprise integration patterns. - Deep expertise in SQL Server, including stored procedures, performance tuning, and data modelling. - Experience with Redis for caching or data persistence. - Hands-on exposure to Kafka or similar publish-subscribe systems for real-time event processing. - Familiarity with Snowflake and data pipeline concepts (ETL, batch vs. streaming). - Exposure to Generative AI and LLM concepts, including prompt engineering, AI-assisted development, or agentic AI patterns. - Strong focus on clean architecture, maintainability, and production readiness. - Excellent communication and leadership skills — able to guide teams and influence design direction. Nice to Have - Experience with Kubernetes, Docker, or cloud-native environments (AWS/GCP). - Exposure to observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, Open Telemetry). - Scripting experience in Python for automation or data analysis. - Interest in applying AI capabilities responsibly within enterprise software and engineering workflows. - Interest in financial systems, accounting, or investment technology. Our benefits To help you stay