Director - Data Engineering

About this role

The Role We are seeking a Data Architect & Engineering Lead to drive the strategy and execution of our next-generation data platform. This leader will be responsible for designing, implementing, and managing highly scalable, high-performance data systems that power our core investment and analytical capabilities. The ideal candidate has deep expertise in distributed systems, modern cloud data architectures, and a proven track record of leading high-impact engineering teams, particularly within the financial or capital markets sector.
 

Key Responsibilities
Team Leadership & Mentorship: Lead and mentor a distributed team of data and platform engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence, accountability, and professional growth.

High-Performance Data Solutions: Oversee the design and implementation of ETL/ELT pipelines using Cloud Data warehouses like Snowflake ensuring data quality and compliance for multi-terabyte scale data stores.

Advanced Analytics & ML Integration: Drive the integration of advanced data science workflows, leveraging cloud-native ML services to enhance predictive models and analytical dashboards.

Stakeholder & Customer Success: Partner with investment, risk, and product teams to translate complex business requirements into high-performance database solutions.

Infrastructure Management: Guide best practices for cloud infrastructure (Azure or AWS) and containerized data services (Enterprise-grade container orchestration platform supporting declarative infrastructure and horizontal scaling, Snowpark Container Services).

Advanced Troubleshooting & Post-Mortems: Lead deep-dive post-mortem analysis and provided architectural solutions for highly complex database issues.

Required Qualifications

• 15+ years of progressive experience in Data Engineering, Database Architecture, and Distributed Systems, with significant time spent in a technical lead role.

• Proven expertise in modern data warehousing technologies, specifically Snowflake

• Hands-on experience with managing a variety of database flavors(OLTP, Cloud native Datawarehouse, distributed column stores) and Query engines at massive scale.

• Strong background in cloud infrastructure and services, either AWS/Azure.

• Demonstrated ability to perform database design, SQL tuning, and query optimization for both OLTP and OLAP systems.

• Strong expertise at writing complex SQL and Python.

• Experience of building analytics with full-stack data science and data visualization tooling like Numpy, Pandas, Matplotlib and Streamlit.

• Knowledge and experience working in classical or modern Machine learning projects preferred but not necessary.

• Experience closely working with ML Engineers.

• Master’s or Bachelors in Computer Science/Maths/Statistics.

• Manage database objects such as schemas, tables, indexes, triggers, and views

• Ensure high availability, reliability, and data integrity of databases

• Perform regular database maintenance and health checks

• Support production databases and resolve data‑related incidents

• Monitor database performance and system health

• Identify and resolve performance bottlenecks

• Tune SQL queries, indexes, and database configurations

• Assist development teams with query optimization and schema design

• Maintain documentation for database configurations and procedures

• Strong expertise in PostgreSQL architecture and internals

• Advanced knowledge of SQL and PL/pgSQL

• Experience with performance tuning and monitoring tools

• Familiarity with Linux/Unix environments

• Scripting skills (Bash, Python, or similar)

For SF4-San Francisco - 400 Howard Street Only the salary range for this position is USD$215,000.00 - USD$275,000.00 . Additionally, employees are eligible for an annual discretionary bonus, and benefits including healthcare, leave benefits, and retirement benefits. BlackRock operates a pay-for-performance compensation philosophy and your total compensation may vary based on role, location, and firm, department and individual performance.

Our benefits
To help you stay energized, engaged and inspired, we offer a wide range of benefits including a strong retirement plan, tuition reimbursement, comprehensive healthcare, support for working parents and Flexible Time Off (FTO) so you can relax, recharge and be there for the people you care about.

Our hybrid work model

BlackRock’s hybrid work model is designed to enable a culture of collaboration and apprenticeship that enriches the experience of our employees, while supporting flexibility for all. Employees are currently required to work at least 4 days in the office per week, with the flexibility to work from home 1 day a week. Some business groups may require more time in the office due to their roles and responsibilities. We remain focused on increasing the impactful moments that arise when we work together in person – aligned with our commitment to performance and innovation. As a new joiner, you can count on this hybrid model to accelerate your learning and onboarding experience here at BlackRock.

Guidance on AI use for candidates

At BlackRock, AI has long been part of how we work – enhancing decision-making, improving operations, and helping us deliver better outcomes for clients. We encourage candidates to use AI thoughtfully to learn, prepare, and work more effectively; but during our interview process, we want to focus on getting to know you through your own experiences, thinking, and judgment. To support you, we’ve provided guidance on when and how to use AI during our hiring process so you can approach each step with confidence and showcase your best self.

About BlackRock

At BlackRock, we are all connected by one mission: to help more and more people experience financial well-being.  Our clients, and the people they serve, are saving for retirement, paying for their children’s educations, buying homes and starting businesses. Their investments also help to strengthen the global economy: support businesses small and large; finance infrastructure projects that connect and power cities; and facilitate innovations that drive progress.

This mission would not be possible without our smartest investment – the one we make in our employees. It’s why we’re dedicated to creating an environment where our colleagues feel welcomed, valued and supported with networks, benefits and development opportunities to help them thrive.

To learn more about BlackRock, please visit Careers.BlackRock.com. We also encourage you to get to know us on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, X, and TikTok.

BlackRock is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity to all applicants and existing employees, and we evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, creed, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity/expression), sexual orientation, age, ancestry, physical or mental disability, marital status, political affiliation, religion, citizenship status, genetic information, veteran status, or any other basis protected under applicable federal, state, or local law. View the EEOC’s Know Your Rights poster and its supplement and the pay transparency statement.

 

BlackRock is committed to full inclusion of all qualified individuals and to providing reasonable accommodations or job modifications for individuals with disabilities. If reasonable accommodation/adjustments are needed throughout the employment process, please email [email protected]. All requests are treated in line with our privacy policy.

We recruit, hire, train, promote, pay, and administer all personnel actions without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and medical conditions related to pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding), sex stereotyping (including assumptions about a person’s appearance or behavior, gender roles, gender expression, or gender identity), gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, age, mental or physical disability, ancestry, medical condition, marital status, military or veteran status, citizenship status, sexual orientation, genetic information, or any other status protected by applicable law. We interpret these protected statuses broadly to include both the actual status and also any perceptions and assumptions made regarding these statuses.BlackRock will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records in a manner consistent with the requirements of the law, including any applicable fair chance law.